The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania supports the increasing of funding for local roads. At the first reading the party managed to get approval of the members for particular amendments aimed at the increasing of funding from 20 percent to 30 percent.

During the conference, member of the Seimas, Chairwoman of the EAPL faction in the Seimas Rita Tamašunienė underlined that this proposal does not require any additional funds from the state budget; it is only about a change in the distribution of resources. 'The disadvantages in the communication contribute to the reduction of investment, therefore this problem needs to be solved as soon as possible,' R. Tamašunienė stressed.

The EAPL applies for increased funding for local governments in order to avoid lack of funds for the payments for employees of budgetary institutions. Yesterday the Seimas has adopted the draft resolution on the financial indicators of the state and local governments' budgets. The EAPL member of the Seimas, member of the Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities Vanda Kravčionok has played an extremely important role in this issue, i.e. the draft was supported by the members of the committee thanks to her efforts.

'The problem is extremely up-to-date. Librarians, staff of houses of culture, early childhood educators, social workers, and technical staff of schools receive really low wages, which are not enough to live on. There are other areas where we could safe some money,' the EAPL leader V. Tomaševski told.

As V. Tomaševski pointed out, one of the most important issues is the need to increase direct payments for the farmers in Lithuania. 'The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament, of which the only member from Lithuania I am, is very important for Lithuania. Recently, the European Parliament has made a decision on a gradual increase of the payments for the countries receiving the lowest payments. But the decision was not yet supported nor by the European Commission, neither by the Council of the European Union. Nowadays, when the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is approaching, God helps us offering additional ways to fight for the increase of direct payments,' V. Tomaševski told.

Yesterday the Lithuanian Seimas has supported the draft law prepared by the EAPL on the protection of unborn children. Now the committees of the Seimas will deal with the draft. It will get back to the plenary room during the autumn session. The members of the EAPL and the representatives of other Seimas factions have signed under the draft. This is already the second time when the draft got the approval of members (it was supported at the first reading for the first time in 2008).

V. Tomaševski underlined the necessity of the protection of human life from the moment of conception until the natural death, as according to statistics, there are about 10 000 unborn children killed in Lithuania each year. 'It is one of the most important draft laws for our country,' told V. Tomaševski during the conference.

'Pope John Paul II said, that the nation killing its children has no future,' V. Tomaševski noted.

Member of the Seimas Zbignev Jedinskij (who has presented the draft law on the protection of prenatal life in the Seimas yesterday) has noted that presently doctors sign under the renewed Hippocratic Oath according to which they undertake to protect the human life from the moment of conception. Therefore, they face a moral dilemma when they are forced to perform abortions. The member also told that if doctors refuse to perform an abortion, they may have troubles at work or even be dismissed. 'We are open to discussions. I am calling members to vote according to their conscience without paying attention to popularity polls,' Zbignev Jedinskij underlined.

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