Lithuania’s ruling coalition will discuss the budget deficit, recording ethnicity in documents, and the return of land

Today the political council of the ruling parties is planning on discussing the country’s budget deficit, requirements to record ethnicity in Lithuanian documents, and issues related with the return of confsicated land.

On Thursday, after a meeting of the ruling coalition’s political council, leader of the party Tvarka ir teisingumas (Eng. Order and Justice) Rolandas Paksas suggested increasing the salaries of culture, education and social workers at the expense of the budget deficit.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has stated that the deficit would not be increased and that the missing funds will be sought by reviewing planned expenses or that the possibility of decreasing  the number of civil servants next year might also be considered.

The issue of returning land, which was raised by the Electoral Action of Poles of Lithuania, and a proposal by Mečislovas Zasčiurinskas, a member of the Lithuanian Labour Party, to record ethnicity in a person’s identification document will also be discussed during the meeting of the political council held in the Parliament today.

The Ministry of the Interior has suggested that the government would reject the proposal to record ethnicity in documents. The Ministry also rejected an analogous proposal two years ago,

explaining that the declaration of ethnic identity by making a certain record in a passport or identity card would be incompatible with the purpose of these documents.

Info by News Radio, ekspertai.eu