Aiming at its successful Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Lithuania is searching for compromises and consensus with other EU Member States. This kind of attitude was maintained during the sitting of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs where the MPs adopted conclusions on a parliamentary scrutiny reservation on the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing. The Directive would aim to cover the legal regulation of the state of au pairs which the EU has failed to achieve so far.

The Committee on European Affairs will assess the Proposal in greater detail before granting a mandate for a position to be taken to the meeting of the Council of the European Union. Meanwhile, the consideration of the Proposal will take place during the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council. Therefore, the Committee proposes supporting the opinion of the majority of the EU Member States so that a compromise is reached during the Lithuanian Presidency. The Committee’s suggestion is not to subject the Proposal to a parliamentary scrutiny reservation because the institution responsible for the preparation of the position, i.e. the Migration Department under the Ministry of the Interior, has already expressed an early parliamentary and general scrutiny reservations as well as a linguistic reservation. However, the Department believes it is not useful to continue maintaining the parliamentary scrutiny reservation.

Dovilė Paužaitė-Šliachtovič, Adviser, Office of the Committee on European Affairs, tel: +370 5 239 6763, mob: +370 620 75 187, e-mail: [email protected]

Morta Vidūnaitė, Adviser to Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, tel: +370 5 239 6278, mob: +370 612 01121, e-mail: [email protected]