Board of the Seimas endorsed the working group’s proposals on remote work of the Seimas

Press release, 1 December 2020

 

On Tuesday, 1 December 2020, the Board of the Seimas endorsed the proposals submitted by the working group set up to consider remote work possibilities, including remote voting options, for the Seimas and its divisions and to draft the necessary legislative amendments. In the near future, the instructed working group will amend the submitted draft amending the Statute of the Seimas to reflect the comments made by the Members of the Board at the meeting.

 

The proposed draft amendment to the Statute, once adopted at the Seimas sitting, will allow the Seimas to work remotely to the full extent, essentially leaving the Seimas activities uninterrupted.

 

The Seimas will be able to work remotely in part by holding sittings under the regular procedure, while at the same time leaving the structural divisions to function at a distance. In fact, this is already the case now, as the Statute of the Seimas envisages partial remote work of the Seimas already. However, once the proposals are adopted, upon declaration of an emergency situation, a state of emergency, or lockdown it will suffice for the Board of the Seimas to submit its reasoned proposal to enable fully remote work of the Seimas.

 

During the Tuesday meeting, the Board of the Seimas also decided to approve one of the two proposals presented by the working group regarding the appropriate remote communication platform for holding remote Seimas sittings. The Information Technology Operation Unit of the Operational Management Department of the Office of the Seimas was assigned to adapt the platform to ensure continuity of the parliamentary business and the possibility for the Seimas to exercise constitutional powers while working at a distance.

 

The working group proposed, inter alia, establishing the identity of MPs by means of electronic signature and immediate photo identification required for registering and voting.

 

Same as in case with regular Seimas sittings, the video and audio broadcast of every remote sitting will be streamed live via the Seimas website and other usual channels and recorded for the archive.

 

Monika Kutkaitytė, Adviser, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel. +370 5 239 6666, e-mail: [email protected]