End of Dispute Over Bilingual Signs: Court Rules in Favour of Vilnius District

On Wednesday, Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court (LVAT) largely dismissed the appeal filed by the State Language Inspectorate (VKI) concerning bilingual signs bearing place names in Vilnius District.

“LVAT largely dismissed the appeal of the defendant, the State Language Inspectorate, and the first-instance court’s ruling was amended only with regard to the costs of proceedings,” LVAT representative Paulius Žeimys told BNS on Wednesday.

“Partially uphold the appeal of the defendant, the State Language Inspectorate. Amend the ruling of the Regional Administrative Court of 27 January 2025. The part of the Regional Administrative Court’s ruling ordering the defendant, the State Language Inspectorate, to reimburse the Vilnius District Municipal Administration for proceedings costs in the amount of 12,346 euros is overturned. The remaining part of the Regional Administrative Court’s ruling shall remain unchanged,” the LVAT ruling states.

This LVAT ruling is not subject to appeal.

The dispute between the VKI and the mayor of Vilnius District, Robert Duchniewicz, began in May 2023, when the inspectorate ordered that, by 1 July 2023, the signs located within Vilnius District showing the names of the villages of Bieliszki and Orzełówka be made exclusively in the state language.

The signs marking these villages are bilingual, with the names given in both Lithuanian and Polish. According to the State Language Inspectorate, these are public inscriptions, and therefore the Polish names “w. Bieliszki” and “Orzełówka” do not meet the requirements of the Law on the State Language.

The district mayor appealed the inspectorate’s order to the Lithuanian Commission on Administrative Disputes. The Commission upheld the mayor’s complaint and annulled the inspectorate’s order.

The VKI then turned to the Regional Administrative Court. In January 2025, the court dismissed the inspectorate’s complaint concerning public inscriptions in Polish in Vilnius District.

The court also ordered the inspectorate to pay Vilnius District Municipality over 12,000 euros in proceedings costs.

The dispute therefore went to Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court.

After the Regional Administrative Court’s ruling, Vilnius District mayor Robert Duchniewicz said he had wanted to prove that “treating decorative signs as road signs is definitely not in line with legal regulations.”

In the mayor’s view, the Seimas should fill in the gaps in the law, since there is currently a great deal of ambiguity regarding informational signs.

“The inspectorate’s order seemed absurd to me. (…) I believe the court’s decision is correct. I would urge that this procedure not be continued further, since it will mean incurring further costs of proceedings. In my opinion, a higher court would rule similarly,” said Robert Duchniewicz.

He pointed out that decorative signs can also be found in Vilnius, where “they bother no one.”