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Cultural heritage protection on the Seimas agenda

Press release, 15 June 2021

 

The Seimas Provisional Group for Cultural Heritage, European Cultural Routes, and Saint James Way held a meeting to discuss Lithuania’s cultural heritage policy and its implementation. Recently, an increase in the number of new decisions (e.g., on the Hill of Missionaries in Vilnius or the approval of the territorial master plan of the Vilnius City Municipality) have had considerable impact among the public. Upon the invitation of the Provisional Group and with the participation of Prof. Vytautas Juozapaitis, Chair of the Seimas Committee on Culture and member of the Group, the implementation practice of the cultural heritage policy was discussed with representatives of the Ministry of Culture and institutions subordinate to it, Prime Minister’s Office, and the National Committee accredited to the Republic of Lithuania by the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

Photo: Office of the Seimas

 

Dr Irena Vaišvilaitė, Lithuanian representative of ICOMOS, drew the attention of Members of the Seimas to the importance of UNESCO requirements and compliance with them when adopting the aforementioned and other decisions pertaining to the protection of cultural heritage. Dr Vaišvilaitė, an experienced art and church historian and former ambassador to UNESCO, noted that Lithuania’s further failure to comply with international obligations and requirements of UNESCO conventions, in particular the World Heritage Convention, may have painful and undesirable implications, including the removal of Lithuanian sites from the World Heritage List. So far, there are four sites in Lithuania that have been included in the World Heritage List, namely, Vilnius Historical Centre (since 1994), the Curonian Spit (as a cultural landscape, since 2000), Kernavė archaeological site (since 2004), and Struvė Geodetic Arc (as a technological complex, since 2005). Currently, the fifth site, Modernist architecture in Kaunas, has been proposed to be included in the List. It is also noteworthy that Lithuania has signed the World Heritage Convention but has not ratified it yet. This leads to problems when it comes to its application, leaving room to ignore the principles and provisions of the said Convention.

 

The Group meeting also discussed the amendments to the Law on the Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Lithuania that are currently deliberated at the Seimas. The amendments aim at filling the gaps in this Law by defining cultural routes and establishing their level system, to include regional, national, international and the Council of Europe levels of cultural routes.

 

‘Surprisingly, cultural routes, as a phenomenon of cultural heritage, have not been defined by Lithuanian laws nor their level system has been established. It is only 31 years after the restoration of our country’s independence, that we are undertaking the initiative to fill this gap. Lithuania is a member of the Council of Europe; our country has acceded to the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe and other international agreements in the field of cultural heritage. There were attempts to certify cultural routes in our country. In the absence of minimum definitions at the level of law, there is ample room for misinterpretations and, as a consequence, subjectivity and abuse when it comes to distribution of state budget funds or EU support to projects of similar nature’, said Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Chair of the Seimas Provisional Group for Cultural Heritage, European Cultural Routes, and Saint James Way.

 

The Seimas Provisional Group for Cultural Heritage, European Cultural Routes, and Saint James Way consists of ten parliamentarians, with Ms Andrikienė, member of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrat Political Group, elected as Chair of the Group.  

 

Aldona Drėgvaitė, Adviser to Dr Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Member of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 2396723

 

 

   Last updated on 06/30/2021 11:31
   Monika Kutkaitytė