LITHUANIA DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Upcoming events in Lithuania for Tuesday, December 5, 2023
- Lithuania records no illegal border crossings from Belarus
- Lithuania's top court to rule if Grazulis violated Constitution by voting for another MP
- Lithuanian parliament to hold final vote on 2024 budget
- Lithuania reports 2,173 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths
- People's income growth outpaces inflation in Lithuania in Q3 – Sodra
- Lithuanian parlt extends corporate tax break for investment projects, films
- Tightening sanctions to send bad signal to Belarus opposition – Lithuanian parlt speaker
- Lithuanian formin calls proposed new restrictions on Belarusians "nervous reaction"
- Seabed surveys for Lithuania's offshore wind farm find shipwreck in Baltic Sea
- Lithuanian parlt OKs 2024 budget (corrects)
- Lithuanian MP Grazulis violated Constitution by voting for colleague, court rules
- Lithuanian MP Grazulis violated Constitution by voting for colleague, court rules (expands)
- EP election in Lithuania to be held on June 9
- Lithuanian 15-year-olds' knowledge 'average' among OECD countries – minister
- Lawyers' court of honor in Lithuania dismisses disciplinary case against Vegele
- Lithuanian parlt postpones introduction of e-tolling system until January 2025
- Upcoming events in Lithuania for Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Upcoming events in Lithuania for Tuesday, December 5, 2023
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – The following events are scheduled in Lithuania for Tuesday, December 5, 2023:
PRESIDENT Gitanas Nauseda to have a phone conversation with his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu at 2 p.m.
EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND SPORT MINISTER Gintautas Jakstas to meet with French Ambassador Alix Everard at 4 p.m.
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Lithuania records no illegal border crossings from Belarus
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – Lithuanian border guards recorded no attempts to cross into the country from Belarus illegally for the second day in a row on Monday, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) said on Tuesday morning.
Latvia reported 16 attempts at illegal border crossings on Monday, and 34 irregular migrants were not allowed into Poland on Sunday, according to the latest available information.
More than 2,500 irregular migrants have been barred from entering Lithuania from Belarus at non-designated places so far this year.
Lithuanian border guards have prevented a total of over 21,800 people from crossing in from Belarus since August 3, 2021, when they were given the right to turn away irregular migrants. The number includes repeated attempts by the same people to cross the border.
The influx of irregular migrants to the EU's eastern member states from Belarus began in 2021 and is blamed by the West on the Minsk regime.
Almost 4,200 irregular migrants crossed into Lithuania from Belarus illegally in 2021. However, the vast majority of them fled Lithuania once they were allowed to move freely.
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Lithuania's top court to rule if Grazulis violated Constitution by voting for another MP
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – The Lithuanian Constitutional Court on Tuesday is expected to announce its opinion in MP Petras Grazulis' impeachment case.
In its petition, the parliament asked the Constitutional Court to look into whether Grazulis broke his oath and grossly violated the Constitution by voting for Social Democratic MP Linas Jonauskas when the latter turned away to speak to a colleague.
According to the Seimas' special inquiry commission, this incident occurred on September 15, 2022, when the parliament voted on the agenda of its autumn session.
In his testimony before the Constitutional Court in early November, Grazulis said that he could not remember whether he had voted for Jonauskas, who was sitting next to him in the plenary hall, but admitted that he could have made a mistake.
Grazulis described the impeachment process as a "political crackdown" on him.
Conservative MP Andrius Vysniauskas, who represented the initiators of the impeachment in the Constitutional Court, said that there was no doubt that Grazulis had deliberately pressed the button for his colleague, who did not see him do it.
According to Vysniauskas, this was not a minor procedural violation, as it may seem at first sight, but a deliberate act aimed at preventing the Seimas from debating the civil union bill, which was included in the draft program for the autumn session.
If the court finds that Grazulis broke his oath and violated the Constitution, the Seimas will vote on stripping the MP of his mandate. At least 85 votes in the 141-member parliament are needed to pass the motion.
If Grazulis loses his seat in the impeachment case, he would be barred for ten years from running for parliament or president and holding a public office that requires taking a constitutional oath.
