In the meeting with leaders of parliamentary groups of the Seimas, President of the Republic of Lithuania D. Grybauskaitė underlined that the state budget for 2010 would decide whether Lithuania would manage to overcome the economic downturn or, on the contrary, fall deeper into it, and urged all political forces to assume political responsibility.
In the meeting with leaders of parliamentary groups of the Seimas, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė underlined that the state budget for 2010 would decide whether Lithuania would manage to overcome the economic downturn or, on the contrary, fall deeper into it, and urged all political forces to assume political responsibility.
"All political forces are equally responsible for having Lithuania face the global crisis unprepared, without having built a financial reserve, and therefore both the ruling parties and the opposition have to accept the burden of responsibility and make sure that Lithuania has a state budget and a social security budget next year," President Dalia Grybauskaitė said.
Having noted that the deficit of 5 billion litas in the state budget meant more extensive borrowing and living at the cost of the future, the President warned that our children would have to pay tomorrow for our inability to cope today.
"I have said numerous times that we cannot increase our budget deficit because there is still room for saving in the state budget. If I see during budget hearings that the budget swells further and expenditure commitments grow, I will not agree to sign such a budget," the President said.
The Head of State said she would sign the next year's state and social security budget laws only provided that compensation for the planned next year's reduction of old-age pensions and social payments to the disabled is provided for in the social security budget law, and that the budget deficit is not increased.