- January 14, 2014
- 246
Gediminas Kirkilas: we will verify the fulfillment of mutual Friendship Treaty provisions
Gediminas Kirkilas, the leader of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs informed that after a five year break, there should be a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland and the Seimas of the Lithuanian Republic in April 2014.
“The main goal of the meeting is to verify the realization of the Lithuanian-Polish treaty, which includes 70 points. Practically every provisions have been fulfilled so far. What have not been realized yet is, just between us, only 1.5 of all points” – said Kirkilas.
The politician emphasized that ministries should report how the fulfillment of the treaty is proceeding which will be discussed during the meeting.
“We will see what has not been realized yet. The treaty is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.” – reminded Kirkilas.
According to him, the major task that still remains undone is the non-accepted Law on ethnic Minorities.
On Tuesday Kirkilas met with Eugeniusz Grzeszczak, the Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, who was surprised by an exorbitant penalty for bilingual street signs which Boleslav Daškevič, the Director of the Administration of Šalčininkai district, was fined.
„The Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland was astonished at the severity of this penalty. € 10.000 of an administrative penalty is, in their opinion, too much.”– said Kirkilas.
The mutual Friendship Treaty between Poland and Lithuania was signed in 1994 by Lech Wałęsa and Algirdas Brazauskasthe, the presidents of these countries. The Treaty obliges both sides to allow ethnic minorities to “use their own names along with their native language rules” and standards of the spelling of those names was supposed to be determined in a special agreement.
Tłumaczenie by Ewa Żakowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Ewa Żakowska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
