2014 

Parliamentary leaders of the Baltic States will meet on the Baltic Way

Press release, 22 August 2014

On Saturday, 23 August, Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Eiki Nestor, President of the Riigikogu of the Republic of Estonia, and Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia, will meet at the final part of the event Baltic Way Link-up held by the organisers, coordinators and participants of the Baltic Way. The coordinators of the 1989 Baltic Way and signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania will also attend the ceremony.

In Saločiai at the Lithuanian–Latvian border, the parliamentary leaders of the Baltic States will unveil a monument for the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Way. The authors of the monument—Bronius Leonavičius, member of the Initiative Group of the Lithuanian reform movement Sąjūdis, and Rimantas Zinkevičius, folk artist—and representatives of the project The Mission Siberia will lay a symbolic capsule with wishes for future generations in the ground beside the monument. The coordinators of the Baltic Way from all the three Baltic States will light a bonfire of unity. The people at the event will be congratulated by a flight of fighters of the NATO air police mission. The event will be broadcast live by the Lithuanian National Radio and Television.

On 23 August, at 9 a.m., Loreta Graužinienė will attend Holly Mass celebration at the Arch-Cathedral Basilica in Vilnius. After Holy Mass, there will be a bread blessing ceremony. The blessed bread will be handed by the Speaker of the Seimas to the parliamentary leaders of Latvia and Estonia in Saločiai. At 10 a.m., the leader of the Seimas will take part in the opening event of the Baltic Way Link-up in Cathedral Square. Then, at 12 noon, she will plant an oak tree on the site of the Seimas to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Way and award the pupils, winners of the essay competition What Does the Baltic Way Mean to Me? in the Seimas. Later on, Loreta Graužinienė will tour the Baltic Way, where the participants of the Baltic Way—residents of Lithuanian cities, towns and rural areas—will gather in specific places. On the Baltic Way, the Speaker of the Seimas will meet the residents of Ukmergė, Kėdainiai, Rokiškis, Anykščiai, Panevėžys, and Telšiai districts.

The detailed programme of the events marking the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Way is available on the special website http://baltijoskelias.lrs.lt.

On 23 August 1989, the Baltic nations expressed their resolute determination and will to be free and restore the independence of their states––about two million people joined hands in a live human chain of 620 km stretching from Vilnius through Riga to Tallinn. This peaceful rally of people loving freedom drew the attention of the whole world. In 2009, the Baltic Way was included in the UNESCO international register “Memory of the World”.

Artūras Zeleniakas, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, Office of the Seimas,

tel. +370 5 239 6201, e-mail: [email protected]