Lithuania’s new government sworn in

Lithuania’s parliament approved the government program on second reading. On Thursday, the ministers of the new cabinet were sworn in and began to work. The government was sworn in in full force, along with the two ministers whose candidacies the President Dalia Grybauskaitiė approved on Wednesday.

Dainius Pavalkis and Algimanta Pabedinskienė, both of whom belong to the Labour Party, have assumed the so far unoccupied offices of the Minister of Education and the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare.

In order for the new government to start working officially, its program had to be approved by the Seimas first. On Thursday the majority of MPs voted in favour of the Cabinet of Ministers’ program. The program was approved by 83 deputies: the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, the Order and Justice and the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania.

Against were 39 Mps: the Conservatives and Liberals. 9 MPs from the party ”Way of Courage” and a mixed parliamentary group abstained from voting.

In the new program the government announces striving to create a welfare state, a social inequality reduction and a tax system revision. Among the priorities of the new cabinet’s works a project to build a LNG terminal in Klaipeda is mentioned. The program also does not unequivocally

preclude the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in Visaginas despite the fact that the Lithuanian citizens spoke out against it in the referendum.

The new government’s program foresees that national strategy for nuclear energy and its far-reaching prospects in Lithuania will be taken into account while assessing the results of the referendum.

A very important role in taking these decisions will be played by Jarosław Niewierowicz – the first Polish minister in independent Lithuania. J. Niewierowicz stands out among other ministers due to his impartiality. He’s an EAPL delegate but he doesn’t formally belong to this party.

8 ministers in the government are socialdemocrats, 3 belong to the Labour Party, 2 to the Order and Justice.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/zaprzysiezono-nowy-rzad-litwy

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