The most significant events in Lithuania last week were the announcement by the Ministry of Health of a significant amount of stockpiled Covid-19 vaccine that has filled warehouses, as well as tackling the wave of border violations with a fence and a government loan of 750 million euros.
Municipalities are asked to take in migrants
On Monday, July 5, Lithuanian Minister of the Interior Agne Bilotaitė called on all Lithuanian municipalities to consider accommodating foreign border violators who have recently been entering Lithuania in large numbers from Belarus. The Minister noted that the Lithuanian authorities are considering the possibility of mobilizing military personnel in this regard. Bilotaite has said that she has commissioned to start building a tent site that could accommodate more than 1,000 people. Last Sunday, July 4, Lithuanian border guards detained 160 foreign border violators at the border, which is a one-day record in the current migrant crisis. So far this year, 1,098 people have been detained in Lithuania illegally from Belarus. That’s 12 more than in the whole of 2020.
Entrepreneurs point to labor shortages
Lithuanian entrepreneurs complain about labor shortages, as potential workers tend to receive state benefits instead of work, while workers complain about pressure from employers, heavy workload, refusal to give leave and insufficient pay, it told the Lithuanian Small and Dalia Matukienė, Chairman of the Council of Medium-sized Enterprises. According to her, the unemployed in Lithuania are more willing to receive government-paid support and work illegally. Matukiene has pointed out that more than 200,000 unemployed are registered with the Lithuanian Employment Service, while there is a shortage of about 40,000 employees in companies.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accredits Tihanovska and colleagues as the Democratic Mission of Belarus
On Monday, July 5, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted accreditation to the Democratic Mission of Belarus, thus granting official status to a group of colleagues of the Belarusian exile opposition leader Setlan Tihanovska working in Vilnius. The ministry described the accreditation as a symbolic step towards the legal recognition of Belarusian civil society and efforts to bring about democratic change in Belarus. The Ministry has also emphasized that the accredited group will not be considered as a state diplomatic mission with its usual rights and privileges. Former Presidential President of Belarus Tikhanovsky emigrated to Lithuania after the presidential elections in Belarus on August 9, 2020 and the recognition of long-term leader Alexander Lukashenko as the winner of the elections.
It seeks to reduce the asylum procedure to ten days
Lithuania is looking for opportunities to reduce the processing time of asylum applications to ten days, at a time when the number of foreign border offenders apprehended at the border is growing rapidly, said Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite at the beginning of last week. The official explained that the process is currently time consuming, as many people detained at the border do not have documents, they deliberately refuse to identify themselves and provide information about their country of origin. Possible improvements to the legal process are currently being discussed in negotiations with Greece. In parallel, Lithuanian delegations went to Iraq and Turkey this week to discuss the readmission of economic migrants from Lithuania.
Spent in Vilnius Ukrainian Reform Conference
From Wednesday, July 7, two days took place in Vilnius Ukrainian Reform Conference with the participation of senior officials of Ukraine and Lithuania. Among the delegates were the Prime Minister of Ukraine Dennis Shihal, the EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi, the Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasik, as well as representatives of the US Government and the NATO Military Alliance. In previous years Ukrainian Reform Conference occurred in London, Copenhagen and Toronto.
Lithuania expels Belarusian diplomats in response to leaving only one diplomat in Minsk
The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked to reduce the diplomatic staff of the Belarusian Embassy in Vilnius to one representative. The decision was made in response to the same desire of Belarus against Lithuanian diplomats in Minsk.
After the symbolic accreditation of Svetlana Tihanovska’s Belarusian Democratic Mission in Lithuania, Minsk has announced that it is asking Vilnius to reduce the diplomatic staff of the Lithuanian Embassy in Minsk to one representative and to do so by Sunday, July 11. The Belarusian side has stated that the reason is “systemically unfriendly behavior in gross violation of the friendly neighborhood agreement”.
In response to Minsk, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following statement on Wednesday, July 7: “By midnight on July 12, the diplomatic staff of the Belarusian Embassy in Lithuania must be reduced to one (consular) and no more than three embassy staff may remain. for the performance of administrative and technical functions. “
Ministry of Health freezers are full of Covid-19 vaccines
Representatives of the Emergency Situations Center of the Lithuanian Ministry of Health on Thursday, July 8, announced that all the center’s freezers have already been filled with Covid-19 vaccines. As a result, the center has reserved cold stores in other institutions, including Santaros clinics in Vilnius, Kaunas Hospital and elsewhere, where it is possible to store medicines. There are currently 749,300 unused coronavirus vaccines in Lithuania, according to Lithuanian statistics from the State Statistics Service.
Borrows 750 million euros abroad
Last Thursday, the Lithuanian state borrowed 750 million euros on the international capital markets by issuing a 30-year euro bond, the Ministry of Finance announced. Lithuania had previously issued eurobonds of the same maturity in 2017, 2019 and 2020. The bonds are issued with a yield of 0.889% and the issue price is 96.354% of the nominal value of the bonds. Settlement of the bond issue will take place on July 15, 2021. Eurobonds will expire on 15 July 2051. The transaction was organized by foreign banks Goldman Sachs a J. P. Morgan.
Lithuania is starting to build a fence along the Belarusian border
Lithuania on Friday, July 9, announced that it had started building a wire fence along the state border with Belarus, starting near the southern Lithuanian city of Druskininkai. The aim is to stop illegal border violations. As Giedrius Mišutis, a representative of the Lithuanian State Security Department, explained, the fence will be built along the 30 km long section of the Druskininkai border post. This year, most migrants have been detained in this part of the country, namely 512.
The President of Lithuania attends the Three Seas Initiative Summit
On Friday, 9 July, Lithuanian President Gitans Nausėda attended the sixth Summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Sofia, Bulgaria. The summit is dedicated to strengthening integration into the EU and closer transatlantic cooperation with the countries of the Adriatic, Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions, said the Chancellery of the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda. At the meeting, the President and other leaders, as well as officials from Germany, Greece and the European Commission, discussed geopolitical security issues, the recovery of the 3SI region after the Covid-19 pandemic and deeper EU integration, as well as issues related to transatlantic cooperation.
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