Press release, 27 January 2014
The Meeting of Secretaries General of the EU Parliaments continues in the Seimas. Today, participants of the event were welcomed by Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas.
Well before the start of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, as the Presidency Parliament, decided to aim at, even in these difficult post-crisis times, concluding every event within the Lithuanian Presidency that is hosted by the Seimas with concrete results joint political documents and conclusions. I therefore hope that future meetings of the Presidency parliamentary dimension will also produce specific conclusions. Not only politicians but also the electorate, citizens of the European Union, have the right to know about the decisions adopted, she said and noted that during the Lithuanian Presidency a total of 141 legislative and almost 300 non-legislative dossiers were concluded.
The Conference of Speakers of the European Union Parliaments, the last in the series of the parliamentary dimension events of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, is scheduled for 68 April 2013. At the first session of the meeting today, Jonas Milerius, Secretary General of the Seimas, presented the draft agenda of the Conference of Speakers of the European Union Parliaments to the heads of parliamentary administrations. Under the draft agenda, four subjects are offered for discussion to speakers of parliaments.
According to Mr Milerius, the theme for Session 1 on the Role of Parliaments in Tackling the Consequences of the Economic and Financial Crisis stems from the economic situation in Europe, a continent that still clearly feels the consequences of the economic crisis.
We know the figures for unemployment. We know the financial system is still faced with difficulties. As we see it, both national Parliaments and the European Parliament can and should play an important role in addressing the consequences of the economic and financial crisis. This is why a debate on joint measures and an exchange of good practices will be beneficial to us all, Mr Milerius said.
Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Mogens Lykketoft, Speaker of the Folketing of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Algirdas Butkevičius, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, are invited to make presentations on the subject.
In Session 2, participants will make an overview of the period of five years after coming into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Milan Štěch, Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic, Anouchka Van Miltenburg, President of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, and Lord Timothy Boswell, Chairman of the European Union Select Committee of House of Lords of the United Kingdom, are invited to deliver speeches on the subject.
As the subsidiarity check is one of the specific tools prescribed to national Parliaments by the Treaty of Lisbon, we propose exchanging opinions on the ways we are using it, Mr Milerius said.
The third subject proposed by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania is Interparliamentary Cooperation with Eastern Partnership Countries. Speeches on the subject will be delivered by Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, and Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. For brief interventions, speakers of parliaments of all Eastern Partnership countries will be given the floor. Stanislav Shushkevich, the last democratically elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus, elected in 1991, will also make an address.
According to Mr Milerius, EUs national Parliaments can play a particularly important role in implementing the Eastern Partnership, especially through their active engagement with the parliaments and civil society of the partner countries. This is why the proposed subject remains highly relevant.
The theme of the fourth session of the Conference is Interparliamentary Cooperation in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. Mr Milerius believes that it is a very useful subject to address as the cooperation in the area of justice and home affairs has recently given rise to a number of debates, especially as regards the new initiatives on Europol, Eurojust, the establishment of the European Public Prosecutors Office, and fight against illegal immigration in the EU.
Per Westerberg, Speaker of the Riksdag of the Kingdom of Sweden, Evangelos Meimarakis, Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, and Laura Boldrini, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Italy, are invited to make keynote speeches on the subject.
In view of the proposals from secretaries general of other parliaments, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania suggests to mark the International Roma Day by giving the floor to Barbara Prammer, President of the National Council of Austria, in the morning of 8 April 2014.
A detailed agenda of the event and other related information is available on the dedicated webpage of the website of the parliamentary dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of
the Council of the European Union.
The meeting is broadcast live on the internet and the Seimas TV channel Seimas tiesiogiai (engl. Seimas Live).
Saulė Eglė Trembo, Public Relations Unit, tel.: +370 5 239 6203, e-mail: [email protected]
