EAPL stays in the coalition

Although the Political Council of the centre-left ruling coalition has recently gathered for consultations every week, its agenda is not getting shorter.

On the contrary, the list of necessary actions and issues that need discussion gets longer every week. The yesterday’s meeting of the Council, which originally was supposed to be held on Monday, was instead postponed until the next day due to the “Ūkio bankas” affair which occupied the government and the central bank, “Lietuvos bankas”.

Thus, the Monday decision of handing over the liquidated „Ūkio bankas” to one of the bank entities operating on the market, „Šiaulių bankas”, had been added to the agenda of the Political Council.
Meanwhile, one of the most important issues discussed during the yesterday’s meeting of the Council was supposed to be the last week’s announcement of the EAPL leader, MEP Waldemar Tomaszewski, who stated his party would leave the coalition if it continued to ignore the agreements concerning national minorities and public finances.

“We cannot continue the liberal-conservative programme of the previous government. It would mean deceiving our voters,” announced Waldemar Tomaszewski last week.
He also confirmed that if the coalition did not come to an understanding, EAPL would seriously consider withdrawal.  After the yesterday’s meeting of the Political Council, it turned out that EAPL and its coalition partners reached an agreement regarding the postulates of the Polish party. Before the meeting of the Council a separate meeting between Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius and the leader of EAPL took place. The parties did not disclose any specifics apart from the statement that their conversation was down-to-earth.

Apart from the leader of EAPL, the meeting of the Council was attended by the foreman of the EAPL fraction, Member of Parliament Rita Tamašunienė and the signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania, Czesław Okińczyc.

“We agreed on the problems and on their solutions.  I am satisfied with the meeting. We have not yet reached an agreement when it comes to dates. But we are ready for further cooperation,” said Tomaszewski after the yesterday’s discussion.
Prime Minister Butkevičius, on the other hand, noticed that the previous tension resulted from the fact that the representatives of the Polish party wanted to realise their postulates as quickly as possible. The Prime Minister emphasised that some of the so-called Polish affairs needed more time. He also assured that the coalition is stable and continues to work together.
During the previous meeting, there were tensions regarding the ever-postponed decision about Lithuanian exam facilitations for this year’s secondary school graduates belonging to the national minority. The representatives of EAPL also expressed their concern and dissatisfaction with the division of this year’s budget assignation, which was not in line with prior arrangements.

Before the meeting of the Political Council the president of EAPL added two points to the agenda: the date of introduction of Euro and the amendment to the budget law. According to the MEP, the date of introducing Euro to Lithuania planned by Algirdas Butkevičius for the beginning of 2015 would mean further budget cuts.

Waldemar Tomaszewski believes that the society is already tired of constant saving, especially when this saving is mainly at the society’s expense. He thinks that if financial discipline does not affect the state company sector, the coalition will have to discuss a new date of implementation of Euro.  The leader of EAPL also stated that the coalition would have to verify budget assignations, since the current budget was established by the former centre-left coalition.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/02/19/awpl-pozostaje-w-koalicji-rzadzacej/

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