Another fine for bilingual street signs

Vilnius Regional Court has decided that the Administrative Director of the Local Government of the Vilnius Region, Lucyna Kotlowska, will have to pay a fine of 2 thousand Lithuanian litas. The fine is the outcome of avoidance to fulfill the verdict in the case concerning bilingual signs with street names.

The Court has partially complied with the complaint of government representative for the Vilnius Region and invalidated the 16^th of May decision of the court of lower resort.

In May, The Vilnius District Court rejected a motion concerning the fine for the Director amounting to 90 thousand litas. A bailiff, Daiva Milevičienė, requested Kotlowksa pay a fine of 150 litas per day for every day of delay of payment of the actual fine.

The court decision of taking down around 20 bilingual signs in towns Mostiškės, Nemenčinė and Buivydžiai and others was made already in the fall of 2011.

Current legislation in the Republic of Lithuania allows for street name signs and other topographic signs to be written only in the country’s official language. The ruling body of the Vilnius Region, in which there is a domineering membership of representatives of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, is not taking down the signs, arguing that they are placed on private properties, which is done in compliance with their owners.

In the Vilnius Region, 50% of the total of number of inhabitants is Polish.

Source: http://zw.lt/wilno-wilenszczyzna/kolejna-kara-za-pozostawienie-dwujezycznych-tabliczek/

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