Lithuania’s ruling coalition has agreed to allow people to record their ethnicity in their identification documents if they request it. "It was decided that those who want to will be allowed to record their ethnicity in their passports,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius said after today’s meeting of the political council of the ruling party. According to him, it is not prohibited under international law.
Leader of the Lithuanian Parliament Loreta Graužinienė has stressed it will not be mandatory.
"We have agreed to provide an option to people; it would not be mandatory. But if some people want, they would have such an option and that would be realised in the passport. It is technically easy to do," Loreta Graužinienė said.
Leader of the Electoral Action of Poles of Lithuania Valdemaras Tomaševskis said this initiative has nothing to do with ethnic minorities.
“This is not our initiative. Petras Gražulis, a member of the parliamentary fraction Tvarka ir teisingumas (Eng. Order and Justice) has said that there are Lithuanian people who want to record their ethnicity. He explained that during the Soviet period they had such a right, but now they do not. This issue is not related with ethnic minorities,“ Valdemaras Tomaševskis said.
Info from Elta
Association „Global Gaze Network“
IBAN: CH9409000000161276571
BIC: POFICHBEXXX
(banko pavedimo mokestis toks pat, kaip darant pavedimą ir Lietuvoje)
Adresas: Brandschenkenstrasse 53
Miestas: Zürich
Pašto kodas: 8002
