Lithuanian committee chair calls for more funding for State Security Department

In his opinion, time has come for political parties to review their agreement on the 2014-2020 strategic guidelines on foreign, security and defence policy.

“The political parties’ agreement on defence was signed last year but taking into account the exiting geopolitical situation as well as actions inside the country, we need to start thinking about revising it. We must pay considerably more attention to intelligence and counterintelligence,” Paulauskas told a press conference on Monday.

He told BNS that he, however, could not say specifically how much additional funding should be given to intelligence services. Additional funds should be spent on equipment and training of intelligence officers.

The State Security Department has been allocated EUR 23.6 million this year.

Lithuania’s political parties last year agreed to gradually increase funding for national defence to reach 2 percent GDP by 2020.