The Seimas approved the amendments to the preamble to the Law on Political Parties No XIIP-875(4) implementing the requirement laid down in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to guarantee citizens of the Union who are not nationals of that State the right to stand as candidates in municipal elections and in elections to the European Parliament, under the same conditions as nationals of that State.
The current Law provides that citizens of the Republic of Lithuania have the right to freely join political parties, participate in their activities and cancel their membership in them. The Law is supplemented with a provision stipulating that citizens of other EU Member States who are permanently resident in the Republic of Lithuania and who have been uninterruptedly resident in the Republic of Lithuania for the last five years also have this right, except for establishment of political parties. They could be members of only one political party registered in the Republic of Lithuania, the same way as Lithuanian citizens do.
The Law was adopted by 70 votes in favour, 12 against, and 20 abstentions. Amendments will come into effect on 1 January 2015.
Saulė Eglė Trembo, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, Office of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6203, e-mail: egle.trembo@lrs.lt