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Lithuanian parliament to hold final vote on 2024 budget
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – The Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday is to hold its final vote on the highly debated 2024 state budget bill.
Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste said on Monday that she expected that there would be unanimous support from the ruling coalition and that their votes would be enough to pass the budget.
However, Ausrine Armonaite, chairwoman of the Freedom Party, a member of the ruling bloc, said after the coalition council's meeting on Monday that her party would review its commitments to the coalition after its partners failed to secure more votes in the parliament to pass a civil union bill legally recognizing gender-neutral partnerships.
Armonaite said that the Freedom Party's political group in the Seimas would make their final decision on Tuesday morning whether to support the budget.
Meanwhile, Vytautas Mitalas, head of the political group, said that the group welcomed the government's recent decisions to allocate additional funding, which had taken into account proposals from the Freedom Party's MPs.
On Tuesday, Skaiste will inform the parliament about the government's latest decision to increase next year's budget expenditure by around 650,000 euros by raising the net borrowing limit.
The Cabinet thus approved some proposals from MPs from the ruling coalition's parliamentary groups to allocate more funds for the Public Procurement Office, the Communications Regulatory Authority, the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority, and the Migration Department.
The leadership of the conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, the biggest party in the parliament, has instructed the party's MPs to vote only for those budget proposals that that have been approved by the government.
Next year's state budget is planned with a deficit of 3 percent of GDP, with revenue projected at 16.98 billion euros and expenditure at 20.6 billion euros.
This is the penultimate budget drafted by this government and the last one to be adopted by the current parliament.
By Sniegė Balčiūnaitė
Editor: Roma Pakėnienė
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Lithuania reports 2,173 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – Lithuania has recorded 2,173 new coronavirus infections and no deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, official statistics showed on Tuesday morning.
The 14-day primary infection rate has risen to 460.8 cases per 100,000 people, with the seven-day percentage of positive tests at 38.7 percent.
The number of new coronavirus cases hit the peak in Lithuania in early February 2022 when more than 14,000 new infections were recorded daily. Around 1.19 million people in Lithuania have tested positive for COVID-19 at least once.
COVID-19 incidence in Lithuania took an upward turn in mid-September after having stayed at a low level since May.
Two-thirds of the country's population have received at least one coronavirus vaccine jab so far, according to the statistics.
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People's income growth outpaces inflation in Lithuania in Q3 – Sodra
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – People's income continued to rise in Lithuania the third quarter of this year, with the growth outpacing inflation, the latest figures from the social insurance fund Sodra showed on Tuesday.
Kristina Zitikyte, an advisor with Sodra's Statistics, Analysis and Forecast Unit, notes that labor income after tax rose by 10.7 percent in July-September year-on-year, compared to the annual inflation rate of 3.7 percent.
The earnings growth was mostly due to a 15.1 percent rise in the minimum monthly wage, from 730 euros in 2022 to 840 euros in 2023, and salary increases for civil servants, officers, and employees of budgetary institutions.
Full-time employees' average income before tax rose by 209 euros, or 11.7 percent, to 1,989 euros in the third quarter year-on-year, and their average income after tax was up by 119 euros, or 10.7 percent, to 1,235 euros.
By Goda Vileikytė
Editor: Roma Pakėnienė
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Lithuanian parlt extends corporate tax break for investment projects, films
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – The Lithuanian parliament has extended the corporate tax break for investment projects and films for another five years until the end of 2028.
On Tuesday, lawmakers adopted the appropriate amendments to the Law on Corporate Income Tax with 99 votes in favor, three against and 20 abstentions.
Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte says the tax break is "necessary for businesses to have certainty".
For his part, Mindaugas Linge, chair of the parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance, says the tax break "has the capacity to create value, and the investments of the companies that have benefited from it have doubled".
The amendments allow companies implementing an investment project to reduce their taxable profits by up to 100 percent on the basis of the costs incurred to acquire new fixed assets. This profit will continue to be reduced if the assets are needed for the investment project, are not in use and have been created within two years.
Some 2,200 companies benefited from this tax break in 2022 and such companies have so far invested 938 million euros in Lithuania.
