Seimas – proposal to allow foreigners to work in the Lithuanian civil service – Respublika.lt

Such an initiative was registered by the liberal Andrius Bagdonas, and it was supported by the signatures of 9 other colleagues from his faction. Currently, in order to get a job in the civil service, it is mandatory to have citizenship and speak the state Lithuanian language according to the language proficiency categories established by the Government. It is proposed to reduce the requirements and also allow employment for citizens of EU and NATO countries if they can speak Lithuanian. True, the Seimas rejected the project after submission.

“In order to ensure that as many Lithuanians who have left Lithuania to live abroad return after gaining international experience and apply the acquired knowledge in the Lithuanian civil service, we must provide an opportunity to persons who have the citizenship of a member state of the European Union or a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, who know the Lithuanian language and who have passed the exam At level B, to work in the civil service”, the explanatory note of the project states.

Former chairman of the State Administration and Municipalities Committee of the Seimas Povilas URBŠYS shudder at such an initiative.

“Since long ago, the civil service has been related to the loyalty of the citizens who serve in it to the state, its nurturing and strengthening. After all, the sustainability and strength of the country depends on it. Citizenship has always been a guarantor of trust, allowing to work in the public service. Now the situation, both nationally and globally, is very unsustainable and dangerous. Hostile forces want to weaken Lithuania precisely through the civil service. Because its meaning in such cases is special. Therefore, it is incomprehensible why it is desired to open the gates as wide as possible to people who are not citizens of Lithuania – to crowd out persons who are neither related to Lithuania by oath, nor are their goals and intentions clear.

For example, Russia usually tries to recruit not Russians or Belarusians as agents, but immigrants from Western countries. Because even in the West there are different assessments of aggression towards another state. In principle, this initiative undermines the prestige of the civil service, reduces its reliability and may even cause unforeseen threats to the state”, P. Urbšys told “Vakaro žinia”.

According to him, the argument that it is necessary for emigrants to return to Lithuania is a complete “stretch”.

“What does Lithuanian citizenship do? If earlier it was an exclusive expression of connection with the state, now it is being made into some kind of nonsense. We want to regulate: if a person loses contact with the state for some reason of his own making, but returns to Lithuania, everything is supposed to be in order. He can even work in the civil service. Isn’t that a contradiction? Civil service is related precisely to your devotion to that country. How can one ignore the fact that a person has lost contact with the state? Maybe you have to restore that connection first? If there is a selection for the civil service and he participates in it without losing his citizenship, but the one who suddenly “remembered” his ties to the state has equal rights, is that right? One has paid taxes to Lithuania all his life, assumed all rights and responsibilities. And someone, somewhere else who paid taxes and, in the best case, health insurance tax, so that he could have his teeth fixed with us, he suddenly became an equal. He only used Lithuania to satisfy his needs. And he became equal to those who did not renounce Lithuania.” Borer.

The former politician sarcastically says that if citizens of several dozen NATO and EU countries can get a job in the civil service, the civil service should not even be renamed “state service” or “service”, because the word “service” means to serve, and the bureaucratic or managerial caste that maintains themselves from the state or municipal budgets.

“The civil service portal announces that civil servants rarely create material values, the object of work of most civil servants is information. Therefore, as I said: if we want to do a disservice to the state, if we want to give access to information important to the state not to citizens, but to anyone, then we really need to adopt such laws, and maybe Putin in the Kremlin will give someone a state award for that,” P .The driller.