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Address by Mr Seán Barrett, T.D., Ceann Comhairle, at the Solemn Session of the Lithuanian Parliament, 4 July, 2013

Thursday, 4 July 2013 SendPrint

Your Excellency, President Grybauskaitė, Speaker Gedvilas, fellow Speakers, Deputy Speakers, dear colleagues,

 

As we meet in this Chamber today under this magnificent representation of the historic emblem of the "Vytis", we are acknowledging the huge steps forward that Lithuania has taken since the historic day of 11 March 1990.  The very re-emergence of the "Vytis" - as your national emblem was so important for the re-established Lithuanian Republic.  

 

We stand here, of course, also as a result of and in remembrance of the very heavy human sacrifice made by 13 of your fellow country men and women in January 1991 when your people manned the barricades and successfully defended your parliament from the Soviet Army.  

 

This year, Ireland is celebrating its 40th anniversary of membership of the E.U., and is honoured, after completing its 7th term as President of the Council, to be handing over the Presidency to a country that is assuming its first Presidency. It is a great honour for Lithuania to be assuming its first Presidency 22 years after gaining its independence and, on behalf of the Irish People; I wish you all every success in what is a very important period of continuous pushing forward for the Union of it legislative and policy programmes.

 

I, for one, welcome the focus of the Lithuanian Presidency on credible fiscal policies, economic growth and on measures aimed at ensuring that the EU remains open to the world and secure to its citizens.

 

The parliamentary dimension of a presidency is also very important and it is one which some commentators tend to forget.     Parliamentary programmes are built on the exchange of views and best practice between parliamentarians aimed at reinforcing the frequently spoken of democratic legitimacy of the Union and I welcome the extensive programme being undertaken by the Seimas.   In particular, I welcome the formal establishment of the Article 13 conference on Finance and Governance which was the subject of agreement at the Speakers Conference in Nicosia in April and which will become an important point in the financial year for economic coordination among parliaments.  

 

Colleagues, we live in very fluid times economically and one of the most difficult problems facing Europe at the moment is unemployment and particularly youth unemployment.   One of the great benefits of our Union is the fact that our peoples young and not so young, by necessity or if they so chose, can travel easily within the EU to find work and create a new life for themselves.  In this regard I am pleased to note that the European Council of last week has encouraged Member States to use part of their European Social Fund allocations to support cross-border mobility schemes and that the "Erasmus +" programme, which also fosters cross-border vocational training, must be fully operational from January 2014.  The movement of young people, while economically necessary, will also create very positive benefits in that it will inevitably lead to a strengthening of ties between countries and a more multi-cultural Europe. 

 

Turning to my Lithuanian hosts specifically for a moment I would just like to point out that the Irish-Lithuanian relationship goes back much further than one might imagine. At the beginning of the 20th century Ireland was the chosen destination for thousands of Lithuanian Jews some of whose descendents achieved great things in Ireland and one of whom became Lord Mayor of Dublin.  The 2011 Census shows that some 37,000 people of Lithuanian birth are resident in Ireland mostly in the Dublin area with an active on-line community and social networks and several Lithuanian week-end schools.  However, some 89,000 social insurance identity numbers have been issued to Lithuanian nationals since 2000.  Over half of these were issued during the boom years in Ireland between 2005 and 2007.   So our relationship is one of longevity, of shared values and of peaceful integration.

 

Similarly, the Irish Parliament has recently passed legislation which will allow Croatian workers to come to Ireland to work in the Irish labour market if they so wish following Croatia's accession to the Union.   We as a nation have benefitted greatly from this inflow of people from different nationalities.  It has opened our eyes to other new and vibrant cultures much in the way that interparliamentary meetings such as this promote inter-cultural understanding at political level and I welcome that greatly.

 

In conclusion, I would like to say that on 20 April 2012 in Warsaw we signed our first declaration as a Presidency Trio and, of course, later this morning we will sign a further such declaration wherein we call for a greater focus on employment, enlargement and on the European Neighbourhood Policy and for the effective use of EU funds.  Such declarations indicate the policy interests of the presidency parliaments and are evidence of a determination to focus our joint efforts on these social and political issues.   I look forward to the continued close cooperation between our three parliaments over the next 12 months.

 


Video Address by Mrs Loreta GRAUŽINIENĖ, Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania


Address by Mr Gediminas KIRKILAS, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, Chair of the Committee on European Affairs


Address by Mr Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, responsible for organisation of the parliamentary dimension events of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU

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