The prime minister’s statement came after his meeting with the leadership of the Association of Local Authorities and mayors in Vilnius on Tuesday.
"The ministry is scheduled to start operating on 1 July 2026. By then, the necessary legislation will have been drafted in the autumn session of this year, and there will be a lot of it. If the political will is there and the Parliament adopts decisions, we will have six months for administrative matters," Paluckas told reporters on Tuesday in the Government.
The prime minister did not rule out that the Ministry of Regions could be located in one of the municipalities. Specific functions of the new institution should be regulated first, he added.
The new ministry’s funding will come from the budgets allocated to the existing institutions, according to Paluckas.
In September last year, President Gitanas Nausėda raised the idea of founding the Ministry of Regions which would take over shaping of regional policies from the Ministry of the Interior.
A few other ministries could also hand over some of their functions to the new body, enabling it to pursue national policies that meet regional expectations, Nausėda suggested back then.