9 January
Speaker of the Seimas Arūnas Valinskas signed a reply to Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Parliament Premysl Sobotka expressing his support for the initiative to address the heads of Russian and Ukrainian parliaments concerning the problems of Russian natural gas transit via the Ukrainian gas pipeline system.
We welcome and support the initiative of the Chairman of the Upper House of the Parliament of the EU presiding state to address the heads of Russian and Ukrainian parliaments seeking to control the situation at the political level, the Speaker of the Seimas states in his reply.
On 7 January, Chairman of the Czech Senate Mr. Sobotka sent a letter to Chairman of the Duma of the Russian Federation Sergey Mironov, Chairman of the Council of the Russian Federation Boris Gryzlov, and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn asking to accelerate the decision-making process concerning the gas transit problem because the situation cannot continue for a long time and it is not favourable for the good relations between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine.
Mr. Sobotka notes that due to a natural gas conflict between Russia and Ukraine, gas supply to the Czech Republic and some other EU Member States was discontinued on Wednesday. The Chairman of the Czech Senate hopes that when solving the conflict parliament representatives of the respective countries will play an important role.
In his statement to the Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Mr. Sobotka asks to approve of the address to Russian and Ukrainian parliamentarians.
Indrė Viržintė, Spokesperson of the Seimas Speaker
