Social protection
During the spring session, the Seimas focused on social protection in general and on improving child care and family welfare in particular. Importantly, young families gained greater support for purchasing their first housing. Under the new amendments, support can be provided in conjunction with a financial contribution from the municipality and/or a legal entity operating for profit.
The amended Law on Fundamentals of Protection of the Rights of the Child has improved the new system of protection of the rights of the child, launched by the Seimas in July last year. Thus, taking children from families will only be possible as a measure of the last resort. In addition, the Seimas endorsed provisional care allowances as a new type of child benefits to be distributed starting from 2020.
The Seimas provided greater access to monetary social support, the calculation of which will now exclude a percentage of the income generated from self-employment. The calculation of the size of family income for individuals eligible for support will also exclude child benefits received by the family.
Socially insured adoptive parents will be entitled to child care benefits for 12 or 24 months, irrespective of the age of the child. These amendments are expected to lead to more adoptions of children aged over two.
Under the new amendments, parents of primary school children will be entitled to 14 calendar days of paid child care allowance during school quarantine.
The Seimas prohibited advertising of gambling on websites targeted at young audiences. The ban is due to take effect on 1 November 2019. Moreover, advertising of gambling will be prohibited throughout the country, with the exception of advertising of company name, trademark and type of gambling organised by the gambling company.
Some amendments to the Labour Code adopted by the Seimas during the spring session are particularly important for jobseekers. Under the new provisions, employers will have to specify the salary size in job advertisements. This will help jobseekers to be better informed before the job interview and prepare for negotiations accordingly.
As regards other novelties in the realm of social security, small farm owners will be entitled to obtaining an unemployment status. Participants of the resistance movement, political prisoners, and exiles will no longer have to pay for having their personal documents issued. Persons born in exile will be eligible to obtain the status of exiles. Moreover, the Seimas legalised relocation to Lithuania of Lithuanians residing abroad, if need be (e.g. in the event of a humanitarian crisis). Besides, regulation on the legal status of UK and Lithuanian nationals after a no-deal Brexit is now also in place.
Finance and Economy
The Seimas adopted a vast number of decisions relating to the promotion of economy and fair commercial practices.
Importantly, the Law on Integration of the Lithuanian Power System into the European Power Network was adopted. It provides the general principles of integrating the Lithuanian power system with the continental European network for operation in synchronous mode and principles for disconnecting the Lithuanian system from the power grid of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In order to ensure more effective protection of competition, the Seimas increased the powers of the Competition Council and imposed higher fines for unfair commercial practices. In particular, fines for unfair commercial practices and infringement of the rules on advertising have been linked to annual income of the infringing entity. The newly adopted amendments will reduce the number of abuses of a dominant position by businesses and will strengthen consumer protection.
The Seimas decided to prohibit retail establishments from requiring discounts and other direct or indirect remuneration from suppliers where this has not been agreed in writing, by e-mail, or by other electronic means.
Amendments to the Law on Small and Medium-Sized Business Development will facilitate the development of start-ups in Lithuania and promote availability of state support for non-profit organisations. Amendments to the Law on Personal Income Tax regarding option taxation will contribute to faster rise in the number of start-ups, growth of competitiveness, and increased attractiveness of Lithuania for highly qualified foreign professionals.
The Seimas improved the procedure for land acquisition for public needs by establishing clear deadlines and allowing a part of the procedures to be entrusted to a company or body under the institution in charge of implementing the project.
Under the amended Law on Territorial Planning, heads of municipal administrations will be in charge of organising the preparation and approval of land holding projects not only in towns and cities, but also in free economic zones and industrial parks.
The amendments to the Law on the Financing of Road Maintenance and Development Programme will allow for a more efficient allocation of funds under the Road Maintenance and Development Programme and their use for the development of the national and local road network. In addition, an increase in the Programme funding has been envisaged and a deadline for approving the Programme has been established.
The Seimas introduced an excise duty on raw tobacco. The purpose of this decision is to prevent abuses detected by the controlling authorities, where raw tobacco was used for manufacturing or sale of products made from illegally processed tobacco.
The Seimas approved the proposal to request the Commission for Coordination of Protection of Objects of Importance to Ensuring National Security to reassess the activities of UAB Revolut Bank and UAB Revolut Payments.
State Governance and Self-Governance
Amendments to the Law on the Management, Use and Disposal of State and Municipal Assets, adopted during the spring session, will improve the efficiency of management of state-owned immovable property. The new provisions will allow reducing roughly by half the size of immovable property owned by the state and used for administrative purposes and for accordingly reducing the expenditure on management and maintenance of such assets. It is expected that by 2020 all state-owned immovable property used for administrative purposes will be centrally managed.
The Seimas changed the rules on redistribution of personal income tax to municipalities by establishing a financial indicator intended for facilitation of business development. The parliament also provided for redistribution of the sum calculated on the basis of this indicator to municipalities. The new provisions are expected to encourage municipalities to improve the business environment in their regions.
Amendments to the Law on Public Administration require that the License and Permits Information System be used as from 1 November 2019 by all entities unaccountable to the Government that are in charge of issuing public administration licenses.
