“Vilnius City Municipality holds the position that learning the state language is one of the most important measures helping new residents from abroad to integrate into the capital,” the municipality said in a comment to BNS.
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“By learning the basics of the state language, more opportunities open up to more easily obtain not only public but also private services. Over time, due to stronger integration into the local community among foreigners who speak Lithuanian, satisfaction with the city and its services also grows,” she stated.
BNS wrote that Vilnius City Municipality announced last week that it will no longer accept residents’ requests and complaints in written Russian. Information in this and other non-EU languages will be provided verbally if a specific employee speaks them.
Russian has also been discontinued on the website and in the administration’s customer queue management system.
According to the capital’s mayor Valdas Benkunskas, this decision is part of the consistent policy implemented by the municipality.
Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius and the Democratic Party chairman Virginijus Sinkevičius questioned the reasons for this decision, while the Minister of Social Security and Labour Inga Ruginienė says such initiatives encourage division.
In turn, the Speaker of Parliament J. Olekas said that the capital needs to find a compromise to receive arriving Ukrainians and Belarusians in their language and expand opportunities to learn Lithuanian.
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The Belarusian Parents Association in Lithuania expressed support for the position of the Speaker of the Seimas.
“If the municipality communicates with Belarusians in their language, it should be Belarusian, not Russian,” the association wrote on Facebook this week.
“At the same time, Belarusian citizens living in Lithuania need to learn Lithuanian, especially children. We want them to speak Lithuanian fluently and become a full part of Lithuanian society. Therefore, it is important to expand opportunities to learn Belarusian while ensuring quality Lithuanian language learning. The Belarusian language helps to remain Belarusian. The Lithuanian language – to become part of Lithuanian society,” the statement reads.
The association also indicated that if needed, it is ready to help Vilnius free of charge to translate websites, forms, and information systems into Belarusian.
As BNS reported, the municipality also announced last week that it is expanding Lithuanian language learning opportunities for residents of foreign origin. This year, more than a thousand people are planned to be trained in free courses and remote learning, with an additional funding of 300,000 euros allocated for this.
Moreover, language clubs will start operating in the capital in the fall, regularly functioning in different parts of the city. By the end of this year, it is planned that foreigners living in Vilnius will be able to independently learn Lithuanian on a dedicated learning platform.
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