Lithuanian Sejm again will give attention to the Polish Card

On May 23, the Sejm once again plans to vote on referring the matter to the Constitutional Court a pole Adapter (SK). Two previous attempts — in 2008 and 2011 — were not in support of the majority of members. This time, the authors of the opposition group The Motherland/Christian Democrats of Lithuania — count that their request will gather the necessary number of votes.

– Yes, previously constituted a majority in parliament, but then we were also under pressure from right-wing deputies, whose application was more categorical in nature and therefore we did not  support him. Today’s politicians are not in parliament, so we can safely ask the Constitutional Court to clarify, because the situation is ambiguous. Also, our voters will continue to take the subject. We want to full brightness – explains to us one of the authors of the proposal to SK Ms Vilija Aleknaitė Abramikienė. Other authors are conservative MPs Audronis Ažubalis (former foreign minister), Valentinas Stundys (former chairman of parliament’s Committee for Education and Science), Stasys Šedbaras (former chairman of parliament’s Committee of Law and the Rule of Law) and Ms Rasa Juknevičienė (former Minister of defense of the country).

The authors of the application are asking the Court to determine whether a member of parliament of Lithuania may be a person “who in the face of an official of a foreign country declared by the law of a foreign state their allegiance to other than the Lithuanian nation, under the law of that State is the holder of the document, which gives him the State some political rights, social, economic and cultural, and grant and having it under the law of that State entails the obligation to respect the foreign country and its people, not infringe upon the interests of the state and its people, national security, defense policy public and other state interests. “

— In this context rises the question of legitimating the loyalty of the  holders of the Polish Card to the Lithuanian State. There is no clear answer to this question, so the Constitutional Court must explain it to us — told us, in turn, Breed, another application  coauthor Juknevičienė Members of the reference in it to the Constitutional Court judgement of 11 November 1998 on compliance with the Constitution, the law on Parliamentary Elections and the law on election of the General Councils in parts that the candidate Member or Councillor cannot be bound by an oath to another State, and if it is, then it must renounce the obligations and inform in writing the main Electoral Commission about the place and the time of the surrender of the oath. The local case involved persons having dual citizenship, which in the case of their stand on Lithuania legal ambiguity posed, so the Constitutional Court to clarify whether the requirements for candidates mandatory loyalty and fidelity to the Lithuanian State is not contrary to the constitution of candidates with dual citizenship. The court then found that the electoral law does not contradict the Constitution, although it contains some gaps in regulation.

Our interviewees agreed that the matter actually is ambiguous.

— I think, however, that the Constitutional Court will clarify this confusion — said Breed Juknevičienė. Meanwhile, neither she nor her friend could not explain to us what the right political, social, economic and cultural Pole Adapter suitable for its holders, especially in the context of General legal guarantees and rationing under for citizens of Lithuania’s membership in the European Union.

What’s more, there are indications that the Lithuanian Constitution may be incompatible with EU law, because the regulation precludes the participation of citizens of the Member States in the European Parliament elections in the Lithuanian party lists. For an explanation of these conflicts and the possible regulation of the law in line with European standards to Lithuania recently asked the EU institutions.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian Poles has already gotten used to the notorious right-wing attacks on members of the holders of the pole and another initiative to look with a grain of salt.

— This is another attempt to return the Conservatives on the attention and so should receive the “piarowską” initiative — before the week said in an interview with the “Courier” MP Waldemar Tomaszewski, leader of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania. He believes that the matter of compliance which is a Polish Card holder, Lithuanian legislation was long overdue.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/05/22/%EF%BB%BFlitewski-sejm-znowu-zajmie-sie-karta-polaka/

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