Parliamentary Congress: ‘Global problem-solving should be integrated in the regular work of parliaments’

Press release, 2 May 2023

On 12–13 May 2023, the Buildings of the Seimas in Vilnius, Lithuania, will host the Global Parliamentary Congress The Future of the World to discuss geopolitical transformation, the future of democracy, and solutions to the world’s major challenges, with an emphasis on the role of parliaments in each of these global policy areas.

‘Today’s world is changing rapidly and unpredictably. The scope of the challenges facing humanity is too broad for parliaments of democracies to cope with through traditional law-making and oversight of governments. The focus on the challenges to the development of the world and global problem-solving should therefore be integrated in the regular work of parliaments,’ says Raimundas Lopata, Chair of the Seimas Committee for the Future. He goes on saying that the recent dynamic changes have increasingly contributed to the need for anticipatory governance structures and processes in parliaments, which is why many parliaments around the world have started setting up permanent Committees for the Future or their equivalents, accompanied by structures for monitoring, modelling, and providing foresight on global developments.

The objectives of the Global Parliamentary Congress The Future of the World include carrying on with the development of the global network of Parliamentary Committees for the Future, established in Helsinki in October 2022, and bringing this network closer to the agenda of global organisations.

The Seimas Committee for the Future notes that the United Nations (UN) is making intensive preparations for the Summit of the Future to be held in New York on 22–23 September 2024. The main goal of the Summit is to renew our common agenda for the future of the world, as well as the UN. The Vilnius Congress represents one of the preparatory steps leading up to this Summit.

The Congress The Future of the World will consist of three thematic sessions, namely, Session I: Geostrategic Reconstruction of the World; Session II: The Future of Democracy; and Session III: Leveraging Long-Term Solutions. Each session will begin with a keynote speech to be followed by a discussion of politicians and experts as well as by an exchange of views with session participants. The Congress is expected to close with the adoption of a joint statement on inter-parliamentary cooperation in shaping the future of the world.

For a regularly updated Congress programme and other relevant information about the event, please click HERE.

Leaders of inter-parliamentary organisations such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the leadership of the European Parliament, and the Speakers of several parliaments from around the world, as well as other high-level politicians and experts, have all been invited and agreed to participate in the Congress.

On 14 March 2023, the first global dialogue of experts on representing the interests of future generations in the politics of the present was organised by the Permanent Representations of the Netherlands and of Jamaica at the United Nations in New York. Experts from Lithuania, South Africa, Panama, Colombia and the United Kingdom shared their insights.

Giedrius Viliūnas, Adviser, Office of the Seimas Committee for the Future, tel.: +370 5  239 6950, mob. +370 612 59 600, e-mail: [email protected]

Jolanta Anskaitienė, Adviser, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel. +370 5  239 6508, e-mail: [email protected]