Week in Lithuania | EC calls on Lithuania to cut emissions; President, UK ambassador’s opera visit to be probed

Last week, Seimas did no open 2024 budget debates Tuesday as planned; Lithuanian troops took part in exercise in Germany
Social Democrats said they will name their presidential candidate in December
The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) will announce its presidential candidate in December, according to MEP Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, the party’s leader, who has not yet said if she will run in next May’s election. “We, the Social Democrats, will nominate a candidate. Proposals from the branches are in, and our plan is to announce our decision on the presidential candidate in December. Everything is going according to plan,” she told the Žinių Radijas radio station on Friday, the 17th of November. Several LSDP branches have also proposes as candidates Nerijus Cesiulis, Juozas Olekas, Vytenis Andriukaitis, Julius Sabatauskas, Gintautas Paluckas, Liutauras Gudzinskas, Šarūnas Birutis and Algirdas Sysas. Opinion polls indicate that Gitanas Nausėda, the incumbent, is currently the clear favourite to win the presidential election scheduled for May 12.
EC calls on Lithuania to cut emissions of several pollutants
The European Commission has called on Lithuania to comply with EU law in relation to air pollution and to reduce their emissions of several pollutants to cut air pollution. “The Commission has analysed the latest inventories, together with other information reported by the member states and concluded that Bulgaria, Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Austria, Portugal and Sweden, continued failing to meet their reduction commitments,” the Commission said on Thursday, the 16th of November. Lithuania now has two months to respond and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Government says closing more border crossings with Belarus is out of option
The Lithuanian government currently is not considering closing more border crossings with Belarus, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said on Thursday, the 16th of November. The parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance has suggested that the government consider closing the border crossings through which most of the smuggled goods enter Lithuania from Belarus or Russia. Interior Minister Agne Bilotaitė confirmed that the committee proposes to close the Lavoriškės and Raigardas border checkpoints, and that this proposal will be considered. According to the Minister, the closure of border checkpoints is an effective measure in the fight against smuggling.
Ignitis’ partner in offshore wind projects has Chinese co among stakeholders
Ocean Winds, a global offshore wind farm developer and a strategic partner of Lithuania’s Ignitis Renewables, part of Lithuania’s state-owned Ignitis Grupe (Ignitis Group), which won Lithuania’s tender to build the first offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea, has the Chinese state-owned China Three Gorges Corporation as one of its shareholders, the Lithuanian vz.lt business news website reports on Wednesday, the 15th of November. China Three Gorges Corporation owns about a fifth of the shares in the Portuguese energy company Energias de Portugal (EDP). The latter owns EDPR, which co-founded Ocean Winds in 2020 with the French energy company Engie and the two own 50 percent each in the company. Both Lithuania’s Finance Ministry, which owns Ignitis Grupe, and the Foreign Ministry told the vz.lt they had been informed about Ocean Winds’ shareholder structure. At the time, Ignitis Grupe stressed that the Chinese corporation has no decision-making power and is not involved in the project in any way.
Lithuanian troops take part in exercise in Germany
Lithuania’s Iron Wolf Mechanized Infantry Brigade is taking part in the Schneller Degen 2023 (Rapid Sword) exercise in Germany, the Lithuanian Armed Forces said on Wednesday, the 15th of November. The exercise, which started on Monday, the 13th of November, and will run until November 29, will see the Lithuanian troops training along with more than 2000 troops from 14 NATO and partner nations to plan defence and offensive operations. Schneller Degen 2023 is this year’s most significant staff exercise for the Iron Wolf Brigade.
Watchdog to probe President, UK ambassador’s opera visit
The Chief Official Ethics Commission said on Wednesday, the 15th of November, it had decided to launch an investigation into the circumstances of President Gitanas Nausėda and Ambassador to the United Kingdom Eitvydas Bajarūnas’ visit to the Royal Opera House in London. “COEC will assess whether the participation in this event was directly related to the performance of the president and the ambassador’s official duties,” the statement said. The presidential office has refrained to comment the decision to open an investigation. When Nausėda visited London last spring, Bajarūnas invited him and his wife to see The Phantom of the Opera and bought the tickets with the embassy’s money. The ambassador later claimed it was a misunderstanding that he corrected and paid for out of his own pocket. However, the Foreign Ministry has information that the request to cover the expenses with personal funds was only made when the ministry started looking into the situation more than four months later.
PM says she has no plans to censor social media
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said on Tuesday, the 14th of November, that while she does not favour censorship of social media platforms, she would like them to react faster to fake news and scams using the names of well-known people for financial gain. “There are a lot of discussions going on, including with social media platforms’ managers who always say in discussions that they are combating these negative phenomena, but of course we all have our own opinion about this,” Šimonytė said. She was commenting on reports by Debunk.org, a disinformation analysis center, on an ongoing attack by online scammers using the names of well-known public figures – from entertainment personalities and athletes to politicians, including the prime ministers and presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland – to lure money from people. Šimonytė noted that this not about damaging the reputation of politicians or other well-known people, but about using their names to try to harm social media users.
Seimas did no open 2024 budget debates Tuesday as planned
The Lithuanian parliament will not start debating next year’s draft state budget on Tuesday, the 14th of November, as planned, after the item was removed from the agenda at the Labor Party’s proposal. The motion passed with 63 votes in favour, 53 against and six abstentions. The Labour Party’s proposal to take the item off the agenda of Tuesday’s plenary sittings was supported by the entire opposition and two MPs from the ruling coalition. The six abstaining MPs were also from the ruling bloc.
Seimas speaker discusses aid to Ukraine with Pope Francis
Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, speaker of the Seimas, met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday, the 13th of November, and discussed relations between Lithuania and the Holy See, the role of the Catholic Church, and aid to Ukrainian war refugees, the parliament’s press office said. She said in a press release that “recently, Pope Francis transferred 100 000 euros to Caritas Lithuania for the needs of refugees”. The parliamentary speaker underlined Lithuania’s call on the international community to support President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace plan.
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