The information was confirmed to the news agency ELTA by Paulius Žeimys, adviser to the justice minister for public relations. The lawsuit was filed by the Ministry of Justice.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the European Commission improperly calculated the unpaid amount of RRF aid and published the assessment methodology of indicators already after Lithuania submitted its first request for payment and approved the New Generation Lithuania Plan.
The ministry argues that the European Commission disregarded the sharing of competences between the EU and the member states, and denied Lithuania’s right to decide itself on the direction how the tax system should be improved.
Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė last week said at a conference discussing the New Generation Lithuania Plan that the EC withheld EUR 8.7 million because the tax reform that was submitted to parliament was not ambitious enough. Yet she believes that Lithuania had fulfilled its commitments.
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said that the dispute occurred over a different understanding on what the review of tax exemptions would mean. According to her, the Government understood that the goal was to propose to eliminate ineffective tax exemptions, while the EC expected a plan to be presented for eliminating the majority of tax exemptions.
Head of the European Commission’s office in Lithuania, Marius Vaščega, says that the EC deems reforms adopted by Lithuania to be insufficient.
Céline Gauer, head of the EC’s Recovery and Resilience Task Force who visited Lithuania, noted that Lithuania’s tax system does not contribute to reducing inequality.
As reported, Lithuania has received nearly EUR 1.36 billion from the RRF.
