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On Brussels Street, President Nausėda has no mask, but among the leaders of other countries in the European Union, he must be careful. In Europe, the virus is still rampant, so presidents salute their elbows. For the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, they have met in Brussels to meet, until now they have met remotely.
Gypsies Nausėda seeks the greatest possible financial support for Lithuania here. Of the cohesion funds, the European Commission offers Lithuania € 6 billion.
PHOTO GALLERY. The battle for impressive support for Lithuania: greater benefits for the population are being negotiated
In addition, Brussels is preparing an additional 6 billion for Lithuania to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus, of which less than half will be a loan, so only one billion will have to be paid.
However, the President does not agree that cohesion support for Lithuania, as the richest country, is already a quarter smaller than in previous years.
“Reducing the Cohesion Fund by the current percentage is unacceptable. We have achieved intermediate results in this negotiation process. The depopulation argument was taken into account. We received almost an additional 200 million euros. However, this is an underestimation of what happened in the last decade, Lithuania has lost more than 10 percent of its inhabitants, “says President G. Nausėda.
The president is also seeking higher payments to farmers. Lithuanian farmers currently receive € 80 less per hectare than the EU average, so G. Nausėda demands at least € 26 more next year.
“We will target direct payments of 196 euros per hectare starting next year.”
Many people are happy with plans to receive 13 or even more billions of euros in European support in Lithuania for the next 7 years, but another stark reality is to starve. European money does not reduce poverty.
Although Lithuanians are getting richer on average, we have already outstripped Latvians, Poles and most other Eastern Europeans in terms of domestic product, but we are in the queue for poverty. So non-governmental actors demand that European support not only please employers and officials, but also reduce poverty and increase low wages.
“During the quarantine 10 percent. Of the population faced food shortages, 20 percent. Paying for housing. When some people think how dumb the profits will not be, some people think of how to make ends meet,” says Aistė Adomavičienė, Head of the Poverty Reduction Network.
“A stable economy must have a person with money in his pocket. If a person has money, he will consume more, it will put him in the economy. The desire to reduce wages is incomprehensible,” said Inga Ruginienė, the president of the unions.
Economists, meanwhile, are calling for European support not to be wasted, blocked or paved, but to be invested primarily in areas that will bring long-term benefits to the country and its people.
“It is not a border plaster that is not used for infrastructure, but to increase the country’s competitiveness, productivity, investments, jobs, investments in biotechnology. Almost anything can be done with that money,” says economist Nerijus Mačiulis. .
“The education sector is very important for Lithuania, investments in education and the labor market,” says economist Tadas Povilauskas.
“We see the risk that the funds will be invested, not absorbed, eaten. We have to determine the result, invest in problems,” says the representative of the State Audit Office, Jurgita Grebenkovienė.
In Brussels, President Nauseda called on European leaders to unanimously condemn Russia’s attempts to rewrite history. According to the President, a clear message must be sent to Russia that Moscow’s behavior is unacceptable and will affect EU-Russia relations.
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