Press release, 8 March 2019
On 7 March 2019, the leadership and the chairs of the committees, commissions and political groups of the Seimas discussed major tasks of the 6th (spring) session that the Seimas is due to commence on 10 March 2019.
The draft work programme of the spring session provides for continuing policies aimed at ensuring sustainable, responsible and healthy society; greater quality and effectiveness of education, culture and science; greater efficiency and transparency of public sector; sustainable and competitive economic development; and security of the state.
The draft programme also envisages establishing 11 priorities with particular focus on the prevention of corruption, reduction of social exclusion, and improvement of the implementation framework for the protection of the rights of the child. The priorities also include safeguarding the rights of Lithuanian nationals and interests of Lithuanian business in the context of preparations for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union; adoption of the strategy for the funding of public sector wages after 2025; increasing the efficiency and transparency of health establishments; and improving the model of funding for studies.
The draft work programme of the spring session also provides for updating the Principles of the Strategic Governance of the State; reforming the budgeting framework and management and control of state enterprises; and consolidating and optimising the functions of budgetary institutions.
Integrated inter-agency prevention of hybrid threats and improvement of the mechanism for the management of external factors is yet another important area requiring particular focus.
Supervision of the reforms (in the fields of education, taxes, innovation, old-age pensions and reducing shadow economy) that have already been launched by the Seimas represents a high priority on the agenda of the spring session.
Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, anticipates a very constructive session. He expressed hope that the Seimas will succeed in implementing the work programme in full and made mention that “when setting up the session work programme, we included the proposals of every entity entitled to submit draft laws. We therefore hope that this will lead to less draft laws to be submitted additionally in the course of the session.”
The Speaker of the Seimas took note that the number of draft laws to be considered during this session is smaller than in the previous one. Almost 200 of them are carried over from the previous session. As many as 128 draft legal acts are submitted by the Government. During the session, the Seimas will have to work speedily on the adoption of legal acts related to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Mr Pranckietis went on to say that “the outcome of Brexit is rather unpredictable. We do not know yet what it will be like. It might be the case that once Brexit is completed, we will have to respond swiftly by adopting respective laws.” The Speaker also informed that the session will commence with the draft resolution of the Seimas on voting in a mandatory referendum on amending Article 12 of the Constitution.
During the spring session, the Seimas intends to hold discussions on the following strategic topics: “NATO’s importance for Lithuania’s statehood in the context of 15 years of NATO membership”; “Overview of Lithuania’s achievements during its 15 years in the European Union”; “Significance of the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Good Neighbourly Cooperation signed by the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Poland 25 years ago”; and “On improving legislative process”.
The Seimas intends to hold 56 sittings during the spring session.
The draft work programme of the spring session includes over 545 draft legal acts, which were proposed by President Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Government, and the committees, political groups and members of the Seimas.