It is possible that establishing of Podbrodzie Region will be vetoed by Grybauskaitė

It is possible that Podbrodzie Region will not be established as Dalia Grybauskaitė, the President of Republic of Lithuania may veto the amendments to the statue on administrative and territorial units and its borders adopted by the Parliamnet, which enable to establish the new local government, even if there are 7000 of inhabitants instead of 10 000 as it was before.

Daiva Ulbinaitė, the spokesman of the President said that Dalia Grybauskaitėn consulted experts who negatively judged the amendments to the staute on administrative and territorial units and its borders. The president will come to the decision within next few days. Daiva Ulbinaitė said that “more local governments do not mean more order”.

The president thinks that self-govermnent should develop by strenghtening of communities. The press office of the President pointed out that the number of inhabitants in some local governments differs significantly. Such imbalance impedes compatible and equal development of local governments. According to the special statement “if local governments become more divided then the tendency will increase and at the same time economic and social disparities will also increase.

Roma Žakaitienė, the chairman of the Lithuanian Association of Self Governments (Lietuvos savivaldybių asociacija) thinks that less numerous self governments might have problems with adopting European Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund.

Last week the Parliament adopted amendments to the statue on administrative and territorial units and its borders which enable to establish the new local government if there are at least 7 000 inhabitants at its territory. As a result of these amendments the new Podbrodzie Region could be established. In Podbrodzie, which is now a part of Swieciany Region, the survey has been carried out and other statutory requirements have been fulfilled to establish the new self-governing unit.

Source:  http://pl.delfi.lt/aktualia/litwa/grybauskaite-moze-zawetowac-powstanie-rejonu-podbrodzkiego.d?id=59048129#ixzz20OMvxWXe

Tłumaczenie Dorota Szewczyk-Madejewska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Ewelina Zarembska Dorota Szewczyk-Madejewska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.