Review of regulations on salary reduction for Members of the Seimas failing to attend parliamentary meetings is envisaged

Press release, 12 October 2016

The Seimas began deliberations on amendments to the Statute of the Seimas (draft No XIIP-4750) presented by Julius Sabatauskas, Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs of the Seimas. The amendments are aimed at revising regulation on salary reduction for Members of the Seimas failing to attend parliamentary meetings.

The draft envisages a reduction of monthly salary for a given month in the amount of 5 % for each Seimas sitting missed without a valid excuse, provided that voting on adoption of legislative acts had been planned in advance and was held in due time during the said sitting.

The new proposal also envisages establishing salary reduction procedures for failure to attend Committee and Commission meetings. In line with the draft, a monthly salary reduction shall apply in the amount of 5 % for each Committee and Commission meeting missed without a valid justification. It will apply to Members of the Seimas who are absent from meetings of Committees and Commissions of which they are members, provided that the meetings in question had been announced in advance.

Currently, under the Statute of the Seimas, Members of the Seimas are considered to have attended a parliamentary sitting if they register for more than half of the voting procedures on adoption of legislative acts planned in advance and held in due time and if they register for all the Seimas sittings of the day. Members of the Seimas are considered to have been present in the Seimas Committee or Commission meeting if they have signed on the minutes of the meeting.

A total of 52 Members of the Seimas voted in favour of the draft after its presentation with no votes against and 4 abstentions. The Seimas plans to renew deliberations on the matter at its sitting on 8 November 2016.

On 5 October 2016, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 151(1) of the Statute of the Seimas, in so far as under its legal regulation monthly remuneration cannot be reduced by more than one third to Members of the Seimas absent on a permanent basis and without a valid excuse from Seimas sittings and meetings of the Seimas Committees and other structural units, to which they are assigned in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Statute of the Seimas, is in conflict with Article 60(3) of the Constitution as well as with the constitutional principles of the rule of law and responsible governance.

Rimas Rudaitis, Senior Specialist, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]