Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas has commented on the decision by the Vilnius city administration to stop accepting written applications and complaints from residents in Russian. He said a possible compromise for the Lithuanian capital could be to communicate with Belarusians and Ukrainians in their respective languages.
“I believe that officially we should use the state language. But other nations are also part of communication, and there are more of their languages in Vilnius. First and foremost, I mean Ukrainians and Belarusians, who should not necessarily be forced to speak Russian. Apparently, we need to find a compromise for newcomers: a guest can be received in their own language.
But if a person plans to live or stay in Lithuania for a long time, it would be very advisable for them to learn the language”, he said on Ziniu radijas, LRT reports.
Olekas also noted that opportunities to learn Lithuanian should be expanded.
“From my conversations with people who fled the war and the regime, the opportunities to learn Lithuanian are far from always sufficient. But we have excellent examples of people who start speaking Lithuanian very well within a year or two. I think we should first and foremost strengthen this opportunity to learn the language and make it accessible to those arriving in our country”, the Parliament speaker said.
Earlier, Vilnius decided that information in the languages of countries outside the European Union would be provided orally if a particular employee speaks them. However, the acceptance of written complaints and applications in such languages will be discontinued. Russian has also been removed from the website and the customer queue management system of the administration. The decision was actively promoted by Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas.
