Last week, Seimas launched second impeachment process against MP Grazulis; Seimas speaker proposes scrapping employment quotas for foreigners
Polish bank mulls opening branch in Lithuania
Pekao, one of Poland’s largest banks, is considering opening its branch in Lithuania to work exclusively with corporate clients, through the decision is still pending, Lithuanian media reported on Friday, the 24th of November. The bank will have to seek permission from the central Bank of Lithuania to set up a branch in Lithuania. Pekao recently received permission from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority to provide services in the European Economic Area without opening a branch.
Klaipėdos Nafta postpones LNG terminal capacity expansion
Lithuania’s state-controlled energy terminals operator Klaipėdos Nafta (KN) announced on Friday, the 24th of November, it decided to postpone its planned LNG terminal capacity expansion project. “After assessing the low interest in long-term capacity after 2033 and the potential growth of LNG supply in the region and other risks, Klaipėdos Nafta decided to postpone the terminal capacity development project for the future,” it said in a press release. Only one of the seven four-terawatt-hour (TWh) annual capacity packages offered by the company for 2033-2044 has been acquired. Klaipėdos Nafta Chief Commercial Officer Mindaugas Navikas attributes this to the increasing construction of new SGD terminals in Europe and geopolitical instability.
Lithuania reports 817 new COVID-19 cases, one death
Lithuania recorded 817 new coronavirus infections and one death from COVID-19 over Thursday, the 23rd of November, official statistics showed on Friday, the 24th of November. The 14-day primary infection rate has risen to 329.7 cases per 100 000 people, with the seven-day percentage of positive tests at 36.1%. The number of new coronavirus cases hit the peak in Lithuania in early February 2022 when more than 14 000 new infections were recorded daily. Around 1.19 million people in Lithuania have tested positive for COVID-19 at least once.
President expects harsh punishment for thieves of valuable books
President Gitanas Nausėda said on Thursday, the 23rd of November, he hopes book thieves will be severely punished after seventeen valuable 19th century books were stolen from Vilnius University’s reading rooms. Lithuania’s prosecution service, which is investigating the theft, told BNS earlier in the day that a pre-trial investigation found that Russian-language books of great historical and cultural value were stolen from several reading rooms at Vilnius University between the 11th and 17th of May. They included works of Alexander Pushkin, Taras Shevchenko, Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolay Gogol. The total value of the stolen books could be around 440 000 euros, prosecutors say. Experts believe the stolen books ended up in Russia where at least some of them were sold in hastily organised auctions in Moscow.
Lithuanian TSO plans to invest over eight billion euros by 2050
Lithuania’s power transmission system operator Litgrid is planning to invest more than two billion euros in grid infrastructure by 2030 and over eight billion euros by 2050, Rokas Masiulis, the state-owned company’s CEO, said on Thursday, the 23rd of November. Most of the investment will go toward building new lines, especially in the northern and western regions of Lithuania, and plans also call for reinforcing the links with Latvia, according to Masiulis.
President urges Foreign minister to “calm down”
President Gitanas Nausėda on Thursday, the 23rd of November, called on Gabrielius Landsbergis to “sit down and calm down” after the foreign minister said recently that efforts to stop Russia in Ukraine are failing and Moscow may take military action against NATO countries. “Nothing has happened in recent weeks or days that we did not know before. However, suddenly things started to be exaggerated,” Nausėda told reporters, adding: “I’d suggest that the foreign minister just sit down and calm down.” The minister has said recently that Lithuania’s should prepare for a scenario where Russia is not stopped in Ukraine and will continue its fight against NATO countries, underlining the need for immediate strategic decisions to bolster the country’s security.
Seimas will approve 2024 state budget on December 5
The Seimas of Lithuania announced Wednesday, the 22nd of November, it plans to approve the country’s 2024 state budget on December 5 after 79 lawmakers in favour, four were against and 29 abstained. The increase in funding for roads and other needs raises budget spending by 111 million euros to 20.6 billion euros. As a result, its deficit will go up from the initially planned 2.9 to 3% of GDP, the limit of the Maastricht criterion. Next year 872 million euros will be allocated for roads, 157 million euros more than previously planned.
Seimas speaker proposes scrapping employment quotas for foreigners
Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen and members of her Liberal Movement party’s political group in the parliament proposed on Wednesday, the 22nd of November, abolishing the existing employment quotas for foreigners. “This was a decision made by the previous ruling block and opposed by both employers and migration experts. It was allegedly aimed at protecting Lithuania’s labour market. However, in practice, such a system has only created unnecessary bureaucratic burden and additional costs for employers and the state,” Čmilytė-Nielsen was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Seimas press service. Around 40 thousand work permits for third-country nationals have been issued this year.
Constitutional court sentences all defendants in high-profile political corruption case
The Lithuanian Court of Appeal on Wednesday, the 22nd of November, changed the ruling of the court of first instance and sentenced all the defendants in a high-profile political corruption case, with some of them getting prison terms. Raimondas Kurlianskis, a former vice-president of MG Baltic (now MG Grupe), was sentenced to six years in prison and was fined almost 19 000 euros, and Eligijus Masiulis, a former leader of the Liberal Movement, was issued a prison sentence of five years and six months. Another defendant in this case, Vytautas Gapšys of the Labor Party, was also found guilty and sentenced to four years and six months in jail. MG Grupe, the Liberal Movement and the Labor Party were fined over 1.1 million euros, almost 377 000 euros and more than 301 000 euros respectively. Former Liberals Sarunas Gustainis and Gintaras Steponavičius were fined almost 19 000 and over 15 000 euros respectively. The latter was convicted of abuse of power as there was no evidence of bribery.
Seimas launches second impeachment process against MP Grazulis
The Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday, the 21st of November, launched a second impeachment process against Petras Gražulis after the court’s verdict that he abused his position became final, and will vote on the 19th of December on whether to strip the MP of his mandate. The resolution was passed on Tuesday with 87 votes in favour, one against and one abstention. After Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, speaker of the parliament, tabled the motion to hold the impeachment vote on the 19th of December, Gražulis said the plan is to postpone the process until the Constitutional Court has delivered its opinion in the first impeachment process against him. The court is to deliver its opinion on whether Gražulis broke the oath when he voted for Social Democrat MP Linas Jonauskas when the latter turned away to speak to a colleague. If Gražulis is stripped of his mandate on this basis, he will also be banned from running for parliament for ten years. The second impeachment process was started after the Lithuanian Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that Gražulis abused his official position as an MP when he helped Judex, a Kaunas-based frozen food company, to solve its problems after Russian officials found listeria in its products in 2015.
Lithuania allocates one million euros to Ukraine via to EBRD trust fund
Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė and Mark Bowman, Vice-President for Policy and Partnerships at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, signed in Vilnius on Monday, the 20th of November, an agreement on Lithuania’s one-million-euro contribution to the bank’s trust fund. Bowman said Lithuania’s contribution would allow the bank to continue helping Ukraine cope with the challenges posed by the Russian invasion. According to the Finance Ministry, Lithuania is a third country to contribute to the fund, following earlier contributions from Japan and Taiwan.
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Week in Lithuania | President urges Foreign minister to “calm down”, court slaps harsh jail sentences for ex-MPs
