PoliticsThe Parliament paid tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris on Monday at the start of the January plenary. On the legislative side, MEPs approved a proposal to give member states more flexibility to restrict or ban GMOs on their territory, while they also debated the programme of the new Latvian presidency of the Council as well as the outcome of the Italian presidency that ended in December. Municipal elections will take place on 1st March this years. During the elections, mayors of 60 self-governments will be elected through direct elections for the first time. The greatest fight is of course for the position of mayor of Vilnius City. Yesterday an Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages for legislature of 2014-2019 was established in the European Parliament. Member of the European Parliament Kinga Gál (Hungary) was elected as the chair of the group. Valdemar Tomaševski, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), took part in the meeting as a member of the committee. President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who is visiting Lithuania. The meeting focused on issues of importance to Lithuania and the entire European Union. According to President Grybauskaitė, the European Council plays a significant role in mobilizing all EU member states for common tasks and response to emerging geopolitical and economic challenges. Only one month and a half is left until the municipal elections in Lithuania which will take place on 1st March and when citizens of Lithuania will elect councillors of 60 self-governments and their mayors. For the first time ever mayors in Lithuania will be elected directly. President Dalia Grybauskaitė has been named Person of the Year by the Higher Academic Council of Ukraine for her strong and unwavering support to Ukraine's independence at public and political level. Despite differences Poland always was, is and will be with you, said the Polish public figure, one of the leaders of Poland's oppositional movement Solidarity, editor-in-chief of Poland's largest newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite met with Minister of Social Security and Labour Algimanta Pabedinskiene and criticised her for the lagging reform of children's care homes and for the lack of transparency in the use of funds by the ministry. Vilnius County Court rejected the request of the Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania (LRTK) to oblige Lithuanian broadcasters to temporarily suspend broadcast of Russian television channel Ren TV Baltic's programmes that are produced not in the European Union, the European Economic Area or countries that signed the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, has met with David Robert Noonan, Ambassador of Ireland. Welcoming the newly appointed Ireland's Ambassador to Lithuania, the Speaker expressed hopes for further constructive and mutually beneficial dialogue, as recent years have seen strong economic ties established between the two countries. |
|
© 2013 All rights reserved to the public enterprise ‘L24plius’. |