SEIMAS OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA APPEAL TO THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE EUROPEA

SEIMAS OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA APPEAL TO THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGARDING THE STANDARDS OF POLITICAL ETHICS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS MEMBER STATES 19 April 2011 Vilnius The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, invoking the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Protocol on the Role of National Parliaments in the European Union and the Protocol on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality of the Treaty of European Union; observing the provisions of the treaties of the European Union stipulating that the European Parliament is composed of representatives of the European Union’s citizens and the underlying principle that Members of the European Parliament represent interests of all citizens of the European Union, but not exclusively the interests of their electors or a specific nation of the European Union or a national minority, as well as the provisions that every national of a Member State is a citizen of the European Union, however, citizenship of the Union is additional to and does not replace national citizenship; emphasising that every Member of the European Parliament, when exercising his mandate in the Member State where he was elected, has the same legal status as members of the parliament of the respective Member State (item 19 of the Preamble of the Statute for Members of the European Parliament), therefore, his rights and duties at the European Parliament are additional to and do not replace and deny his rights and duties in the Member State whose national he is; stating that the conduct of Members of the European Parliament is regulated by the Statute for Members of the European Parliament and the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament Article 9 whereof specifies that the conduct of Members of the European Union must be characterised by mutual respect, be based on the values and principles laid down in the basic texts on which the European Union is founded, respect the dignity of Parliament and not compromise the smooth conduct of parliamentary business or disturb the peace and quiet of any of Parliament’s premises; noting that neither the Statute for Members of the European Parliament, nor the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, nor other legislative acts of the European Union regulate principles of political ethics and the conformity of public conduct of Members of the European Parliament, other politicians of the Member States of the European Union to ethical standards and the principle of serving people, and lay down the procedure for exercising control of such conformity; indicating that the prevention of political corruption is related not only to activities of law enforcement bodies of the Member States of the European Union, but also to political ethics control authorities established in the Member States of the European Union and having the exclusive competence to evaluate the conduct of politicians from the ethical perspective, in the cases when an offence is not committed yet and such evaluations do not yet have legal consequences for to the politician who has violated the principles of ethics; also being convinced that the ethical control of Members of the European Parliament as well as other politicians having the legal immunity of the European Union and/or its Member States is equally necessary; drawing attention to the fact that the Republic of Lithuania has the valid Code of Conduct for State Politicians, approved by a law, pursuing the objective of implementing the constitutional principle that state institutions have to serve people, developing democratic governance, increasing public confidence in state and municipal institutions, promoting responsibility of state politicians and candidates for state politicians for their actions and their accountability to the public; also noting that the Code of Conduct for State Politicians applies also to Members of the European Parliament as politicians holding a special status in the Republic of Lithuania, to the extent that their actions are not regulated by legislative acts of the European Union; having regard to Decision of the European Parliament of 6 July 2010 on the request for defence of the immunity and privileges of Valdemar Tomaševski (2010/2047(IMM)), whereby the European Parliament calls on the European Commission to intervene with the Lithuanian authorities in order to enforce European Union law and, if necessary, to initiate a Union law infringement procedure under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and instructs the President of the European Parliament to immediately forward this decision and the report of its responsible committee to the Commission and to the relevant authorities of the Republic of Lithuania, because the independent institution evaluating the conduct of politicians, the Lithuanian Chief Official Ethics Commission, stated in decision No KS-4 of 22 January 2010 issued in compliance with the Code of Conduct for State Politicians that ‘the public behaviour of and course of action chosen by Valdemar Tomaševski as chair of a Lithuanian political party represented in parliament are disrespectful of the State and its citizens, are unfair and do not promote trust in the State and its institutions’; not supporting the justification of the abovementioned decision of the European Parliament that evaluation of conduct of Members of the European Parliament as state politicians in a Member State of the European Union limits their freedom and independence stipulated in Article 2 of the Statute for Members of the European Parliament and thus supposedly represents a breach of European Union law and possibly constitutes a denial of the principle of its precedence; invoking the principle of subsidiarity according to which in the areas of competence shared between the European Union and the Member States, national parliaments retain the right to adopt legislative acts to the extent that the institutions of the European Union have not exercised their competence (Article 4