By Sniegė Balčiūnaitė
Editor: Roma Pakėnienė
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Tightening sanctions to send bad signal to Belarus opposition – Lithuanian parlt speaker
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, said on Tuesday that she is against tightening restrictions on Belarus' citizens, despite warnings from the State Security Department (SSD) about increased activity by the neighboring country's KGB.
Cmilyte-Nielsen warned that subjecting Russian and Belarusian citizens to the same sanctions would send a "very bad" signal to people persecuted by Alexander Lukashenko's regime.
"I am not in favor of applying the same sanctions. I am sticking to my opinion that this would send a very bad signal to the Belarusian opposition living here, to all those whom Lithuania has invited, saying that it is important for us to help the people who are being persecuted by the Lukashenko regime," she said.
On Monday, three MPs of the ruling conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (HU-LCD) registered draft legislative amendments aimed at tightening restrictions on Belarusian citizens to make them the same as those currently applied to Russians, with an exception only for Belarusians with highly skilled jobs.
"Since our intelligence assessment has shown that there is an increased threat from the Belarusian special services, that migrants who come to Lithuania to work and receive residence permits are possibly being recruited, and they return and receive assignments, and that employees of the security structures also come to Lithuania to do their shady job, we need to protect ourselves and to control the inflow of these migrants as much as possible without completely cutting it off," MP Paulius Saudargas, one of the initiators of the amendments, told BNS.
Cmilyte-Nielsen said that she hears the intelligence agency's warnings, but believes that different measures are needed.
"(...) perhaps by strengthening institutions, providing more resources, funds, everything needed to manage these flows," the speaker said.
"However, the proposed bill, in my opinion, does not achieve any of those goals, because it envisages quite a few exceptions. In my opinion, this is more of a step to show that something is being done than something that could have a positive effect," she added.
The SSD also warns of attempts to recruit members of the Belarusian opposition and business people in Lithuania via social media.
It is estimated that there are currently over 60,000 Belarusian citizens in Lithuania. According to the agency, their number grows every year and it becomes difficult to check all of them.
Ausrine Armonaite, economy and innovation minister and chairwoman of the Freedom Party, said that their political group in the parliament will look at concrete proposals, because "the wording is different now than it was when the previous discussion took place".
"Migration must be controlled, it must be planned, but having said A, the services must also say B, that is, what they are doing. The services can also propose solutions and say whether they need more resources, what resources, and so on. We will, of course, discuss this here in the parliament," she said.
The parliament earlier this year passed a law on restrictive measures for Russian and Belarusian citizens, but the latter are subject to fewer restrictions.
The law imposed restrictions for Russians and Belarusians to obtain Lithuanian visas and e-resident status. However, Russian citizens face additional restrictions on entry to Lithuania and acquisition of real estate in the country. Lithuania also temporarily refuses to accept their residence permit applications
The parliament finally adopted the law in late April, overriding a veto from President Gitanas Nauseda, who proposed to impose the same restrictions on Russian and Belarusian citizens.
By Augustas Stankevičius
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Lithuanian formin calls proposed new restrictions on Belarusians "nervous reaction"
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis says his fellow party members' recent proposal to put restrictions for Belarusian nationals on a par with the existing ones for Russian citizens is a "nervous reaction".
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte insists that the issue needs "a deeper discussion".
Such remarks by the leaders of the ruling conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats were made on Tuesday in the Seimas in response to the proposal by three HU-LCD members to tighten the existing restrictions on Belarusian citizens, putting them on a par with those for Russians, with an exception for Belarusians coming to do highly-skilled jobs.
The MPs says the move come in response to warnings from the State Security Department about the increased activity of the Belarusian KGB and the growing workload in vetting incoming people.
"As for what colleagues are registering, this is understandably more of what is called a nervous reaction… in response to the expressed threats. What we need to do is probably to have a discussion and a conversation, which is a bit more complex than a single response that can be done immediately," the foreign minister said.
