Lietuvos Zinios daily writes that due to the planned cuts in the funding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs might close some 20 representations abroad.

According to the paper, unofficially, the ministry already planning to close down the consular offices in Spain’s Valencia, Kaliningrad’s Sovetsk and Poland’s Sejny. The Ministry also plans to close the Bonn office of Lithuania’s Embassy in Germany and the Belgrade-based diplomatic bureau of the embassy in Hungary.

The minister has redistributed a letter to its staff saying that “Alternatives moreover stipulate a revision of the ministry’s functions and departments and curtailing of the network of missions and employees (…). I would like to forewarn all diplomats and civil servants, especially those three or more years into their term, that in line with economizing measures they may have to be called back to the ministry much earlier than planned and the number of dismissed employees may surpass the usual figures”.

According to the Lithuanian media the Ministry of Finance has proposed to allocate twice less funds for the Foreign Ministry in comparison to this year, with 110 million litas provisioned in the draft budget. However, the ministry has asked for at almost 159 million litas.

Lietuvos zinios quoting the minister’s letter “Such a drastic cut in financing would undermine Lithuania’s capacity to protect the economic, political and consular interests of the citizens of Lithuania, the companies, organizations and the state alike. Foreign policy cannot be measured solely by accounting books, as otherwise we wouldn’t be members of either the European Union (EU) nor NATO”.

The Minister continues “We will aim to keep open embassies in capital cities as otherwise this could be detrimental to defending the interests of Lithuanian citizens and have negative political consequences on bipartite relations. However, we will keep just one or two people in office in some of the missions”.

Prime Minister Kubilius said during a press conference there is no need to dramatise the situation and that the Minister is only doing his job defending his ministry’s financial positions.