Lithuania’s Labour Party to choose among five candidates for energy minister

“We are waiting for the Labour Party branches to field candidates and the economic committee will have to choose and submit at least five proposals. The council of our party confirms ministers,” said the Seimas speaker in the interview to the radio Žinių Radijas.

According to the speaker, the candidate should have political experience.

“It is a complex area, so the person should be versatile, know the field and its policies. These questions are not limited to Lithuania, they require cooperation with Latvia, Estonia and Poland, and a lot of work with the European Union,” said Graužinienė.

The head of the Labour Party says that so far no candidates have been named. She also did not speculate whether the seat could be proposed to Kęstutis Daukšys, who chairs the Parliamentary Energy Commission.

“I cannot tell you anything as I have not met with any of the candidates. I have not asked them if they want to, can or have ambitions to take the minister’s seat. Today is the day that we start working on this,” said Graužinienė.

She mentioned that candidacies would be coordinated with Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius.

According to the Seimas speaker, there were no disputes over which party should head the Ministry of Energy, because when the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA) joined the Coalition, the Labour Party transferred to the LLRA its position in the ministry. After the dismissal of the LLRA’s energy minister Jaroslav Neverovič, the position should return to the Labour Party.