The proposed amendments to the Law on Imposing Restrictive Measures Regarding the Military Aggression Against Ukraine foresee that the acceptance of applications for temporary residence permits by Belarusian citizens via an external service provider abroad would be stopped, as is currently the case for Russian nationals. An exception would only apply to Belarusian citizens who intend to do highly skilled jobs included in the list of high value-added professions with a shortage of workers in Lithuania.
The MPs point out that the restrictions would only apply to the first temporary residence permits, i.e. to new arrivals. Meanwhile, old workers who have already received temporary residence permits once in Lithuania would be able to extend them without any restrictions.
Without new residence permits, Landsbergis says, "the border throughput from Belarus to Lithuania remains the same" as Belarusians with Schengen visas from other countries "have the possibility to come and stay for 90 days".
"These registered amendments, unfortunately, do not solve this problem, although it is one of the potential security concerns," Landsbergis said, adding that the situation should be taken seriously and a discussion should be launched, but quick fixes should not be expected where "we put a band-aid on it".
Landsbergis say that the situation has been known for many years and one of the biggest problems is the people who regularly travel between Lithuania and Belarus.
For her part, the prime minister says the issue needs to be tackled in a comprehensive way.
"I think we need a deeper discussion about what problem we are trying to solve as it is not only a question of the workload for our institutions, that someone thinks there is a very heavy workload, maybe it is difficult to see everything, but there are also issues of a wider context," she said, adding that this includes Lithuania's attitude towards Belarusian society and immigrant workers.
"If these immigrant workers left the labor market, then we would probably have a very long and difficult discussion with our business associations that believe that migration needs to be facilitated," the prime minister pointed out.
For her part, Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite believes sanctions for Russian and Belarusian citizens should be the same, especially after the recent SSD warning about the increased activity of the Belarusian KGB.
Lithuania has now a law on restrictive measures for Russian and Belarusian citizens in place, but the latter are subject to fewer restrictions.
Russians and Belarusians are restricted in their ability to obtain Lithuanian visas and electronic resident status, but Russians have additional restrictions on their ability to enter Lithuania, to acquire real estate and their applications for residence permits are temporarily rejected.
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Seabed surveys for Lithuania's offshore wind farm find shipwreck in Baltic Sea
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – A sunken ship has been found in the Baltic Sea during seabed surveys for Lithuania's first offshore wind farm, Ignitis Renewables, the farm's developer, said on Tuesday.
The shipwreck was discovered at a depth of around 38 meters by Fugro Frontier, a geophysical survey vessel of the Dutch geotechnical company Fugro, it said in a press release.
"After receiving the information about the discovery of the shipwreck, we have informed the responsible state authorities, as this finding was not previously included in the database," said Paulius Kalmantas, communication partner at Ignitis Renewables, a subsidiary of the state-controlled energy group Ignitis Grupe.
The sunken ship is about 70 meters long and about 6 meters high. More information about it is expected after additional historical and underwater archaeological research.
According to the Department of Cultural Heritage, 19 shipwreck locations in Lithuania's territorial waters in the Baltic Sea are currently listed in the Register of Cultural Heritage.
Ignitis Renewables says that the 120-square-kilometer seabed area designated for developing wind projects "has never been surveyed in such detail".
In seabed surveys, Ignitis Renewables is also cooperating with Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions, a specialist offshore engineering and design consultancy that is part of Britain's Venterra Group, and Lithuania's Geobaltic.
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Lithuanian parlt OKs 2024 budget (corrects)
Corrected version: corrects para 19
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – The Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday adopted the 2024 state budget after more than three hours of deliberations as 73 MPs voted in favor, 52 voted against it and one lawmaker abstained.
The majority of the time lawmakers spent debating the motions tabled by MPs and rejected by the government the day before. All of them, including initiatives to provide additional funds for pay rises for teachers, prosecutors, environmentalists or various infrastructure, were rejected, leaving the 2024 state budget as it was approved by the Cabinet on Monday after months of deliberations.
At least half, or 71, of MPs had to vote in favor of the proposals for them to be adopted. However, around 50-60 MPs, most of them from opposition groups, debated the proposals on Tuesday.
Many members of the ruling block did not take part in the debate on MPs' proposals at all.
