Lithuania’s Ministry of Interior will ask the parliament, the Seimas, to extend the validity of foreigner’s passports from one to three years, BNS reports. The Lithuanian Migration Department (LMD) issues foreigner’s passports to foreign nationals with Lithuanian residency who are unable to obtain a travel document from their country of origin. The Belarusian government has…
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…
Lithuania risks losing millions of euros in EU funds if key reforms, including a tax reform, are not implemented, European Commission (EC) Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis warned, LRT reports. Dombrovskis will discuss the progress of the tax reform package with Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte and Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste in Vilnius on 7-8 September 2023. Dombrovskis…
Latvia’s Office for Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) has denied residency to around 80 Russian citizens following an assessment by the State Security Service (VDD), LSM reports. PMLP has referred over 13,000 residence permit applications to VDD for review. VDD has so far completed its assessment on around 7,000 of the applicants. Under amendments to…
Around 4,500 Russian citizens may be asked to leave Latvia as they have failed to renew their residence permits, LSM reports. The permanent residence permits of altogether 25,300 Russian nationals living in Latvia expired on 1 September 2023. About 19,000 of the Russians have applied or plan to apply for renewal, and a little over…
A public petition against the Estonian government’s planned car tax collected 65,565 signatures by its close on 31 August 2023, ERR reports. The Estonian Car Owners Association (EAOL) initiated the petition in the middle of July 2023. The number of signatures is the highest ever for public petitions on the Citizen Initiative Portal (Rahvaalgatus). The…
The Lithuanian government is unlikely to propose amendments to apply the same restrictions on Belarusian citizens as on Russian citizens, Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, announced, BNS reports. Speaking after a meeting of coalition parties, Cmilyte-Nielsen, who chairs the Lithuanian Liberal Movement (LLS), reiterated her position that the restrictions on Belarusians…
The financial intelligence units (FIU) of the Baltic States have conducted a first joint study of cash flows in the region, BNS reports. The study showed that the risks and vulnerabilities related to the flow of cash have changed in the region in 2019-2022. While there is a significant flow of cash from all three…