“The commission has no legal grounds to say that Navickas did not fulfil his duty to step aside,” reads the press release.
The commission’s inquiry looked into the circumstances surrounding granting of funding to a project submitted by the minister’s former employer, the Baltic Environmental Forum.
The panel found the minister had filed a written statement to the prime minister on his withdrawal from all issues in connection to the forum. The prime minister instructed Agriculture Minister Bronius Markauskas to take over, and the latter signed documents on funding of the forum’s communication project about the network of protected territories.
The Baltic Environmental Forum should receive over 3 million euros for its project to promote a communication campaign for Natura 2000 network in the Baltic states.