"We are consistently on the path of increasing people's incomes," Liberal Andrius Bagdonas said before the budget was adopted.
Vytautas Mitalas of the Freedom Party told the Seimas that "the budget is good" and would allow continuing the implementation of key infrastructure projects, in particular the reconstruction of the Vilnius-Utena road and the Via Baltica.
Meanwhile, MP Remigijus Zemaitaitis was annoyed that lawmakers failed to provide additional funding for gravel roads and education, but they did extend the corporate tax break for investment projects and films.
Representing the Democrats "For Lithuania", Algirdas Butkevicius said the budget "reflects the election cycle" and its revenue plan was not justified.
"If we talk about the revenue plan for next year's budget, we see that the growth in revenue is twice as high as the growth in nominal gross domestic product. Do you think that inflation will exceed 10 percent next year?" the MP asked.
Pensions, payouts, teachers' pay, roads
The largest share of the extra funds in next year's budget will be spent on pensions and various social benefits, teachers' salaries and road maintenance.
This is the penultimate budget drawn up by this government and the last one adopted by this parliament.
The average old-age pension will increase by around 66 euros to 605 euros. The average pension for those with the required length of employment will go up by 70 to 644 euros. The single person's allowance, paid to disabled and retired people living alone, will rise by around 3 to 38.23 euros.
Child benefits will go up to 96.25 euros a month next year, and it will rise to 152.9 euros for large families and families with a disabled or disadvantaged child. The one-off payout after the birth of a child will increase to 605 euros.
The non-taxable income rate will increase by 20 percent, or 126, to 751 euros, and the monthly compulsory health insurance contribution for self-employed persons will grow from 58.63 to 64.49 euros. The monthly minimum wage will rise to 924 euros pre-tax or 709 euros after-tax.
Next year, defense funding will for the first time exceed 2 billion euros and stand at 2.75 percent of GDP. Traditional budget allocations will amount to 2.52 percent of GDP, with the rest coming from the existing temporary bank solidarity levy and borrowings.
The increase in excise duties will raise the price of beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages, as well as tobacco products.
State revenue next year will amount to 16.98 billion euros and expenditure will stand at 20.6 billion euros, leading to a budget deficit of 3 percent of GDP.
Battle for teachers
In their bid to influence the vote, around 500 members of the teachers' union led by Andrius Navickas also watched the budget adoption from plenary chamber's balcony.
However, the Seimas rejected proposals by the Social Democrats, the Labor Party and Laima Nagiene, a member of the Democrats "For Lithuania", to increase teachers' salaries beyond the government's existing plans.
The adopted budget will include funds to increase teachers' pay twice next year – by 10 percent from January and 10 by another 10 percent from September. The Social Democrats had proposed increasing teachers' pay by 15 percent from January and September.
In response to the parliament's move, the labor Party once again threatened to withdraw from the existing national education pact.
"Agreements political parties do not stick to are unviable, declarative, are mere politicking and do not bring any added value, therefore we do not see any sense in further participation," Andrius Mazuronis, leader of the Labor Party, said.
Navickas' union had asked the Seimas to support the Social Democrats' proposal, saying that before the Seimas sitting that if the budget were adopted, it would no longer make sense for teachers, which have held strikes since late September, to continue their protests.
By Sniegė Balčiūnaitė
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Lithuanian MP Grazulis violated Constitution by voting for colleague, court rules
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – Petras Grazulis, a non-attached MP, "grossly" violated the Constitution and broke his oath when he deliberately voted for another member of the Seimas, the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday.
"Through this action, MP Grazulis grossly violated the Constitution and broke the oath," Gintaras Goda, the court stated in its conclusion, which was read out by Gintaras Goda, its president.
In its petition, the parliament asked the Constitutional Court to look into whether Grazulis broke his oath and grossly violated the Constitution by voting for Social Democratic MP Linas Jonauskas, who was sitting next to him in the plenary hall, but did not see him press the button because he had turned away to speak to a colleague.
Following the court's ruling, the parliament will vote on stripping Grazulis of his mandate. At least 85 votes in the 141-member parliament are needed to pass the motion.
