During the autumn session of the Seimas, deputies from the EAPL party will aim to approve previously launched legislative initiatives; inter alia, deputies will strive for the adoption of the Law on the protection of the prenatal life and the increase of the financing of local roads. It has to be noted, that these draft projects were approved by the Seimas during the first voting.
Proposals to adapt the recommendations of the OSCE to the Lithuanian law
Legislative proposals of the EAPL on the electoral law (proposal to reduce the electoral threshold to 3% for the national minorities' and regional parties) are intended to adapt the Lithuanian electoral system to the recommendations of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) representatives who repeatedly underline the need to reduce the threshold.
Efforts to have ballots in minority languages
In its latest report on Lithuania, in addition to recommendations regarding the electoral threshold, OSCE has emphasized that in order to facilitate access to information to people not familiar with the Lithuanian language it is necessary to ensure the translation of ballots into languages of national minorities in the electoral districts where at least 10% of national minorities reside. Pursuing for the wider use of the minorities' languages in the electoral campaigns, the EAPL party proposes to put appropriate amendments under vote during the forthcoming session of the Seimas.
Putting an end to the reprehensible tradition of sudden electoral changes
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The legislative initiatives advanced by the EAPL deputies also provide an end to the reprehensible in the democratic state changes in the electoral law being introduced shortly before elections. According to the two international documents, i.e. OSCE recommendations included in the report regarding Lithuania and the directives of the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters adopted in 2002 by the Venice Commission, deputies of the EAPL propose that changes would be introduced at least one year before elections.
Effort to end the process of land return
During the autumn session, thanks to the EAPL party, deputies will once again deal with the issue of the land return in towns to its rightful owners. The draft law was prepared and announced by the then deputy of the Seimas Valdemar Tomaševski in 2007. Unfortunately, it was rejected by the Seimas in 2008. Now it was again submitted by the chairwoman of the EAPL faction Rita Tamašunienė and the vice-chairwoman of the faction Vanda Kravčionok.
The party proposes that the urban land that has been leased to private companies and that under current legislation is not returned to its owners would be subject to return. Then the hiring company would be forced to sign the lease agreement not with the state, but with the owner, or will have to purchase the land. Similar solutions are already applied in rural localities.
According to the data (from the day of 1st January 2013) of the National Land Service under the Ministry of Agriculture, 12,2 thousand owners are still waiting for the return of 8,1 thousand hectares of urban land, what means, that only 79% of owners got their land back in towns. This rating amounts to 99% when speaking about rural areas and only to 40% when speaking about Vilnius.
As it can be seen, the range of legislative initiatives of the EAPL deputies is extensive and varied.