However, in a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the government stated that it supports the public’s right to know about individuals who, by collaborating with the special services of the former USSR, may have influenced the affairs of state, but who have not admitted to this and have not availed themselves of the protection guaranteed by law.
As the cabinet of ministers notes, the current law stipulates that details of covert collaboration with the KGB are published in the Register of Legal Acts if the person who collaborated covertly failed to come forward within six months of the start of the registration and confession process announced by the Commission for the Assessment of the Activities of Persons Who Collaborated Covertly with the Special Services of the former USSR, as well as if they have submitted knowingly false information about themselves, other persons or the activities of the special services, or have concealed such information.
„This means that if the commission establishes that a person secretly collaborated with the special services of the former USSR but failed to admit this within the time limit laid down by law, (...) it shall decide to publish this information in the Register of Legal Acts. The draft law proposes what the Act has already stipulated since it entered into force, namely that information on persons who have not made such a declaration must be published. In view of this, the regulation proposed in the draft law adds no value, the government’s resolution states.
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It also states that the draft law does not comply with the principles of legislative expediency and efficiency, which must be followed to create a unified, consistent, coherent, and effective legal system.
The bill initiated by Žemaitaitis proposes to disclose data on individuals who have been registered but have not made a confession and have been entered in the register. However, according to the government, the current law does not require entering them in the register.
„There is only a register of those who have confessed, in which only persons who secretly collaborated with the special services of the former USSR are entered, provided they have voluntarily confessed (...) and submitted all information known to them relating to the activities of the special services. This means that the draft law would create an obligation to provide information for which there is no existing obligation to collect,“ states the resolution adopted by the government.
Therefore, according to the cabinet of ministers, the amendments to the law initiated by Žemaitaitis do not comply with the principles of clarity and systematicity in law-making.
„In the absence of new data on the covert collaboration of individuals who have not acknowledged their affiliation with the Lithuanian state with the special services of the former USSR, the provision of the draft law stipulating that the aforementioned data is to be made public from 1 January 2026, from the point of view of feasibility, does not comply with the principles of clarity and systematicity in law-making, namely that the legal framework established in legislation must be logical and comprehensible, and that the provisions of legislation must be consistent with one another“, states the government.
ELTA recalls that on 10 June 2025, the Seimas began deliberating on Žemaitaitis’s proposal to disclose the identities of former KGB collaborators who had not come forward. After tabling the amendments, 79 members of the Seimas supported the law, with 8 voting against and 7 abstaining.
Žemaitaitis proposed regulating the legal status of those who have not come forward. The amendments stipulate that „information and data submitted by registered persons who have not come forward and who are included in the register shall be made public from 1 January 2026.“
Last December, the Seimas began deliberating on amendments to the law, also drafted by Žemaitaitis, proposing that the identities of former KGB collaborators be declassified from 2028.
Žemaitaitis proposes repealing the law, adopted as far back as 1999, which regulates the registration, confession, inclusion in the register and protection of those who have confessed to being former KGB collaborators. To prepare adequately for the implementation of such a decision, he proposed postponing its entry into force until 1 January 2028. This would mean that, upon the expiry of this deadline, the information and data submitted by those who have confessed to secret collaboration with the special services of the former USSR would no longer be regarded as state secrets and would be declassified in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Law on State and Service Secrets.
The Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence, which has already considered the draft, proposed rejecting it. However, the Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities decided to continue discussions behind closed doors.
In 2015, the Seimas adopted amendments to the law, under which it undertook to classify and safeguard for 75 years information provided by former secret KGB collaborators who had registered, confessed, and been entered on the register.
The current law stipulates that information about individuals who collaborated in secret shall be declassified and made public when a person holds, or stands as a candidate for, the office of president, Member of the Seimas, Member of the European Parliament, member of a municipal council, mayor, member of the government, judge or prosecutor.