If Grazulis loses his seat in this case, he would be barred for ten years from running for parliament or president and holding a public office that requires taking a constitutional oath.
By Milena Andrukaitytė
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Lithuanian MP Grazulis violated Constitution by voting for colleague, court rules (expands)
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – Petras Grazulis, a non-attached MP, "grossly" violated the Constitution and broke his oath when he deliberately voted for another member of the Seimas, the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday.
The issue of Grazulis' impeachment will now return to the parliament, which will decide on whether to strip him of his mandate.
The Constitutional Court found that Grazulis' action—deliberately voting for another member of the Seimas—contradicts the Constitution.
"Through this action, MP Grazulis grossly violated the Constitution and broke the oath," Gintaras Goda, the court stated in its conclusion, which was read out by Gintaras Goda, its president.
In its petition, the parliament asked the Constitutional Court to look into whether Grazulis broke his oath and grossly violated the Constitution by voting for Social Democratic MP Linas Jonauskas, who was sitting next to him in the plenary hall, but did not see him press the button because he had turned away to speak to a colleague.
The court noted that even a one-time voting by a MP for another MP during the parliament's sitting "constitutes a precondition for distorting the will of the Seimas".
The court also pointed out that Grazulis' voting for another MP was a conscious, deliberate act that could not have been made by mistake.
Following the court's ruling, the parliament will vote on stripping Grazulis of his mandate. At least 85 votes in the 141-member parliament are needed to pass the motion.
If Grazulis loses his seat in this case, he would be barred for ten years from running for parliament or president and holding a public office that requires taking a constitutional oath.
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EP election in Lithuania to be held on June 9
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS – The European Parliament election in Lithuania will be held on June 9, the country's parliament decided on Tuesday after 109 lawmakers voted in favor, four were against and 11 abstained.
The Council of the European Union has confirmed that European Parliament elections in EU member states will be held on June 6-9, 2024.
These dates are set by the EU Electoral Law stating that elections to the European Parliament are held every five years from Thursday to Sunday, usually during the first week of June.
According to the Electoral Code, EP elections in Lithuania are held on the Sunday during the same EP election period in all EU member states.
EP elections are announced and their dates are set by the Seimas no later than six months before the Sunday in question.
By Jūratė Skėrytė
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Lithuanian 15-year-olds' knowledge 'average' among OECD countries – minister
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS - Lithuanian 15-year-olds rank 24th in terms of their knowledge of math, 32nd in terms of reading skills and 29th in terms of natural science knowledge among 81 countries participating in the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Education, Science and Sport Minister Gintautas Jakstas on Tuesday called Lithuanian students' latest PISA results "average" in the overall context.
"In this PISA study, among OECD countries, we understand that there is a certain global elite, and we are average looking, which shows that we should probably continue our efforts to improve school content as we can see from the studies that is in the content is being taught well enough," he said at the presentation of the results of the 2022 study.
The Education, Science and Sport Ministry points out that Lithuania's results remain similar to those of the past several years and correspond to the average for OECD countries.
Lithuania's 15-year-olds scored 475 points in math, slightly above the OECD average of 472 points and higher than those in 56 countries, but lower than in 23 countries. Lithuania is ranked 24-25 out of 81 countries, with its performance similar to that of Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Italy and Norway.
In reading, Lithuania came in 32nd out of 81 countries with a score of 472 points, slightly below the OECD average of 476. Countries with similar results to Lithuania include France, Israel, Hungary and Slovenia.
In science, Lithuania's 15-year-olds share the 29th-30th position with their Portuguese peers, with a score of 484 points, close to the OECD average of 485 points. Lithuania's performance is better than that of 52 countries and worse than that of 28 countries.
Singapore's 15-year-olds were the top performers in all three subjects, and Cambodia had the worst scores.
In Lithuania, students in Vilnius achieved the highest scores in all three subjects (514 points in math, 521 points in science and 506 points in reading), followed by those in other major cities and towns (487, 496 and 485 points, respectively). The lowest scores were for students in rural areas and small towns (435, 445 and 431 points, respectively).
