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Mindaugas Sinkevičius, president of the Lithuanian Municipalities Association (LSA), criticizes the adopted amendment and says that he will ask the president to veto it.
69 deputies voted in favor of the reform to the Local Autonomy Law, which provides for the mandatory constitution of elders, against 15, 11 abstentions.
“This bill is very important for equal service provision in all municipalities. If the elderly were definitively established, the services would be closer to the neighbors and would meet their expectations, because now the elderly are mandatory according to the law, we would restore the equality of conditions by establishing the elderly
The liberal Eugenijus Gentvilas claimed that a study had been conducted in Klaipėda on the need for the elderly in the city, and then it was concluded that simply branches of some institutions that serve the population should be established.
“Another thing is to look at the European Charter of local self-government, so we are not dealing with the essential elements where second-level self-government should be legalized. We do not make the elderly a second-level self-government. The elderly still do not have a budget. They do not have elected institutions like a neighborhood council. Therefore, we are not solving anything basically with that law, “he said.
Social Democrat Algirdas Sys said no research has been conducted on whether the presence of the elderly improves access to services.
“It just came to our attention then. Research shows that the closer the government is to the people, the greater the trust of the people in the government, the greater the citizenship, the more actively people get involved in community activities.” said Guoda Burokienė, president of the Seimas Committee for Public Administration and Municipalities.
The president of the LSA described this amendment as excessive and restricted the rights and freedoms of self-government.
“From the parliament, from Vilnius, they want to regulate what structural subdivisions each municipal administration should have. Who needs that? On the other hand, it is not very surprising, because if we are already starting to regulate the issue of squares in municipalities, perhaps then it will be completely consistent, ”M. Sinkevičius told BNS.
According to him, despite politicians declaring that self-government and local communities know better what they need, in this case the opposite is done.
“It seems that the Seimas knows better what Visaginas, Neringa, Klaipeda, Alytus need, although I would think the exact opposite,” said M. Sinkevičius.
Klaipėda City Mayor Vytautas Grubliauskas said that the central government had previously heard his opposition to the mandatory establishment of the elderly.
Photo by Matas Baranauskas / Vytautas Grubliauskas
“This is another obvious disregard for the voice of self-government, mentioning everything to its narrow partisan interests,” the mayor said.
He told BNS that the port city had a nursing home, but it did not substantially improve the service to the population.
“As an alternative, we plan to establish population care centers in the southern and northern parts of the city. It could be like an alternative neighborhood without recruiting new people. The solution would have been like this, but now everything is changing under the scythe of the combine. and they are all the same: they need, they don’t need, they want, they don’t want, they fit, they don’t fit, ”said V. Grubliauskas.
More than 500 elderly people have been established in Lithuania, which do not exist in five municipalities: the cities of Alytus, Klaipėda and Panevėžys, and Neringa and Visaginas.
Last June, the Seimas began considering a bill on electoral elections to be chosen by secret ballot in direct elections for four years.
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