Lithuanian Parliamentarians moved to a new Hall

Today, the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas has begun its Autumn session.  The Seimas has moved to a new Plenary Hall, which was build in almost one year.  The new hall is one of the most modern parliamentary buildings in Europe. 

The hall is dominated by neutral colours,, there are no corners.  The hall will enjoy the natural light since the glass structure is dominating the wall.  Hopefully this will also encourage transparency in the Lithuanian politics even though some of the parliamentarians expressed their concerns regarding their security.

The old parliamentary hall was built in 1981, when Lithuania was still occupied by the Soviets.  The hall was build for the presentation purposes for the Lithuanian Soviet, not adopted for a real work.  Nevertheless, the independence in the March 11 1990 was declared there, and all most important Republics documents were adopted in the hall. The old Seimas hall will be remembered as the most important hall in Lithuania.  We hope that the new hall will be remembered for only good laws and productive work.

Today, the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas has begun its Autumn session.  The Seimas has moved to a new Plenary Hall, which was build in almost one year.  The new hall is one of the most modern parliamentary buildings in Europe. 

The hall is dominated by neutral colours,, there are no corners.  The hall will enjoy the natural light since the glass structure is dominating the wall.  Hopefully this will also encourage transparency in the Lithuanian politics even though some of the parliamentarians expressed their concerns regarding their security.

The old parliamentary hall was built in 1981, when Lithuania was still occupied by the Soviets.  The hall was build for the presentation purposes for the Lithuanian Soviet, not adopted for a real work.  Nevertheless, the independence in the March 11 1990 was declared there, and all most important Republics documents were adopted in the hall. The old Seimas hall will be remembered as the most important hall in Lithuania.  We hope that the new hall will be remembered for only good laws and productive work.

The Belarussian students will visit the EU institutions

As the Foreign Ministry announced  the students and professors from the European Humanities University (EHU) will visit the institutions of the European Union and non-governmental organizations based in Brussels on 11-12 September.

The aim of the visit is to draw the attention of the European institutions to the important role of the EHU in promoting democratization of Belarus. The visit is also expected to help students and professors to improve their knowledge of the EU and the European Neighbourhood Policy.
 

The European Humanities University is the only non-governmental Belarusian humanitarian university. It was founded in 1992 in Minsk and in 2004 it was closed for political reasons. In 2006 the Government of Lithuania granted to the EHU the official status of a Lithuanian university in Vilnius.

The biggest sponsors of the EHU are the European Commission, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the governments of Lithuania, USA and Sweden. Owing to them, the EHU managed to resume its operation in Lithuania. The support from the European Commission and the Nordic Council of Ministers is allocated to finance the main activities of the university – bachelor and master degree programs of daily and extramural studies as well as grants. Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Norway, Finland, Germany also render assistance to the EHU.

This visit is organized by member of the European Socialist Group in the European Parliament Justas Vincas Paleckis and Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

‘The World’ is in Klaipėda

The World, a luxury residential ocean liner that circumnavigates the globe, dropped anchor at the cruise ship terminal of the Lithuanian port of Klaipėda on Sunday morning.

The liner with 177 people on board arrived in the port for a two-day stay. This is the first visit by the 150-meter-long cruise ship to Klaipėda.

As the Lietuvos rytas reported the residents of the liner went to Klaipėda on a trip and returned to the ship with the full bags of groceries.  Lets hope that the passengers of the luxury liner will appreciate the Lithuanian food and great Lithuanian beer!

New suggestions on the EU relations with Russia

The Lithuania’s  Foreign Ministry’s Secretary Laimonas Tallat-Kelpša during the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Portugal on Friday stressed that the EU’s position on Russia should be consolidated more if specific results rather than just a process are to be had.

As the Ministry’s web site informed the diplomat stressed the it appears that efforts are being made to create an impression that some countries favour partnership with Russia, others oppose it, yet this is not the case as Lithuania, just like the rest of the EU countries, is interested in having good relations with Russia.

The diplomat suggested that a wider discussion on issues of individual member states within the context of dealings with Russia must be staged. The collection of the EU 27’s opinions would present a detailed picture, and some of the questions like energy security and the need to diversify energy resources could possibly be solved by jointly putting shoulder to it.

Mr Tallat-Kelpša also stressed that the EU must react to hits on the EU’s citizens and on diplomats in particular, who are working in Russia. Direct organizers of such hits, activists of nationalist organizations, he said, ought to be denied entry to the EU’s territory — it would encourage the remains of the civil society in Russia that still believe in the morality of the EU.