The Lithuanian government seeks to have more direct flights to Germany, BNS reports. Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said that the more frequent flight connections would help German troops stationed in Lithuania. Also, Lithuania plans to open kindergartens and schools for the children of German soldiers, Anusauskas added. Lithuania’s defence chief, General Valdemaras Rupsys, said that…
A Lithuanian family who abducted their children from temporary foster care are linked to the so-called “sovereign citizen movement” (SovCits), according to the State Security Department (VSD), LRT reports. VSD said that the SovCits are guided by an “anti-state extremist ideology” that denies the legitimacy of the state. The children were taken into foster care…
The European Commission (EC) has criticised Estonia and Lithuania for failing to transpose an EU directive on the rights of child suspects properly into national legislation, BNS reports. The EC opened an infringement procedure by sending a formal notice for failure to transpose the EU directive on procedural safeguards for children suspected or accused of…
Lithuania’s Ministry of Justice has proposed amendments to a controversial law that protects minors from information about LGBT people, LRT reports. The ministry proposed removing a provision stipulating that “information that denigrates family values and promotes a different concept of marriage and family” than the one enshrined in the Constitution is harmful to minors. The…
Priority activities in Latvia’s welfare sector require budget funding of EUR 108.7mn in 2024, Welfare Minister Evika Silina stated, Baltic News Network reports. She noted that providing sufficient funding for the welfare sector was an investment into a “stable and well-off society.” Silina said that budget funding was needed for hospice care, child protection, support…
Estonia has almost 800 children living in orphanages out of a total of 3,000 children who are unable to grow up with their birth families for various reasons, ERR reports. Around 1,500 children are in foster care, 600 have been adopted, and a little over 150 are in temporary foster care. Maarja Kuldjärv, head of…
The first group of children from the Ukrainian town of Bucha, a scene of Russian war crimes, has arrived in Lithuania’s seaside resort of Palanga for summer vacation, The Baltic Times reports. Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte and Palanga mayor Sarunas Vaitkus welcomed the children and their accompanying adults. Simonyte wished the children "warm memories,…