Students' performance also varies depending on their language of instruction. The best results, above the OECD average, were recorded in schools with Lithuanian as the language of instruction (477 in math, 487 in science and 475 in reading), while the poorest performance was in schools with Polish as the language of instruction (440, 433 and 415 respectively). The respective scores for schools with Russian as the language of instruction are 468, 476 and 457 points.
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Lawyers' court of honor in Lithuania dismisses disciplinary case against Vegele
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS - The Court of Honor of Advocates in Lithuania has dismissed a disciplinary case against lawyer Ignas Vegele for his public statements, finding no violation of professional ethics.
"The Court of Honor has dismissed the disciplinary case, having found no violation of the lawyer's professional ethics," Dalia Foigt-Norvaisiene, the president of the court, told BNS on Tuesday. "Motives. We can only say that we have not found any that he has violated anything to do with his professional ethics. (...) We have also not found any violations such as dishonesty, impolite behavior."
The case was initiated in September 2022 on the initiative of Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska, who alleged that Vegele's statements about the activities of persons who organized COVID-19 support during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine may have misled the public, creating unjustified doubts about the integrity and transparency of such activities.
Last week, Vegele announced his decision to run for president next year.
In a public comment in mid-July last year, Vegele questioned the transparency of the collection of donations to support doctors during the coronavirus pandemic and also help Ukraine after it was attacked by Russia.
"I'll tell you a secret: none of the entities that provided support or charity during the pandemic performed this duty (to declare – BNS) in time (by May 1). Maybe there was no support? The same can be said about the aid to Ukraine? An open and public question: has the State Tax Inspectorate penalized any institution or company, or have we heard of any checks? No, come on, why? You get charity and you go abroad to play poker. Look and you win charity money...," Vegele then told the delfi.lt news website.
Responding to this comment, Andrius Tapinas, the founder of the Laisves TV and a public figure, complained to the justice minister. Although he was not mentioned by Vegele, it was Tapinas who organized a fundraising campaign to buy a Bayraktar combat drone for the Ukrainian army and later traveled to the US to play poker.
Foigt-Norvaisiene says the Court of Honor of Advocates' ruling is not final and Vegele, Tapinas, as well as the justice minister, will be able to appeal to the Vilnius Regional Court within 30 days upon receipt of the court ruling.
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Lithuanian parlt postpones introduction of e-tolling system until January 2025
VILNIUS, Dec 05, BNS - The Seimas of Lithuania has postponed the launch of an e-tolling system for heavy transport in Lithuania until January 2025 due to legal disputes. The government had proposed postponing this date until July 2025.
On Tuesday, 69 MPs voted in favor of the amendments to the law on financing the road maintenance and development program, seven voted against and 35 abstained.
Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte says such amendments cannot be implemented.
"The tender is in court and the judgment is expected only in late December (2023 - BNS). If it is positive, the contract deadline is 14 months, meaning that it won't be ready until 2025. The government will have to come (to the Seimas - BNS) for a postponement of this deadline. If the court ruling is negative and the tender has to be re-launched, then 1 January is all the more unlikely," she told lawmakers today.
Transport Vice Minister Julius Skackauskas said earlier that the system could be up and running by July 2025 after the end of the court proceedings, adding that the courts are expected to decide later this month on who would install the system and then it would be in place within 14 months.
In September, the Vilnius Regional Court ruled that Proit, a Vilnius-based software development company, rightfully won the tender for the installation of the e-tolling system launched by the Lithuanian Road Administration. However, the tender remains suspended because the Czech company TollNet, which also took part in the tender, has appealed.
It was previously announced that the e-tolling system is expected to raise over 110 million euros.
By Sniegė Balčiūnaitė
Editor: Roma Pakėnienė
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Upcoming events in Lithuania for Wednesday, December 6, 2023
VILNIUS, Dec 06, BNS – The following events are scheduled in Lithuania for Wednesday, December 6, 2023:
THE CABINET to hold its regular meeting and sitting at 1 p.m.
FOREIGN MINISTER Gabrielius Landsbergis to meet with the new Australian ambassador to Lithuania.
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