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The president of the Seimas, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, hoped that the amendments to the Statute of the Seimas, which provide for the possibility of teleworking for parliamentarians, will be adopted and receive more support than a week ago. According to her, the technical solutions would be ready in 3-4 weeks.
“It just came to our knowledge then <...> We could completely switch to telecommuting, ”said the Seimas Spokesperson.
According to V. Čmilytė-Nielsen, members of the Seimas are tested every week to make sure they are not infecting themselves or others. According to the head of the Seimas, there are no new diseases. However, according to V. Čmilytė-Nielsen, only about half of the Seimas members are being tested.
“I would like to once again appeal to the members and factions of the Seimas and urge them to carry out tests every week to ensure the proper functioning of the Seimas,” said the politician.
The candidacy of another vice president will be presented to the Seimas on Thursday. This is Jonas Jarutis, a representative of the peasant faction.
Appreciating the fact that today we are talking about the possibility of teleworking. And in this context, the role of the Seimas Board is growing even more, as the Seimas Board will be the institution that will make the decision on the transition to teleworking. It would be logical if on it (on the board – aut. Past.).
Another argument, of course, is that the green peasants cannot yet have their own opposition leader, since at the beginning of the Seimas’ work it seemed that it would be possible to do so quickly. This process gets stuck. I think the decision to provide their representative is logical enough again, ”said V. Čmilytė-Nielsen.
On Thursday, new amendments to the statute, which provide for the legalization of the work of remote parliament, will be presented to the Seimas. They were registered by the members of the Seimas Board and prepared by lawyers and specialists in information technology of the Seimas Chancellery.
According to the draft, the Seimas sessions would be organized remotely by decision of the Seimas Board when a state of emergency is declared, an emergency or quarantine is declared and “the work of the Seimas may be threatened. In the Seimas building ”.
It is envisaged that the identification of a member of the Seimas participating in a remote session must be guaranteed. When voting for a parliamentarian, an additional identity record and a photographic recording of the time of the vote would be required to be able to ensure that the Seimas member voted personally and that his true will was clearly expressed.
Additionally, remote sessions, such as live sessions, must be streamed on the Seimas website and their video and audio recordings must be preserved.
The amendments also stipulate that remote sessions are not possible when a closed session of the Seimas, the first session of a newly elected parliament, a session in which the president-elect, the prime minister, ministers, judges of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Lithuania, members of the Central Election Commission, other persons appointed to the position by the Seimas;
Parliamentarians also cannot work remotely when a secret ballot is required.
On Tuesday, the parliamentary leadership decided to use the Microsoft Teams platform to organize the remote work of the Seimas.
With the deterioration of the epidemiological situation and the new detection of COVID-19 among the members of the Seimas, the parliamentary leadership is looking for ways to guarantee the uninterrupted work of the Seimas.
Last week, a minimal amendment to the Seimas Statute was proposed to allow for remote debate in plenary, but the majority of MPs rejected the amendment.
The two-day Seimas sessions were canceled due to the coronavirus; the hiatus was taken from November 25 to December 3.
Six MPs infected with COVID-19 were previously reported.
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