[ad_1]
He considers relevant the discussion about who should represent Lithuania in the EVS in recent months.
“I think these issues, that discussion is really relevant. The only strange thing is that for ten years the current leaders did not raise it, they did not see the problem, which is probably not sincere, because that problem has been there all the time”, the former prime minister told News Radio on Friday.
“I would really like the president and the prime minister to find a solution, because basically removing the prime minister from matters related to the economy, crisis management, is a great deficiency of the national government,” he said.
S. Skvernelis emphasized that the Prime Minister, the President and the Seimas must agree on who should participate in EVS meetings, as it gives a mandate to represent the country.
After Lithuania’s accession to the EU, both the president and the prime minister attended the summits for some time, but during the presidency of President Dalia Grybauskaitė, the tradition of the president attending the European Council was established.
The idea of President Gitan Nausėda being replaced by Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė at EU summits has been raised publicly in recent weeks by members of the Christian Democratic faction of the National-Lithuanian Union Matas Maldeikis and Jurgis Razma. They argue that the European Council is dominated by issues that fall within the government’s purview during a pandemic.
In an interview with BNS in November, Prime Minister I. Šimonytė said that she “sees no reason” to change Lithuania’s representation in the EU in the near future.
This week, the Head of Government considered that her participation in EVS meetings on some issues would be more practical than that of the incoming President G. Nausėda. But the prime minister says she is not asking for changes.
Asta Skaisgirytė, an adviser to President G. Nausėda on foreign policy, said that proposals by some members of the conservative Seimas faction to delegate the prime minister instead of the president at European Union summits were unconstitutional or took into account the practice established. .
According to her, this question began to be raised artificially after the Seimas elections to achieve the objectives of domestic politics, and the current procedure “works well and could continue to work.”
[ad_2]
