Date of birth

8 September 1953

Place of birth

Kaunas, Lithuania

Education

1998–2002

Vilnius University, Faculty of Law, Master’s Degree in Law

1987–1990

Post graduate studies in philosophy in Prague, Czech Republic, Doctor of Humanities

1971–1976

Kaunas Polytechnic Institute (currently Kaunas University of Technology), Faculty of Chemical Technology, Diploma of Engineer and Chemical Technologist

1971

Šančiai Secondary School in Kaunas

Work experience

2012–2016

Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania

2006–2012

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuanian to the Republic of Estonia

2004–2006

Adviser to Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas on Internal Affairs; later  Chief Adviser to Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas

2001–2003

Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania

1997–1998

Political Adviser to President of the Republic of Lithuania Algirdas Brazauskas

1990–1992

Head, Parliamentary Activity Group, Secretariat of the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party

Desk Officer, Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party Political Group in the Supreme Council – Reconstituent Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania

Political career

2012–2016

Member of the 11th Seimas

Member, Committee on Legal Affairs

Chair, Group for Inter-Parliamentary Relations with the Republic of Estonia

2007

Member of the 9th Seimas

2000–2004

Member of the 8th Seimas

Deputy Chair, Committee on Legal Affairs

Member, Committee on European Affairs

Chair, Commission for Drafting Constitutional Amendments

Member, Group for Inter-Parliamentary Relations with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Member, Group for Inter-Parliamentary Relations with the Czech Republic

Member, Seimas Delegation to the EU-Lithuania Joint Parliamentary Committee

1998–2000

Member of the 7th Seimas

Member, Committee on Foreign Affairs

Deputy Chair, Commission on NATO Affairs

Member, Seimas Delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union

Member, Group for Inter-parliamentary Relations with the Swiss Confederation and the French Republic

1992–1996

Member of the 6th Seimas

Member, Board of the Seimas

Deputy Speaker of the Seimas (from 1993)

Member, Conference of Chairs

1990–2017

Member, Lithuanian Social Democratic Party

Chair, Lithuanian Social Democratic Party

Miscellaneous

Awards: 1st Class Commander’s Cross of the Royal Order of the Polar Star of the Kingdom of Sweden (1995); Cross of Officer of the Order of Vytautas the Great (2003); 2nd Class Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana of the Republic of Estonia (2013)

Publications: co-author of the book Žmogaus teisės ir laisvės: Lietuvos Respublikos įstatymų ir 1950 m. Europos žmogaus teisių ir pagrindinių laisvių apsaugos konvencijos suderinamumo problemos (Human Rights and Freedoms: Problems with the Approximation of the Laws of the Republic of Lithuania and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950), Seimo leidykla, Vilnius, 1995

Author of the book Socialdemokratija: žvalgantis naujų kelių (Social democracy: finding new paths), Gairės, Vilnius, 2015

Family

Married with one daughter