Later, in early March, the commission's conclusions, prepared in a hurry, will be submitted to the European Parliament. It is unclear whether the Seimas will have time to wait for these conclusions, as the LRT working group will finish its work in mid-February and the ruling party may call an extraordinary session.
Meetings are planned with both ruling and opposition representatives. The guests themselves wanted to talk separately. These talks are closed to journalists. The members of the Venice Commission delegation themselves also expressed this request.
The Venice Commission, or the European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body to the Council of Europe. It is composed of independent constitutional law experts from each country. The commission's opinion is only advisory, but it is considered quite significant, and efforts are made to follow its recommendations.
LRT itself approached the Venice Commission.
It has been asked to evaluate three legislative amendments: the already adopted budget freeze, the amendments registered by Nemuno Aušra to simplify the procedure for dismissing the LRT director, and the amendments narrowly rejected by the ruling party that also seek to change the grounds for dismissing the LRT administration.
The Venice Commission delegation consists of three rapporteurs: David Kaye from the US, Adele Matheson Mestad from Norway, and Tanja Kerševan from Slovenia. It also includes two secretariat staff members, Delphine Freymann and Mamuka Longurashvili.
The delegation, which will be visiting Lithuania for two days, plans to meet with Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė's advisors, the deputy minister of culture, the inspector of journalist ethics, the president of the supreme court, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, LRT management, the LRT Council, non-governmental organisations, and media experts.
The ruling party seeks to simplify the procedure for dismissing the LRT head.
They propose that the director general of the public broadcaster may be dismissed early by a secret vote of at least 7 of the 12 council members if the broadcaster's annual activity report is not approved or if the director general or their duties are improperly performed.
The current LRT law stipulates that the director general may be dismissed by a vote of no confidence, with an open ballot requiring the support of 8 of 12 council members, and that the grounds for dismissal must be in the public interest.
In December, the ruling parties failed to pass their amendments to the Seimas on an urgent basis, so a working group was set up to improve LRT's governance.
It must submit its proposals by February 14.