"The budget will not be revised and I thank the prime minister for finding funds which the Government will be able to allocate without alternations to the budget. I believe the president and the prime minister have found financial resources," Grauziniene told journalists after the meeting with Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas and Chair of the National Security and Defence Committee Arturas Paulauskas.
According to the Seimas speaker, during the discussion compromise was reached on defensive spending and the number of soldiers.
"We believe that special attention has to be devoted to weaponry purchases and equipping soldiers so they can carry out military service. (...) As the speaker of the Seimas, I received a document from the President's Office regarding the State Defence Council requesting an opinion about legislation amendments proposed by the Ministry of National Defence on the number of soldiers. Therefore, we wanted to hear the minister's opinion, I also invited the chairman of the Committee on National Security and Defence. We discussed the issue and will submit several of our proposals," the parliament speaker spoke about the meeting.
When asked about defensive spending in 2015 the parliament speaker ensured that it will be strictly complied with the agreement signed by parliamentary parties on 29 March – On Strategic Guidelines of Foreign, Security and Defence Policies of the Republic of Lithuania for 2014-2020.
"We, the parties that signed the political agreement, are committed to strictly adhere to it. We will be waiting for calculations from the Ministry of National Defence on the amount of funding to be allocated in 2015," Grauziniene said.
As reported, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius had said that LTL 130 million (EUR 37.6 million) will be allocated for national defence yet this year without revising the budget.
