Seimas has approved the work programme of the autumn session

Press release, 19 September 2023

 

The Seimas approved the work programme of the 7th (autumn) session. The top priority is the draft law on the state budget and municipal budgets for the coming year and the accompanying legislation. Additionally, the work programme singles out the priorities of building a strong and secure Lithuania, strengthening the high added value economy, advancing human rights, law enforcement, education, social security, healthcare, and environmental protection, developing the public sector, and dealing with other relevant matters.

 

For strengthening the national defence, the work programme includes the amendments to the Law on the Martial Law, which are aimed at assigning the reserves of the State Border Guard Service, the Public Security Service, and the Dignitary Protection Service as well as the commandant units of armed resistance of the Riflemen’s Union to the armed forces upon introduction of martial law. The amendments to the Law on Military Conscription are proposed with a view to improving the procedure of conscription for mandatory military service and attracting more conscripts to professional military service. The amendments to the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public are aimed at solving the problem posed by bot farms, thus improving the information security nationwide.

 

The work programme focuses on strengthening the high added value economy. It is envisaged to revise the criteria applicable to major projects, which would allow for encouraging investment in sectors that generate high value added products.

 

Efforts will be made to create a model for reservation of state-owned land parcels, which would ensure the supply of developed large state-owned land parcels (territories) for attracting new investment in production. The plan is to optimise the system for issuing documents permitting construction and legalise the development of the territory of Kaunas Free Economic Zone by enabling the management company to manage the area of the free economic zone, as established in the tender documents. Efforts will also be made to ensure the efficient and rapid development of the fifth generation mobile communications in Lithuania.

 

For delivering on the priority of empowerment of socially vulnerable groups, the Seimas plans to amend the legal regulation of social insurance pensions and other social insurance payments in order to implement the disability establishment reform, which will be put into practice on 1 January 2024. The aim is to decide on the solutions needed to effectively improve the conditions for providing the financial incentives for young families acquiring their first home.

 

The autumn session will consider the reform of the system of pension-type benefits; the regulation of respite care as a separate special social service and sources of its financing; the establishment of natural persons as providers of social services; better regulation of volunteering and the defining of the concept of the volunteer; and the improvement of legal regulation with a view to ensuring the rights of a minor who may have been a victim of a criminal act.

 

When addressing human rights issues, the autumn session plans to take the first steps towards ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The Seimas will consider amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners with a view to creating a legal framework for reforming the system of reception and accommodation of migrants and implementing the decision of the Constitutional Court.

 

In order to restore trust in the justice system, the Seimas plans to improve the regulation of the activities of judicial officers and notaries; to advance the legal regulation of the provision of mediation services by implementing the recommendations presented in the course of ex post assessment of the effect of the legal regulation of mandatory mediation in force in family disputes; and to establish, in the Constitutional Law, the regulation of the procedure for exercising the citizens’ right of legislative initiative. It is also envisaged to regulate the procedure for allowing the advocates coming from third countries and enjoying a special status of temporary protection to practice as advocates in Lithuania.

 

For delivering on the priority of ‘Public sector meeting societal needs’, as set out in the programme, the work programme contains a package of draft laws aimed at implementing the second stage of the civil service reform. The proposal is that the principles laid down in the Law on the Civil Service are legitimised in the legal acts providing for the remuneration and social guarantees for statutory civil servants, military service members, and employees working under employment contracts at state and municipal enterprises.

 

With a view to solving the most important issues in the healthcare sector, the plan is to consolidate the territorial health insurance funds by adjusting the process of authorising new-type inpatient services that are covered by the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund. Efforts will be made to work towards reducing the administrative burden for medical doctors and to regulate new tobacco substitutes. The Seimas plans to legalise new indicators of performance and quality measurement of public establishments and budgetary institutions providing personal healthcare services within the Lithuanian national health system.

 

The new Law on Forestry and the new Law on Waste Management are submitted for the purpose of reform with a view to solving environmental problems. In the transport sector, an important objective is to make ride-hailing activities more transparent.

 

The work programme also includes draft legal acts on transposing and implementing EU legislation; draft legal acts relating to an EU law infringement procedure or the European Commission’s inquiries into compliance with EU law; and draft legal acts on implementing the rulings of the Constitutional Court and the recommendations of the National Audit Office and other institutions.

 

The work programme of the autumn session was approved by 69 votes in favour, with 14 votes against and 45 abstentions.

 

Saulė Eglė Trembo, Chief Specialist, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel. +370 5 239 6203, e-mail: [email protected]