Tamašunienė: “Jerzy” is not “Ežys”

The adoption of the Act on National Minorities will solve the problems with the surname in my husband’s family, since the surname is spelled in three various ways, said Rita Tamašunienė, the elder of the Seimas faction of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL), in the interview for “Salon Polityczny” in the Radio “Znad Willi”.

“The faction of AWPL in the Seimas supports all the projects included in the programme of the coalition government and proposes specific projects that, except fro our faction, no one would come forward with: three education projects, the Act on National Minorities (which is also included in the programme) and others” – said Tamašunienė.

When it comes to the question about the euro, MP stressed that in fact, the euro has been already introduced in Lithuania because the litas is closely attached to the European currency. “I think that the referendum on introducing the euro is unnecessary, but the society should be provided with more information about the euro itself, about the Maastricht criteria and other aspects connected with the single currency” – she added.

The elder of the Seimas faction of AWPL have not determined yet her position on the matter of waiving Venckiene’s immunity, but she will most likely abstain from voting.

“We have not taken the decision yet about how will we vote on waiving MP Venckiene’s immunity, but it will be free voting as it was in the case of the Labour Party. MP Wanda Krawczonok sits on a commission on the waiver of  immunity and after the end of work in the commission, she will present her observations to the faction of AWPL and then MPs will decide on how will they vote. Personally, I will probably abstain from voting because I don’t have precise opinion on this matter” – said Tamašunienė.

MP emphasized also that the Act on National Minorities would solve the problem with the spelling of surname in her husband’s family.

“The adoption of the Act on National Minorities will solve the problems with the surname in my husband’s family too because the surname is spelled now in three various way; even though my husband’s name was Adam Tomaszun at first, during the process of getting a passport no one paid particularly close attention to the spelling of the surname or did not oppose to the lithuanized spelling. There are many discussions about that in my husband’s family and I think that if it’s not husband’s father, husband will certainly change his surname. The majority in the government and in the Seimas understands that a person with a name and surname received after his or her birth would like to have it spelled in documents correctly. Sometimes spelling in Lithuanian looks stupid. Once I saw name “Jerzy” written in a passport as “Ežys“ – told Tamašunienė.

Source: http://pl.delfi.lt/aktualia/litwa/tamasuniene-jerzy-to-nie-ezys.d?id=61044139

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