Laima Andrikienė, Member of the Seimas: ‘Amendments concerning cultural routes to the Law on the Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage will ensure greater transparency and objectivity both in awarding a cultural route certification and in allocating taxpayers’ money to the relevant projects’

Press release, 1 October 2021

On 1 October 2021, amendments to the Law on Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage adopted by the Seimas on 23 September 2021 came into force. Pursuant to this Law and in accordance with the established procedure, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania will organise and carry out the certification of cultural routes and identify their levels, issue cultural route certificates (except for the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe), and monitor activities on cultural routes certified appropriately.

Photo by Olga Posaškova, Office of the Seimas

Laima Andrikienė, Head of the Provisional Group for Cultural Heritage, European Cultural Routes, and Saint James Way, noted the following, ‘Finally, we will have more regulation, more transparency and much less subjectivity and misinterpretation in this area as well. This is particularly important when allocating state budget funds and taxpayers’ money for projects related to cultural routes. All entities, including the Ministry of Culture and initiators of various projects on cultural routes, will have to equally adhere to the rules established by the Law.’

Under the adopted Law, a cultural route is defined as ‘a system of thematic itineraries of communication, which is designed by means of cooperation in the areas of culture, education, cultural heritage, and cultural landscapes and which is aimed at revitalising, fostering and facilitating the knowledge on cultural values associated with historical itineraries, figures, phenomena, events, customs, and traditions and at promoting the involvement and ownership by society and local communities through demonstrating and highlighting their cultural identity in the national and European context.’

Laima Andrikienė, Member of the Seimas and Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, also noted that, pursuant to the Law, cultural routes in Lithuania will be organised at four levels, namely, regional, national and international routes and cultural routes of the Council of Europe. Cultural routes of the first three levels will be awarded certification in Lithuania. ‘Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe’ certification shall be subject to a decision adopted by the Governing Board of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe on the recommendation of and in accordance with the procedure laid down by the European Institute of Cultural Routes and on the basis of decisions of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

‘The participation of top-level experts in Lithuanian cultural heritage and cultural routes in drafting the amendments to the Law has enabled us to successfully define cultural routes, including European cultural routes, which is long overdue in Lithuania. I thank Prof. Vytautas Juozapaitis, Chair of the Committee on Culture of the Seimas, for his initiative and my fellow Members of the Seimas, Stasys Tumėnas and Kristijonas Bartoševičius, who prepared the Committee conclusions, for their work,’ said Laima Andrikienė, Member of the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrat Political Group at the Seimas.

For more information, please contact Ms Aldona Drėgvaitė, Adviser to Dr Laima Andrikienė, Member of the Seimas, by e-mail: [email protected]