VILNIUS — Lithuania’s justice minister Remigijus Šimašius informed the media on Tuesday that the Seimas will not be revisiting the spelling law issue for the foreseeable future.

The law has upset ethnic Poles who want to write their name using Latin letters not in the alphabet. Shortly before the death of former Polish President Lech Kaczyński, the Seimas voted down the spelling reform bill. Just days before the [private_supervisor]plane crash that took his life, Kaczyński said the issue was hindering progress between Poland and Lithuania. The two countries are expected to cooperate on a number of levels including energy supply, one of the biggest issues facing Lithuania today as it transitions from its Soviet-era electric grid and dependence on the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, but this could have happened years earlier if more effort had been made toward cooperation. Lithuania is currently in the process of building a cable to Sweden, which should be complete by 2016, even though this is more expensive and logistically difficult than a simple overland connection with Poland. A Polish-Lithuanian connection has been planned since 2000 but has become stalled.

Nevertheless, the Lithuanian parliament sees allowing the foreign alphabetic characters as too much of a threat to the integrity of the Lithuanian language, echoing past attempts of Russification under the Tsarist and Soviet empires and Polonization during the interwar years in Lithuania.

“During the meeting it was more or less agreed that the government remains at its position and regrets that the proposed amendments were not approved by the Seimas. In the near future this question will not be discussed,” the justice minister’s spokeswoman Vaida Vincevičiūtė told the Baltic News Service.

Around 200,000 ethnic Poles live in Lithuania and have to spell their names using approximations in sound and spelling because of the law saying that only Lithuanian alphabetic characters can be used on official documents. [/private_supervisor] [private_subscription 1 month]plane crash that took his life, Kaczyński said the issue was hindering progress between Poland and Lithuania. The two countries are expected to cooperate on a number of levels including energy supply, one of the biggest issues facing Lithuania today as it transitions from its Soviet-era electric grid and dependence on the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, but this could have happened years earlier if more effort had been made toward cooperation. Lithuania is currently in the process of building a cable to Sweden, which should be complete by 2016, even though this is more expensive and logistically difficult than a simple overland connection with Poland. A Polish-Lithuanian connection has been planned since 2000 but has become stalled.

Nevertheless, the Lithuanian parliament sees allowing the foreign alphabetic characters as too much of a threat to the integrity of the Lithuanian language, echoing past attempts of Russification under the Tsarist and Soviet empires and Polonization during the interwar years in Lithuania.

“During the meeting it was more or less agreed that the government remains at its position and regrets that the proposed amendments were not approved by the Seimas. In the near future this question will not be discussed,” the justice minister’s spokeswoman Vaida Vincevičiūtė told the Baltic News Service.

Around 200,000 ethnic Poles live in Lithuania and have to spell their names using approximations in sound and spelling because of the law saying that only Lithuanian alphabetic characters can be used on official documents. [/private_subscription 1 month] [private_subscription 4 months]plane crash that took his life, Kaczyński said the issue was hindering progress between Poland and Lithuania. The two countries are expected to cooperate on a number of levels including energy supply, one of the biggest issues facing Lithuania today as it transitions from its Soviet-era electric grid and dependence on the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, but this could have happened years earlier if more effort had been made toward cooperation. Lithuania is currently in the process of building a cable to Sweden, which should be complete by 2016, even though this is more expensive and logistically difficult than a simple overland connection with Poland. A Polish-Lithuanian connection has been planned since 2000 but has become stalled.

Nevertheless, the Lithuanian parliament sees allowing the foreign alphabetic characters as too much of a threat to the integrity of the Lithuanian language, echoing past attempts of Russification under the Tsarist and Soviet empires and Polonization during the interwar years in Lithuania.

“During the meeting it was more or less agreed that the government remains at its position and regrets that the proposed amendments were not approved by the Seimas. In the near future this question will not be discussed,” the justice minister’s spokeswoman Vaida Vincevičiūtė told the Baltic News Service.

Around 200,000 ethnic Poles live in Lithuania and have to spell their names using approximations in sound and spelling because of the law saying that only Lithuanian alphabetic characters can be used on official documents. [/private_subscription 4 months] [private_subscription 1 year]plane crash that took his life, Kaczyński said the issue was hindering progress between Poland and Lithuania. The two countries are expected to cooperate on a number of levels including energy supply, one of the biggest issues facing Lithuania today as it transitions from its Soviet-era electric grid and dependence on the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, but this could have happened years earlier if more effort had been made toward cooperation. Lithuania is currently in the process of building a cable to Sweden, which should be complete by 2016, even though this is more expensive and logistically difficult than a simple overland connection with Poland. A Polish-Lithuanian connection has been planned since 2000 but has become stalled.

Nevertheless, the Lithuanian parliament sees allowing the foreign alphabetic characters as too much of a threat to the integrity of the Lithuanian language, echoing past attempts of Russification under the Tsarist and Soviet empires and Polonization during the interwar years in Lithuania.

“During the meeting it was more or less agreed that the government remains at its position and regrets that the proposed amendments were not approved by the Seimas. In the near future this question will not be discussed,” the justice minister’s spokeswoman Vaida Vincevičiūtė told the Baltic News Service.

Around 200,000 ethnic Poles live in Lithuania and have to spell their names using approximations in sound and spelling because of the law saying that only Lithuanian alphabetic characters can be used on official documents. [/private_subscription 1 year]

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