Politics
Lithuanian PM appoints former foreign minister as adviser
Lithuania’s former foreign minister, diplomat Petras Vaitiekūnas, will serve as adviser to Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius on voluntary basis. […]
Month: September 2015
Society
Lithuanian border guards hand over 8 migrants from Iraq to Poland
Lithuanian border guards on Thursday handed over eight migrants from Iraq to their Polish counterparts, the State Border Guard Service said. […]
Energy
EC vice-president: Lithuania may expect financing for its energy projects from Juncker Plan
Lithuania may expect financing for its energy projects from the 315-billion-euro European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI, the so-called Juncker Plan), Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President of the European Commission, has said in Vilnius. […]
Foreign affairs
Gediminas Kirkilas becomes an officer of the French Legion of Honour
On Thursday evening, the French Ambassador to Lithuania, Mr. Philippe Jeantaud, bestowed the French Legion of Honour on former prime minister and deputy speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, Mr. Gediminas Kirkilas. […]
Opinion
Opinion: The refugee crisis will define Europe’s future
While the refugee and migrant crisis is an existential problem for Europe, it is also a huge opportunity. The way it is handled will critically impact not only the future direction of Europe, but also its identity – the European ethos – economics, demographics and indeed (don’t be scared!) culture. Encapsulated in the current drama is an opportunity, which only few leaders and very few countries see as they are overwhelmed by the immediate tasks. If handled right, Europe will come out stronger. […]
Global LT
Lithuanian in Germany: I almost feel guilty for not doing more for refugees
Asta Borusevičiūtė from Lithuania has been living in Hamburg, Germany, for five years and has been very emotionally involved, along with the entire country, in the ongoing refugee crisis. “I live on this subject. In my circles, everyone’s doing something for them [refugees]. I almost feel guilty for not finding time to help out,” the young woman tells DELFI, adding that she plans to volunteer at a charity processing office. […]
European Union
Lithuanian MEPs have split opinion over EU refugee plan
At the European Parliament (EP) vote in Brussels on Thursday on distribution of 120,000 refugees among European Union (EU) member-states, the opinions of Lithuanian MEPs split. […]
Foreign affairs
Lithuania sends note to Russia over obstructed navigation
Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday that it had sent a note of protest to the Russian Embassy in Lithuania over the repeated impediment of navigation of ships in Lithuania’s exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea. […]
Society
Names of Holocaust victims to be read for 5th time in Lithuania
The names of Holocaust victims will be read publicly in several Lithuanian cities and towns on Tuesday, September 22, on the eve of the Lithuanian Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Names initiative is being held in Vilnius for the fifth time now and this will be the first time when lists of Vilnius ghetto prisoners will be read at two locations: in the courtyard of the ghetto library and at the Skalvija movie theater. Residents of Jonava, Molėtai, Švėkšna and Jurbarkas will take turns reading the names of Jews murdered in their towns. […]
Politics
Bills on e-prescription put before Lithuanian parliament
Bills necessary for the introduction of the electronic health system have been put before the Seimas of Lithuania on Thursday, with e-prescriptions as one of the proposed novelties. […]
Society
Three Latvians and a Russian busted in Lithuania for smuggling Vietnamese migrants
Lithuanian border guards from Kalvarija Frontier Station on the Polish border on Wednesday detained four illegal immigrants from Vietnam accompanied by one Russian and three Latvian citizens, Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service said on Thursday. […]
European Union
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to come to Vilnius
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini will pay her first official visit to Lithuania on Monday. […]
Society
Lithuania steps up patrols on Polish border due to illegal migrants
Lithuania has stepped up patrol on its border with Poland after spotting a new refugee route from Southern Europe to Scandinavia, and has also taken other undisclosed measures, Renatas Požėla, head of the country’s State Border Guard Service, said in an interview with BNS on Thursday. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Not human enough to be saved
It is a wrenching image. And it is an image that now speaks as the symbol for the refugee crisis shaming all of Europe. The tiny corpse of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Kurdish boy from the besieged Syrian city of Kobane, washed up on a Turkish shore like so much refuse. He had escaped ISIL, but he could not escape the wrath of the sea. […]
Foreign affairs
Lithuania’s OECD accession will require reforms
Lithuania will have to implement reforms on its path to membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Deputy Secretary-General Mari Kiviniemi said in Vilnius on Thursday, adding that these reforms will benefit the country. […]
Politics
Lithuania’s Order and Justice party wants parliament to speak out against refugee quotas
Representatives of the Order and Justice party, part of the ruling coalition in Lithuania, have proposed to the country’s parliament to express its opposition to a permanent mandatory refugee quota system and call on the government to launch consultations with Poland and other Baltic states on the formulation of a joint position. […]
Uncategorized
Nordic and Baltic states agree on assistance to Georgia and Ukraine
The Defence ministries of the Nordic and Baltic countries have signed an agreement on establishing a Nordic-Baltic Assistance Program to coordinate assistance to Georgia and Ukraine, Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence said in a statement. […]
Politics
Lithuanian government says it is up to the task of handling refugees
Lithuania is about to handle more asylum seekers than ever before, but the government says the country is ready for the challenge. Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius and Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis tell LRT.lt that, contrary to criticism about the government’s inaction, Lithuania is actively preparing to do its share in dealing with what is said to be the biggest refugee crisis since 1945. […]
Society
Politics