Said / done. How diligently did the new Seimas keep his promise: “bake” laws or slow down their revolutions?

Due to the number of legal acts adopted and the urgency of criticism of the previous government, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė once did not skimp.

“The Seimas, however, has not been able to scale through the Estachannovian imagination of his work and continues to believe that the more he insists on the laws, the better for everyone. It seems to me that this crazy race, to name the classics, is one of our biggest problems.

This crazy race, to quote the classics, is one of our biggest problems.

We are threshing 500 notes during the session and we will probably throw in a similar number again now.

A law takes a few minutes, and no matter what the bill is, be it an increase in the fine from 100 to 120 euros or a tax reform, let’s remember the other fundamental reforms. All those packages were taken in a few weeks. And it is precisely these things that determine the future in the very long term “, – with the start of the spring session in March last year, the portal Lrt.lt commented I.Šimonytė.

Criticism of the previous government

I. Šimonytė also spoke about the “legislative fury” for which the “peasants” Seimas became famous.

“During the session, we write several hundred laws, we make mistakes and then we correct those mistakes. And then we are very happy that we are adopting so many of those laws that we can spend an average of seven minutes of discussion on a law.” interview 15 minutes commented Guide of the Union of the Lithuanian Christian Homeland-Democrat (TS-LKD) in the elections.

Following the elections, the newly formed rulers, the TS-LKD, the Liberal Movement and the Freedom Party, sought to improve the quality and reduce the reversal of legislation. signed in a coalition agreement.

“We will amend the Statute of the Seimas to ensure that legal acts are not carried out in a hurry.

We will adhere to the “less is more” principle, prioritizing quality over quantity, focusing on evaluating the impact of decisions and discussing projects with public groups and experts, “the parties promised.

V.Čmilytė-Nielsen: The Seimas activities are very intensive

Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, spokesperson for the Liberal Movement, while running for president of the Seimas, also agreed that Lithuania still has problems with high-quality legislation.

“Quality legislation is first and foremost a sign of mature parliamentarism. However, judging from the statistics, Seimas’ activities in the field of legislation, unlike other European Union countries, remain extremely intense in our country. A large number of bills are being rapidly registered and approved.

This leads to the fact that quantitative rather than qualitative indicators determine the criteria for evaluating the work of both an individual member of the Seimas and the entire parliament. That shouldn’t be the case, ”he said from the Seimas rostrum.

This time, V.Čmilytė-Nielsen suggested recalling the principle of convenience: “a draft legal act should be prepared and approved only in case the stated objective cannot be achieved in other ways.”

“The legislative process must limit the application of the rules of urgency and extreme urgency. This often leads to a poor quality result and, as a consequence, to the instability of the entire legal system.

To guarantee a fluid legislative process, more attention must be paid to the ex ante and, above all, qualitative analysis of the area to be regulated, ”said the politician and requested an active public consultation on changes to the law and the monitoring of existing legislation.

Few projects were registered, many were accepted in a hurry

Did the Seimas immediately heat up and start doing what it promised?

Partially.

The Seimas, which began its thirteenth term on November 13, recorded the fewest legal acts in its fall session since 1992: 181.

Of these, 14 were presented by the President, 36 by the Government and the rest by members of the Seimas.

However, the approval of legal acts did not demonstrate exclusivity: the Seimas approved 185 legal acts during the session, 91 of them, the law, and this is not the smallest number in the history of the Seimas of independent Lithuania.

This number is slightly lower than that of the “peasant” Seimas or of several previous Seimas, but higher, for example, than the result of the work of the Seimas during the period 2004-2008: 132 legal acts adopted during the session.

Quarterly session / I	Laws considered of special urgency	Laws considered with special urgency (% of all laws)
1992-1996 The mandate of the Seimas	6	19.4 proc.
1996-2000 The mandate of the Seimas	28	35.9 proc.
2000-2004 The mandate of the Seimas	60	51.7 proc.
2004-2008 The mandate of the Seimas	fifteen	36.6 proc.
2008-2012 The mandate of the Seimas	93	83.8 proc.
2012-2016 The mandate of the Seimas	42	44.2 proc.
2016-2020 The mandate of the Seimas	17	16.7 proc.
2020-2024 The mandate of the Seimas	1	1.1 proc.

It appears that the newly formed Seimas has taken into account the Constitutional Court’s interpretation that legal acts “only in exceptionally constitutionally justified cases” can be adopted with special urgency, thus only one law was passed during the session.

The Constitutional Court also held that laws can be approved urgently only in a special case to guarantee the public interest, when due to circumstances it is urgently necessary to establish a new regulation or modify the existing one.

The Seimas, which began its mandate as a matter of urgency, adopted a large number of legal acts – 30, while the Seimas for the period 2016-2020 at the same time – 17, the Seimas for the period 2012-2016 – 4, and the Seimas for the period 2008-2012 – 1.

Seimas spokesperson: there were reasons to apply urgency

Seimas spokesperson V.Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that this happened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Seimas welcomed the first session under special circumstances: the pandemic situation was a threat to public safety and the spread of the COVID-19 virus among Seimas members was out of control.

The Seimas began to prepare urgently for the remote sessions of the Seimas, security rules and additional partitions appeared in the plenary room of the Seimas, and in the discussion of the legal acts we focused on the projects that required attention, applying the urgency in cases individual.

The threat to the lives of the members of the Seimas and the continuity of the work of the Seimas in this case were the reasons for the sufficient urgency and caution in the Seimas Hall.

When liberals criticized those in power during the last period for over-applying urgency, we have consistently emphasized that both urgency and extreme urgency must have a clearly defined basis for law-making.

I am convinced that the threat to the lives of the Seimas members and the continuity of the Seimas work in this case were the reasons for sufficient urgency and caution in the Seimas Hall ”, said the Seimas Spokesperson in his response. 15 minutes delivered by your counselor.

The statute of the Seimas still not moved

V.Čmilytė-Nielsen assured that the desire of the Seimas to reduce the speed of work is maintained and, to achieve this, the Statute of the Seimas can be modified.

“The long-term goal of reducing the urgency of adopting legal acts remains both in the coalition agreement and on the Seimas agenda. To achieve this goal, amendments to the section of the Seimas Statute regulating the circumstances of the Seimas are possible. urgency and special urgency ”, said the President of Seimas.

However, these changes, at least in the near future, he says, will not be:

“We have started to discuss various possibilities in the coalition, but we are not yet close to decisions, so we will not include such amendments to the Statute of the Seimas in the work program of the spring session of the Seimas.”