Opposition questions costly plan to raise Lithuania’s birthrate

Lithuania’s opposition has criticised the ruling majority’s planned family policy package, saying it will be expensive and may not significantly increase the birthrate, LRT reported.

Liberal Movement leader Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen described the plan as generous but said some of its measures were poorly targeted.

“I am pleased that the Social Democrats are continuing the family package I presented. However, it seems to me that their package is considerably more expensive and less effective,” Čmilytė-Nielsen told the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament.

She also criticised the absence of an assisted fertilisation law that would allow single women and unmarried couples to have children. According to Čmilytė-Nielsen, an estimated 500 additional children would be born in Lithuania each year if such an opportunity were provided.

“One-off payments do not work. Some measures sound good but do not increase the birthrate,” she said, citing Poland and Hungary as examples where financially costly measures had failed to produce results.

Conservative leader Laurynas Kasčiūnas also called the proposed measures expensive and questioned how they would be funded. He said the state already needed 1.1 billion euros to service its debt and warned that abandoning fiscal discipline would lead to higher costs next year.

Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas said improving Lithuania’s demographic situation would require a combination of measures rather than a single solution.

“There is no one golden or silver bullet that can simply solve the problem,” Olekas said.

The ruling bloc has prepared a family support package that Social Security and Labour Minister Inga Ruginienė is due to present later on Thursday. Implementing the plan will eventually require nearly 770 million euros, although not all nine measures would take full effect next year.