Interior Minister Eimutis Misiūnas told BNS that more similar meetings were planned for the future in an effort to agree on a joint stance on problems all Lithuanian regions are faced with.
“All regions are very important for us, we do not focus on just one region, however, we need to start somewhere. Today we talked about the Vilnius region and its needs: reduction of social exclusion, improvement of the economic environment, ensuring of the needs of the multicultural community. The fact is that in order to implement all of these three objectives, we need a horizontal vision and coordination of actions. (…) We agreed to draft an action plan for the Vilnius region on what we should do, on how we will coordinate our actions with ministries, as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Transport and Communications have separate projects in this respect,” the minister told BNS on Thursday.
The action plan for Vilnius should be in place by March 21.
In Misiūnas’ words, there will be no separate fund for the Vilnius region, with funding earmarked from the resources of each ministry.
Some 15 million euros are envisaged for the Vilnius region from the European Union (EU) structural funds within the Interior Ministry’s field by 2020. In Misiūnas’ words, specialists of the ministries will work together “to prevent the money from going to the pavement or renovation of swimming pools in places where there are no people or businesses but to direct all money and capacities to the efforts to attract money, businesses and improve conditions for residents, host cultural events and renovate schools.”
A few conservative MPs have suggested a special fund for south-eastern Lithuania, i.e.., the territory of the Vilnius and the Šalčininkai district municipalities.