The Lithuanian Education Employees Trade Union (LSDPS) started a teacher strike on 29 September 2023, LRT reports. The union expects around 3,000 teachers to join the strike. LSDPS chairman Andrius Navickas said that the strike could last about a month. Teachers will march on Vilnius and will hold a picket in front of the government…
Lithuanian footballers will not play against Russian teams, the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) stated, BNS reports. Earlier, the UEFA Executive Committee decided to readmit Russian youth teams to international competitions, while adult teams would remain disqualified until the end of the war in Ukraine. LFF president Edgaras Stankevicius said that the UEFA decision was “unexpected.”…
Latvia’s Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) has informed 3,541 Russian citizens that their Latvian residence permits expired on 2 September 2023, LSM reports. The persons have failed to submit applications to obtain long-term EU residence permits or retake language exams as required. The Russian nationals will therefore have to leave Latvia by 30…
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has added the old town of the western Latvian city of Kuldiga and the modernist architecture of Lithuania’s second-largest city, Kaunas, to the list of World Heritage Sites. Kuldiga sought the designation for more than 20 years, LSM reported. Parts of the city’s historical centre date back to the 13th century….
Teachers in Lithuania are staging a two-hour warning strike on 15 September 2023, BNS reports. The Lithuanian Education Employees Trade Union (LSDPS) expects around 5,000 teachers and other staff in 228 educational establishments to join the strike. The union demands a 20% increase in wages as of September 2023 and a further 30% rise from…
Lithuania plans to complete the construction of a National Concert Hall in Vilnius in 2030, the capital city’s mayor, Valdas Benkunskas, announced, BNS reports. Benkunskas expects a contract on the project to be signed in spring 2024. The Ministry of Culture estimated that the total cost of the project will amount to around EUR 121mn….
Lithuania had the highest suicide rate in the EU in 2020, according to Eurostat data, LSM reported. The number of suicides in Lithuania totalled 21.25 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, which was down from 33.38 in 2011. The suicide rate was 16.87 in Vilnius and the surrounding area. In central and western Lithuania, the suicide…
Sorting biodegradable waste will be mandatory in Latvia as of 1 January 2024, LSM reports. Currently, only around 25% of Latvian households sort their waste, according to a Norstat survey for waste management company Getlini EKO. The company has opened a website that allows residents to request that biowaste containers be placed at their address….
If Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda decides to veto the government’s bill on gender-neutral civil unions, it would cause an “international scandal,” Economy Minister Ausrine Armonaite, chairwoman of the liberal Freedom Party, stated, BNS reports. Speaking in an interview on Ziniu Radijas, Armonaite urged Nauseda to take a stronger position on “defending European values.” Nauseda has not…