Ethnic minorities

Lithuania has not passed any amendments to worsen the conditions for ethnic minorities to study in their native language, Lithuania's Education and Science Minister Audronė Pitrėnienė has said in a letter to her Polish counterpart.

The Migration Board of Vilnius County Central Police Commissariat has refused to issue a passport with a letter w in the last name of a Lithuanian woman who married a Belgian and received a marriage certificate with the new last name.

Poland's Education Vice-Minister Eva Dudek was briefed in Vilnius on Thursday on the performance of Polish-speaking students in the Lithuanian-language examination.

The strike by teachers and pupils of ethnic minority schools is being fuelled by politicians of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA), a party drawing its electorate from Lithuania's Polish-speaking population, the country's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius says.

A group of citizens plan to propose to the country's parliament to adopt legal amendments allowing to write non-Lithuanian names of Lithuanian nationals on an additional passport page.

Poland's new President Andrzej Duda is going to Estonia for his first foreign visit and is later scheduled to visit Berlin, London and New York.

Before drafting a new program for preserving identity of ethnic minorities, the Lithuanian Culture Ministry plans to launch a survey of their situation.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius says that problems related to the Roma settlement in Vilnius cannot be solved only by police efforts, and a complex approach is needed because of the social nature of the problems.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė supports an initiative to set up a special fund or launch a special program for promoting development of the country's southeastern region to make use of the potential in the region densely populated by Lithuanian Poles.

Lithuania's Ministry of Education and Science has proposed some changes for curricula in ethnic minority schools.

Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius has no doubt that the original name spelling issue, postponed by the Seimas of Lithuania earlier in the day, will eventually be resolved. He adds that the issue is, first of all, important for the country's domestic, and not foreign policy.

The Lithuanian ruling coalition's political council has backed plans to allow original name spelling in ID documents. The bill is due to be put on the parliament's agenda later this week.

The Lithuanian Seimas' Legal Affairs Committee on Wednesday backed the use of Latin alphabet letters for the spelling of names and surnames of Lithuanian citizens in ID documents.

Representatives of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA), a party representing Lithuania's Polish-speaking community, as well as of education establishments on Monday held a protest outside the office of the Government of Lithuania, demanding to preserve ethnic minority schools, currentl...

Russia's aggression in Ukraine has exposed Lithuania's sloppiness in dealing with its own ethnic minorities. Research shows that, amidst media craze about the war in Ukraine, Lithuania's Russian-speaking citizens get increasingly often depicted as a domestic risk, while their alleged disloyalty to t...

Lithuania's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius stated on Wednesday that the ruling Social Democratic Party will submit a bill in May on allowing non-Lithuanian names to be spelled originally in Latin characters.

The “Fifth Column” is a term often used by Kremlin propaganda against political rivals and civil society, generating myths, and spreading mistrust and fear among citizens. European media, and especially officials in the EU, should be very clear about what they mean when using the term, if use it at ...

Minority literature studies have a long and diverse history. Since its establishment nearly 25 years ago in the Western academia as well as in the public discourse in the West, it has been accompanied by the critique of the Western Canon in light of liberal pluralism. This critique has led to many r...

In response to informational pressure of the Kremlin-supported media, the Lithuanian national broadcaster LRT plans new programs for Russian-speakers in Lithuania and hopes to launch a program focused on explaining sources of propaganda and its methods of working.

Poland should make an effort to ensure the rights of Lithuanian Poles, but also promote their involvement in Lithuania's statehood, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna has said.