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According to the Legal Department of the Seimas, such a law may contradict the principle of equality of persons enshrined in article 29 of the Constitution. For his part, one of the promoters of the project, the farmer Aurelijus Veryga, considered that the proposed benefit should be extended to people suffering from complex chronic diseases.
At that time, Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys stated that such a proposal would open Pandora’s box, in addition, such considerations may generate unfavorable expectations for the population and encourage the postponement of vaccination.
A.Veryga: the benefit should not be limited to age
According to the Legal Department of Seimas, a law proposed by the peasants may contradict the Constitution, taking into account the principles of a rule of law and a harmonious civil society, it may contradict the principle of equality of persons enshrined in article 29 of the Constitution.
Former Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga, in response to comments from the Legal Department, argued that most of the measures are designed to protect the most vulnerable, the most vulnerable.
“We live in an extraordinary period. We see that, unfortunately, the situation with COVID-19 is not improving. In principle, all quarantine measures are usually applied to protect the most vulnerable members of society,” argued the parliamentarian during the meeting of the Public Order Commission.
“We believe that a measure has really worked that would encourage them to get vaccinated without coercion, without pressure, creating a certain economic incentive that other countries and other contexts have applied, such as flu vaccination,” added the farmer.
At that time, in response to the potentially violated principle of equality of citizens, A.Veryga affirmed that there is no equality in society in the sense of a coronavirus pandemic.
“It just came to our knowledge then combat The society of problems is not the same in a broad sense, older people are more at risk of suffering complications and dying, which means that their protection measures or incentives are more necessary than a young person ”, said the member of Seimas.
The only observation of the Legal Department with which A.Veryga would agree is that the award of that lump sum would not be limited solely to age.
“There is another group in society that is not included here: people who have complex chronic diseases, such as those who are immunosuppressed or who have complex cancer diseases. If we follow the logic of the high risk of complications and death from this infection, then that group should expand, ”said A. Veryga.
Farmer Agnė Širinskienė explained that the discrimination indicated in the Legal Department’s finding is positive discrimination.
“There are objective reasons why a group of older people is excluded, there would also be objective reasons to exclude people who have sufficiently serious diseases,” said A. Širinskienė.
According to her, after the state estimates how much resuscitation beds cost, it would be worth encouraging certain risk groups with a lump sum.
A. Dustys: let’s open Pandora’s box
At that time, Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys, evaluating A.Veryga’s proposal, stated that such a law would open Pandora’s box.
“It is very important at what stage such things are offered. Personally, I think this is a very debatable topic, because then we look at Pandora’s box. Then we can start to wonder if we should pay those who don’t want to go to the polls, or if we should still pay people for something. It is always about a sense of justice.
Today, when there is a pandemic, an extreme situation and when everything counts for hours, and each life has its price, there are certainly other aspects to that debate. Or maybe society can accept the fact that, we pay that price for being these people. would not killthat the public interest would be greater for them ”, – said A. Dulkys before the Government meeting.
At the same time, the minister stressed that both the positions and the opposition politicians must think about what they are talking about and what expectations they are creating for the people.
“Due to these growing doubts, we create additional legislation on some type of damage to vaccines, we will pay.” You will pay more. Opposition politicians must also think very responsibly about what we are talking about and the expectations we are creating, ”emphasized A. Dulkys.
During the Law & Order Committee meeting, the committee members agreed to take a break from examining the bill. Taking into account the comments of the Legal Department, the improved bill would return to the Seimas.
According to the bill, people aged 65 and over would be entitled to a lump sum of € 100 if they vaccinate one of the COVID-19 vaccines registered in the European Union under the full vaccination scheme after August 16, 2021.
Taking into account the number of people aged 65 years and over in Lithuania and the number of them not vaccinated, it is considered that the maximum amount required from the state budget in case absolutely all unvaccinated people of this age group were vaccinated would be 16,800,000 euros.
The bill is introduced by the members of the Seimas Aurelijus Veryga, Agnė Širinskienė, Aušrinė Norkienė, Deividas Labanavičius, Arvydas Nekrošius, Giedrius Surplys, Guoda Burokienė, Ligita Girskienė, Eugenijus Jovaiša, Dažišini.
