Dr. Capitolina Diaz (left) of the Spanish government congratulates Lithuania on the opening of the center as Langbakk (center) and Svensson (right) look on. Photo by Ray Vyšniauskas/Baltic Reports

VILNIUS — Lithuania opened its first European Union institute when it officially unveiled on Monday in the capital city of Vilnius.

The European Institute of Gender Equality placement in Vilnius was announced last year, but only now is ready to be opened after finding staff and a location on Švitrigailos Street. The institute will be a research center for the European Union on gender equality issues including women’s rights in the workplace, but life expectancy and gender pay gap issues.

“There is a lot of work to do with gender equality — we all live in states in the EU where there is not gender equality. This is an institute that can improve the situation,” Eva-Britt Svensson, chair of European Parliament Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, told reporters at a press conference during the opening.

Svensson said that it is going to be hard, but the institute needs to get the ball rolling for EU-wide policies to be implemented.

“I am optimistic. Of course, I know all the difficulties. It is easy to make strategies and programs and so on, but its not so easy to implement these thigns in 27 member states. But we believe its possible, because otherwise we couldn’t work. We need to believe its possible. We need to put all the forces together. We have all the experience from women’s organizations and others. I want to work closely with them all,” Svensson said.

Svensson cited the example of her native Sweden as proof that the insitute can do its work. In the country, various organizations have banded together to create a concerted effort.

“We have had strong women’s organizations in close cooperation. We need them in the national parliaments, the EU parliament, the European Commission and the institute in Vilnius. I think we can do a lot of things and I hope we can say that we can say we live in a society that looks after both men and women. We are looking forward to this. It is possible,” Svensson said.

Virginija Langbaak, director of the institute acknowledged that a lot of the work will be done with children, who will be invited to come and use information from the institute directly.

“People form their core attitudes before they are six or seven, so young people are very important – young people are of course in our target audience,” Langbaak said.

Langbakk was reluctant to answer questions about the issues surrounding the institute because they hadn’t yet gathered enough information to make policy recommendations. One issue they’ll be likely to take on is the gender pay gap, a problem Brussels has highlighted in the Baltic states.

Between 2007 and 2013, the institute has a budget of €52.5 million.

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