Press release, 11 December 2014
The Seimas adopted the amendments to the Law on Elections to the European Parliament (draft Law No XIIP-1509(2), which ensure proper implementation of the requirements under Directive 2013/1/EU in the Republic of Lithuania. This legal act received unanimous vote in favour from 81 members of the Seimas.
The requirements of the law currently in force were revised by providing that persons who may vote or stand as candidates in the Republic of Lithuania and any other Member State of the European Union, must choose to vote or stand as a candidate only in one Member State. Citizens of the Member States of the European Union may not vote or stand as candidates if they are deprived of such rights in the home Member State.
A citizen of any other Member State of the European Union wishing to stand as a candidate to the European Parliament in our country shall indicate, in addition to the data to be submitted in Lithuania, his place of birth, nationality, last address in the home Member State, eligibility to stand as a candidate in the home Member State, and locality or constituency of a Member State on the electoral roll of which his name was last entered. Other questions, additionally established by the Central Electoral Commission, may also be included in the questionnaire of a candidate for a member of the European Parliament, to which the person is not bound to give answers.
The law adds a provision to the effect that while checking the application documents filled in by a candidate, who is a citizen of any other Member State of the European Union, the Central Electoral Commission shall notify the competent authority in the home Member State of the candidate of the application documents submitted requesting information about whether a candidate has not been deprived of the right to stand in elections in his home Member State.
The Law provides that, at the request of the competent authority of any other Member State of the European Union, the Central Electoral Commission shall provide, within 5 working days from the date of receipt of such a request, information about whether the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania does not restrict the right of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, who is seeking to stand in elections to the European Parliament in that Member State, to stand as a candidate.
If, upon notification by the competent authority of any other Member State of the European Union, the Central Electoral Commission becomes aware that the person elected to the European Parliament has been deprived of his right to stand as a candidate in his home Member State and as a result he was unable to stand in elections to the European Parliament in the Republic of Lithuania, it shall, within 5 working days after the date of receipt of such notification, recognise, by a reasoned decision, a withdrawal of the mandate of a member of the European Parliament for this person, publish the relevant information on its website and notify the European Parliament thereof.
Saulė Eglė Trembo, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, Office of the Seimas,
tel. +370 5 239 6203, e-mail: egle.trembo@lrs.lt
