Disputes erupt in Lithuanian culture committee over remote meeting rules

A heated dispute broke out in Lithuania’s parliamentary Culture Committee on Wednesday as opposition lawmakers accused the committee chair of unilaterally deciding to hold a remote session, threatening to escalate the matter to ethics regulators, LRT reports.

Conservative MP Vytautas Juozapaitis criticised chair Kęstutis Vilkauskas for justifying the remote format by claiming no meeting rooms were available—despite the committee gathering in person in the Seimas building’s Room 218B. Juozapaitis urged members to reconvene in the chamber, warning that failure to follow parliamentary statutes could render the session invalid.

“The chair claimed there were no rooms. I won’t call him a liar—perhaps he was misinformed—but we are here in Room 218B, and I invite everyone to return and continue the meeting as the Seimas rules require,” Juozapaitis said. He noted that the opposition had already filed a complaint with the Seimas Ethics and Procedure Commission on Friday over alleged procedural violations but had yet to receive a response.

Vilkauskas defended the remote format, citing a packed schedule and the room’s later booking, arguing it would “avoid disruption” for members joining from workplaces. But opposition MP Vytautas Kernagis insisted they would proceed in person, even if it meant relocating to Vilkauskas’s office: “If someone removes us from our assigned room, we’ll come to your office—because we want to meet in person.”

The session focused on proposed amendments to the law governing Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT. Birutė Davidonytė, head of the Journalists’ Professional Association, claimed on Facebook that she was barred from joining the meeting despite her right to participate. She alleged that all microphones except the chair’s were muted, preventing debate, and accused the committee of rushing through hundreds of proposals “in a single day to keep the LRT bulldozer moving.”

Vilkauskas clarified that only lawmakers’ registered proposals were on Wednesday’s agenda, with public submissions deferred to a later session. He also suggested dissatisfied members could lodge their own ethics complaints.