Lithuania among the countries rarely naturalizing

Lithuania belongs to the UE countries which are not eager to naturalize new citizens. According to Eurostat, a directorate-general the main responsibilities of which are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union, as far as naturalizing goes it is Slovenia that has the lowest rate. In Lithuania among 1000 citizens there are 0,1 of the new ones. Poland has similar rate. The average in Europe, on the other hand, is 1,6.

818000 foreigners, 707800 from the outside of Europe among them, were naturalized in the EU countries in 2012, according to Eurostat. In Poland it was 3800 people, mainly (3400) from the outside of Europe. The highest rate of naturalization have the following countries: the Great Britain – 193900, Germany – 114600, France – 96100, Italy – 65400 and Sweden – 50200 people.

According to the data from 2012 people are naturalized in Lithuania more rarely than in other countries. People who are granted citizenship most often come from Russia (47%), Ukraine (11,4%), and Belarus (6,4 %). According to the Department of Migration in Lithuania data there were 173 people naturalized in 2013, while in 2012 – 183.

Nowadays, there is a discussion being held in Lithuania concerning the liberalization of the law on having dual citizenship.

Constitution of Lithuania allows for dual citizenship only in few cases. The right to dual citizenship appertains only to the people who left their countries before Lithuania gained independence in 1990 and those who were naturalized automatically, that is by marring a citizen of the country or by birth, if at least one of the parents in Lithuanian citizen.
Besides, when it appeared that a famous Lithuanian basketball player will loose Lithuanian citizenship as he was naturalized in the USA, the politicians of Lithuania started to discuss the possiblity of the liberalization of the law. Dalia Grybauskaitė, the president, experssed her opinion that the problem should be settled by the citizens of Lithuania in a referendum. However, the question should be formulated “very carefully so that the process of naturalizaing did not slip out of control”. Nevertheless, the question of granting citizenship should be looked into taking into account how many citizens of Lithuania emigrate: “Significant number of people have already left, taking the citizenship away from them is probably not very good”, said the president.
Loreta Graužinienė, the Sejmas chairperson and Algirdas Butkevičius, the prime minister suggested that a referendum on dual citizenship could be held in 2016 together with election to Sejmas.
Those who oppose the liberalization of the law on dual citizenship claim that a citizen should be loyal to one country only. They are afraid that the cause of introducing dual citizenship could be the expensionary politics of Russia which excuses it with the protection of fellow citizens and compatriots.
Representatives of the authorities of Lithuania do not comment upon in which cases having dual citizenship would be possible.
On the basis of: BNS, lrytas.lt, epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu