Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz: „It’s difficult to understand your Prime Minister”. Polish senator on Butkevičius’s speech

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, the head of Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Polish Senate, cannot understand why the Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius is not willing to give permission for bilingual signposts.

„It is difficult to understand your Prime Minister’s approach on bilingual signposts” – said Cimoszewicz to BNS.

On Sunday the Lithuanian Prime Minister said: „In my opinion we should understand that we all are Lithuanian citizens. Therefore the conditions for all Lithuanian citizens should be equal. This means that there should be no bilingual signposts, if we respect our country, our constitution and the law of our country.”

The senator is convinced that if both of the countries in question want to warm up their relations, they must undertake more dialog.

„We all know well that there exist certain problems. There are double-sided problems that in my opinion are pathetic. They are too important but they irritate both sides. I sense certain pressure, perhaps hidden, but existent. These circumstances are not natural for two neighbouring and close countries, which share such a long history together” – the senator firmly states.

„I believe that we must undertake more dialogue on various levels. On all levels. It is a paradox that countries that have such a long common history, are both members of international institutions such as the European Union know so little about each other. We are so close, yet it seems that we live in two different worlds. All the problems relating to local Poles and their education and name spelling and the complaints regarding the conditions of Lithuanians in Poland do not have to persist and continue to exist. They have to solved, rather than forgotten” – W. Cimoszewicz highlighted.

The senator said that the current government promised to resolve the above issues, however at the moment the Polish side does not see any meaningful solutions.

„I do not want to say that there are no problems on the Polish side. There surely are and on our side we must patiently listen and be ready to solve such problems. There are however certain differences. On the Lithuanian side we often see the authorities’ views that are difficult to understand, taking into consideration the legal regulations between our countries and the EU law” – the Polish senator summarised.

Source: http://zw.lt/litwa/wlodzimierz-cimoszewicz-trudno-zrozumiec-waszego-premiera-polski-senator-o-wypowiedzi/

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