“It will be a closed question where the rotation of this year’s ambassadors can be considered,” URK chairman conservative Žygymantas Pavilionis told BNS.
“We hope that the Seimas will also find support for the agreement reached between the institutions regarding the entire package of appointments of the Lithuanian diplomatic corps, and also resolve the cancellation of the decisions made following the VTEK by the ambassador in London, Eitvydas Bajarūnas,” Paulina Levickytė, advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said to BNS.
The Supreme Commission of Official Ethics has recognized that E. Bajarūnas and President Gitan Nausėda violated the law when they attended a musical in London at the expense of the state. Both the diplomat and G. Nausėda disagree with this.
The head of URK regretted that the process of appointing ambassadors took time, as a result of which new appointments are delayed.
“As you know, certain compromises have been reached, which we are happy regarding, but as I have repeatedly mentioned, they were reached late, knowing that even now when that stage is started in the parliament, their appointment will take at least two to three months, because the consents of foreign countries need to be obtained “, claimed Ž. Pavilion.
According to him, despite the fact that ambassadors will probably be appointed this time, it is necessary to adopt amendments to the law so that such situations do not recur in the future.
“Now we’re not just missing deadlines, we’re actually missing them in every case. This means that Lithuania, in a difficult geopolitical situation, is depriving itself of the opportunity to act in it, to react, to hear timely information that can protect the existence of Lithuania itself,” said the chairman of the URK.
He did not reveal how many ambassadorial candidates will be considered on Wednesday.
“We have never considered so many candidacies at the same time,” asserted Ž. Pavilion.
Due to disagreements between the Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the appointment of a total of 13 Lithuanian diplomats was frozen recently, including in Poland, but following three meetings between President Gitanas Nausėda and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielias Landsbergis in early March, it was announced that a solution had been found.
In order to avoid such situations in the future, two alternative amendments to the Diplomatic Service Law defining a more detailed procedure for appointing ambassadors have been registered in the Seimas.
Head of URK Ž. Pavilionis, together with a group of ruling and opposition democrats, proposes that the president be obliged to give reasons if he refuses to appoint a candidate submitted by the Government, with a ten-day deadline for this.
It is also proposed to include in the law that following the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organizes a selection for the vacated ambassador position, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, when submitting the candidacy of a diplomatic representative for consideration by the Seimas URC, should first coordinate the candidacy with the Prime Minister and inform the President regarding the submitted candidacy.
At that time, a group of opposition parliamentarians proposed to establish that the selection of diplomats is organized and carried out according to the procedure established by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but in special cases the candidate might be proposed by the president following assessing the individual’s exceptional qualities, taking into account the specifics of the foreign country to which the diplomat is appointed.
It would also be established that the minister of foreign affairs, when presenting the ambassador’s candidacy for consideration by the Seimas URK, should have coordinated it with the prime minister and the president, and the coordination process “starts and ends within a reasonable period of time.”
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2024-04-16 18:45:04
