At the committee meeting, Širinskienė discussed with Dobrovolska

In response, A. Širinskienė reiterated that the rulers behave unethically by constantly blaming the bad work of the previous government, which has been in power for half a year.

Constitutional Court July 1 It should officially announce the resolution approved last year, which will declare unconstitutional the now approved Referendum Law on the adoption procedure. Therefore, at the committee meeting, A. Širinskienė, a member of LVŽS, asked when the ministry plans to register the respective project in the Seimas. The Minister of Justice replied that the draft had already been drawn up and that a broader debate was being prepared on the possibility of voting in online referenda.

“Today, the Ministry of Justice has already prepared a draft, which has been presented to the Government for approval. We see one of the two topics on which we would like a broader debate, because, as you know, the constitutional law means that its amendments are not so easy, ”said Ms Dobrovolska at the committee meeting.

According to the minister, the fact that parliament has not yet approved the Referendum Law should not cause any problems, as referendums are usually organized together with Seimas, municipal or presidential elections, which are not planned in the near future.

“Obviously, the most successful referendums are when we bring people together with the elections, as far as I know, there are no elections scheduled for this year,” said Dobrovolska.

However, A. Širinskienė was not satisfied with such a response from the Minister, as the Seimas could announce referendums in the near future. At the same time, the parliamentarian emphasized that the ministry has very little time to adopt the project.

“It just came to our knowledge then. We are not going to keep up with the in-depth discussions that are still being planned, because the admission process itself has specific deadlines that are already on the brink,” said the farmer.

The Minister of Justice responded to A. Širinskienė’s reply by recalling that Saulius Skvernelis could also prepare the new referendum bill.

“It is worth noting that the Constitutional Court ruled on this last year, the Ministry of Justice of the previous government had another autumn session,” reiterated E. Dobrovolska, noting once again that the ministry already has a draft prepared.

“If it was prepared and presented in the fall session last year, it was certainly possible, and it was not done. For our part, it is prepared and subject to coordination. It is obvious that the most important thing for us is to adopt an adequate and well-regulated law, ”said the Minister of Justice.

However, A. Širinskienė was not impressed by this answer and emphasized that, in her opinion, the rulers are behaving unethically, as they have been in power for half a year, but are constantly reminded of the work not done by the previous government.

“Minister, you are not in kindergarten, maybe stop hitting once others haven’t, basically you’re working for half a year and now you’re still hitting that someone didn’t do something that prevented you from preparing and presenting a project in January, February. ”- said the“ peasant ”, while emphasizing that the rulers must now assume responsibility for the work not done.

“Maybe someone did not do something in 1998, but apparently it is the responsibility of the current government,” replied A. Širinskienė.

The peasant also said that the ministry could have managed to register the Referendum Law if Ms. Dobrovolska had not participated in the drafting of the Hate Speech project, which she eventually withdrew.

“The new government, we see that it only presents itself in the language of the Hate of the Minister of Justice and then withdraws. In this case, apparently it was necessary not to participate in hate speech, but to establish the Referendum Law, ”A. Širinskienė said in reproach to the Minister of Justice at the committee meeting.

ELTA recalls that in 2020 In July 2018, the Constitutional Court (CC) ruled on 2018, a new version of the Referendum Law was adopted. According to the CC, according to the adoption procedure, the law is in conflict with the Constitution, since it had to be adopted as a constitutional law.

This judgment of the Constitutional Court will be officially published in the Registry of Legal Acts in 2021. Therefore, the Referendum Law in its current wording will remain in force until this date, and the Seimas must adopt the Constitutional Referendum Law.

As the CC points out, one of the ten constitutional laws included in the list of constitutional laws has been adopted by the Seimas so far, in 2014. November 6 Constitutional law on the implementation of the tax treaty.

The parliamentarians who went to the Constitutional Court then requested to evaluate the compliance of the Referendum Law with the new wording of paragraph 3 of article 69 of the Constitution, which establishes the procedure for the adoption of constitutional laws. The appeal was based on the fact that the law, which reformulated the Referendum Law, had to be passed as a constitutional law. In other words, the Referendum Law had to be passed with more than half of all Seimas members voting in favor.

In 2018, the new wording of this law was adopted applying the usual procedure for the adoption of legal acts: by majority vote of the members of the Seimas, by quorum.