The Seimas adopted amendments to the Law on the Chief Official Ethics Commission intended to make the institution more effective, strengthen its role in counselling on ethics, and reinforce the mandate of the Commission and the role of heads of institutions.
The parliament endorsed the term in office of the Children’s Rights Ombudsman; created legal prerequisites for the provision of spiritual counselling services to civil servants employed as officers of statutory institutions; and endorsed the amended Law on Internal Control and Internal Audit which takes account of the need to establish the basic principles for enforcement, supervision and improvement of internal control.
Law and order
The adoption of constitutional amendments that legalised the individual constitutional complaint and enabled everyone to apply to the Constitutional Court starting from the autumn of 2019 was of key importance in the Seimas agenda during the spring session. The Seimas detailed the procedures for bringing an individual constitutional complaint before the Constitutional Court.
The amendments to the Law on Courts adopted at the session are intended to ensure faster investigation into cases, to contribute to the formation of a judiciary of high calibre and of good repute, and to increase the transparency of judge selection procedures. The new provisions will strengthen the independence and transparency of the judiciary.
The Seimas extended the application of non-custodial criminal liability for criminal offences (penalties, probation, penal and educational measures) and optimised the implementation of these measures in order to ensure effective resocialisation of prisoners and reduce recidivism. The Criminal Code provisions on life imprisonment have also been revised.
The Seimas authorised the registration of European political parties and European political foundations in Lithuania, broadened the range of persons entitled to secondary legal aid, and established liability for failure to comply with the prohibition to drive vehicles which are not equipped with an alcohol interlock.
The amended Law on Control of Weapons and Ammunition introduces new classification of weapons, weapon accessories, and ammunition as well as reinforces control of certain semi-automatic weapons.
National defence
The amendments to the Law on the Basics of National Security, adopted by the Seimas, regulate the prevention of threats to national security and set up the National Security Commission as an authority headed by the Prime Minister and tasked with the coordination of crisis management at the governmental level.
From 1 October 2019, the responsibility for the protection of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant under decommissioning will be transferred to the Public Security Service. The Seimas also decided to allow free of charge use of roads for large-size military transport vehicles of the Lithuanian National Armed Forces.
Health protection
The Seimas endorsed a new damage compensation system for patients, allowing them to obtain redress faster and more easily.
Amendments to the Law on Alcohol Control, with effect from 1 November 2019, prohibit the manufacture and sales of food products, toys and other goods designed to simulate alcoholic beverages and their containers and intended for children and adolescents.
The Seimas ratified the intergovernmental cooperation agreement between the Lithuanian and Latvian governments on the provision of ambulance services in border areas and endorsed the Health Support and Promotion Policy Guidelines.
Education, science and culture
The Seimas laid down the rules on the use of the flags of Lithuanian ethnographic regions, cities, towns, and villages, and flags of Lithuanian communities abroad. It also legalised the use of coats of arms of ethnographic regions and regulated the procedure for their use.
The parliament welcomed the proposal to launch the reorganisation of Šiauliai University by merging it with Vilnius University; reinforced administrative liability for fraud in academic writing; and allowed for transforming schools into gymnasiums in cases where children with special needs make up at least 15 % of the schoolchildren.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Lithuanian Charter, the Seimas recommended that the Government ensures the development and dissemination of the ideals under the Charter through the curricula of secondary and higher schools as well as ensures commemoration and greater public awareness of the role of this historical document.
The Seimas announced the year 2020 to be the year of School Communities, of Ethnic Art and UNESCO World Heritage in Lithuania, of Eugenija Šimkūnaitė, and of the Ateitis Federation (Ateitininkai). Based on the decision of the Seimas, July 6 became the Day of the National Anthem, August 2 became the Day of Remembrance of the Roma Genocide, and June 14 was announced as the day of commemoration of the blessed Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis.
International relations
The Seimas ratified the North Atlantic Treaty Protocol, which approved the accession of North Macedonia to NATO.
As to resolutions on international affairs, the Seimas adopted several of them during this period. One of the resolutions recognised the crimes committed by the Soviet Union against the Crimean Tatars in 1944 as an act of genocide and invited the international community to show solidarity with the Crimean Tatars and pursue the policy of non-recognition of the occupation and annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, which began in 2014. The second one, a resolution on the 450th anniversary of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, expressed the hope that the old traditions developed by the Commonwealth of the Two Nations in the domain of political identity and parliamentary culture would occupy an appropriate place in the history of the Lithuanian and Polish parliaments.
Other issues
The Seimas has marked the 15th anniversary of Lithuania’s EU membership, the Europe Day, the 15th anniversary of the Lithuanian membership of NATO, the 25th anniversary of the friendship between Lithuania and Poland, the 110th anniversary of Jonas Žemaitis codenamed Vytautas, and commemorated the signatories to the Act of Independence.
The Seimas heard the tenth state of the nation address by Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania, and the oath of the new President, Gitanas Nausėda. The Seimas also endorsed the new Prime Minister, Chief of Defence of the Republic of Lithuania, judges and other officials.
