referendum on dual citizenship

A public awareness campaign on May's dual citizenship referendum is kicking off in Lithuania on Tuesday.

A parliamentary panel on dual citizenship referendum in Lithuania has proposed including Euro-Atlantic safeguards to be enshrined in the country's Constitution.

Lithuania's citizens could decide on reduction of the number of parliamentarians together with the 2019 presidential elections and the referendum on dual citizenship, says Parliamentary Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis.

Lithuania cannot lower the minimum turnout threshold for a referendum on dual citizenship, but it can rally politicians and the public to ensure that such a plebiscite takes place, the chief advisor to President Dalia Grybauskaitė said on Tuesday.

The Lithuanian Constitutional Court has removed doubts that referendum is the only way of allowing dual citizenship, President Dalia Grybauskaitė said in comment of the Friday's ruling.

The existing provisions on dual citizenship limit the free movement of Lithuanian citizens in European Union (EU) countries, which bars full exercise of trans-Atlantic integration, conservative MP Žygimantas Pavilionis told the Constitutional Court on Tuesday.

If the Constitutional Court does not pave way for dual citizenship for Lithuanians who have left for other countries of the European Union (EU) and NATO, politicians will have the duty of holding a referendum on amendments to the country's main law, says Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis.

Some 60 percent of the Lithuanian population support the idea of allowing dual citizenship to emigrants of the new generation, while one in five is against the possibility, shows a poll conducted for BNS news agency by the market research company RAIT.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius has proposed considering fewer requirements for the referendum on dual citizenship.

Reducing the requirements for a referendum on dual citizenship would violate Constitutional law and the constitutional principles of harmony, legal statehood and responsible governance, according to the Lithuanian parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs.

The leader of the ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius, supports the idea of making an exception and lowering the threshold of the necessary number of votes in the planned referendum on dual citizenship.

The referendum on dual citizenship will probably have to be moved to a later date, most likely to coincide with the Lithuanian presidential elections in 2019, says Parliamentary Speaker Loreta Graužinienė. Lithuanian expatriate communities have criticized plans to hold the referendum this October.

The Seimas and Global Lithuanian's Commission will be meeting in the Seimas from Tuesday until Friday to discuss the opportunity to hold a mandatory referendum on the permission of dual citizenship.

The ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party has decided not to propose calling a referendum on dual citizenship to be held alongside parliamentary elections this October.

The World Lithuanian Community does not support plans for a referendum on dual citizenship this October because it is virtually impossible to achieve the required results with the current electoral laws governing the referendum, said Dalia Henke, World Lithuanians‘ Community Board chairwoman on Žini...

Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has appointed a task group to draft a bill on dual citizenship so that the issue could be put to a vote in a planned referendum this year.

The new citizenship law which allows for certain Lithuanians with special merit to hold dual citizenship with another country, cannot prevent subjectivity when it comes to decisions on allowing people to maintain or recover national citizenship, according to parliamentarians Stasys Šedbaras and Juli...

The Lithuanian parliament has endorsed a bill allowing Lithuanians who are born abroad to retain dual citizenship.

The Government of Lithuania on Wednesday backed an initiative by a group of lawmakers to call a referendum on dual citizenship alongside general elections next year. But the Cabinet also suggests a different formulation for the question to be put for the vote.