Lithuanian institutions demand extra funding to address terrorism threats

The position was expressed after a meeting of the Parliamentary National Security and Defence Committee. Representatives of the Interior Ministry, the State Security Department, the Government, the Financial Crime Investigation Service and the Police Department attended the meeting.

The chairman of the committee, Artūras Paulauskas, claims that the institutions should be well funded to be able to properly carry out their duties.

It has been suggested that funding for the Lithuanian State Security Department should be upped by 2 million euro. In the current budget draft, the institution is to receive 23 million euro in 2016.

Aras should additionally get 800,000 euro, the Police Department – 5 million euro, the State Border Guard Service – 4 million euro, the Public Security Service – one million euro and almost a million euro of extra funding should go to the VIP Protection Department, the committee believes.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė has said that, first, skills of the services rather than funding are what counts in fighting terrorism. The president said that “intellect is needed, qualification and knowledge. More coordination is needed, <…> more practice, simulations of various possible scenarios.”

Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius said that “it is too early to talk about it and there are proposals to integrate some of the law enforcement institutions into the state defence system.”