Poland ready to cooperate with Lithuania

 “The changes, disadvantageous to the Poles, to the polling districts show that the problems we have withVilniusdon’t result from our prejudices,” the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski said about the decision of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) to change the polling districts inLithuania. 

According to the head of Polish diplomacy, Radosław Sikorski, the problems betweenPolandandLithuaniaresult from what the Lithuanian side does or doesn’t do. The Polish Minister of Foreign affairs stressed thatPolandis ready at any moment for renewing its cooperation withLithuania, but it’s been waiting for 20 years for the implementation of the provisions of their mutual treaty.

Sikorski added that the situation of the Polish minority inLithuania is being watched by a mediator, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). “Poland is ready to implement these recommendations. We hope thatLithuania, as a European country, will also show determination in the civilized treatment of minorities,” Sikorski said.

Let us remind you that CEC has made the decision to create a new polling district in the Vilnius Region, thus separating a part of the territory and attaching it to the Švenčionys and Molėtai region.

As the leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, Valdemar Tomaševski, has emphasized, the Vilnius region – which is the largest in Lithuania and where Poles constitute 61 percent of the population – could have two individual polling districts, whereas it is now divided into five and connected to other regions where Lithuanians constitute majority.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/polska-gotowa-do-wspolpracy-z-litwa

Tłumaczenie Aleksandra Musiał w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Aleksandra Musiał within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.