Petition on language rights of Poles in Lithuania in the radar of EP

On the 4^th of May a meeting of Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament has been held, considering petition of Tomasz Snarski No 0358/2011 from 31^st of March 2011, about language rights of Poles living in Lithuania, being supported by EFHR.

The first examination of petition took place on the 24^th of April 2012 and despite the objections of Lithuania the case is pending.

On the 17^th of December 2013 the Commission of Petitions of the European Parliament Representative wrote an official letter to Lithuanian government asking to tell their opinion about issues listed in the letter. A very general and elusive answer has been sent on the 5^th of March 2015.

‘It is very important, that EP has decided to indicate the petition as an example of cases protecting human rights. It means that problems of Poles living in Lithuania have been rated as an essential matter, that needs to be solved for the spirit of standards of protecting fundamental rights of EU citizens. Lithuania being a member of EU should fight language discrimination’ – highlighted Tomasz Snarski.

EFHR has been created as a response to growth of human rights offenses and it has issued not one petition on national minorities rights in Lithuania. Foundation hopes that international pressure improves the situation of national minorities inhabiting Lithuania.