Nausėda backs defence and demographic priorities for autumn session

Lithuania’s autumn parliamentary session will focus on defence and demographic improvement, LRT reported after President Gitanas Nausėda met with the Seimas leadership.

Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas said faction leaders had discussed defence, demographic and social policy issues before the session. Nausėda said there was agreement on these areas.

He said the share of the budget allocated to defence would significantly exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product. Including defence-related spending, Lithuania’s total defence budget would amount to nearly 7 percent of GDP.

Lithuania has planned to allocate 5.38 percent of GDP, or about 4.8 billion euros, to defence this year. Nausėda said that if defence funding reached 4.9 billion euros next year, it would amount to about 5.25 percent of GDP under current economic growth forecasts.

The president said the key issue was how the funds were used, adding that people were closely monitoring whether the money was being spent meaningfully and contributing to the country’s resilience. He also highlighted the role of the Public Procurement Office in overseeing procurement by the Ministry of National Defence.

Nausėda said Lithuania could also move symbolically closer to creating a national commercial bank in the future by using funds held in current accounts as deposits through the National Development Bank.

He said Lithuania’s economic growth rate was remarkable and urged the government to stop discussing increases in excise duties and other taxes. Instead, he called for greater efforts to reduce the shadow economy and improve tax collection.

President proposes reducing electricity costs for some companies

Nausėda also said improving the competitiveness of Lithuanian businesses had become critically important. He proposed measures including temporarily reducing the electricity cost burden on large, energy-intensive companies.

Under his proposal, companies with installed capacity of at least 500 kilowatts and annual electricity consumption of 500,000 kilowatt-hours could receive an electricity price credit, allowing them to pay up to 30 percent less and repay the credit later.

Nausėda had planned to submit amendments during the Seimas spring session to allow energy-intensive companies to pay less for electricity and repay the debt later, when Lithuania is able to supply itself fully with electricity.