The Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania does not support the plan of development of the Vilnius Region.

The discussed project of the Act on Funding the Development of South-Eastern Lithuania which assumes the improvement of the Vilnius, Šalčininkai and Visaginas Municipalities has been criticized by the Ministry of the Interior.

The Ministry underlined that present legislations sufficiently regulate regional politics. They also stated that some of the points in the proposed project could be conflicting with the Constitution of Lithuania and could groundlessly limit the scope of authority of the government.

The Seimas approved the project of the Act on Funding the Development of South-Eastern Lithuania which was presented by a conservative Valentinas Stundys.

Mr Stundys claims that the Ministry’s negative conclusions come from the fact that they “had not thoroughly analysed the essence of the fund”. He also underlined that the project is very important because of the south-eastern region being populated in part by the national minorities. “The communities that form on the ethnical, language basis need more resources” – stated Stundys.

The Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius as well as the President Dalia Grybauskaitė support the project.