On Monday, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda appointed Arnoldas Pranckevičius as the country’s ambassador to the European Union.
Pranckevičius will assume the position on March 1. He has served as a deputy foreign minister since the incumbent government came into power in December 2020. Before that, he led the European Commission Representation in Lithuania for four years.
Earlier, he served as an adviser to former Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, as well as a diplomatic adviser to former European Parliament Presidents Jerzy Buzek and Martin Schulz.
The position of Lithuania’s EU ambassador has been vacant since August 2020 when Jovita Neliupšienė’s term expired.
With the president and the government long locked in a dispute over the candidacy, the embassy has until now been led by an acting permanent representative Simonas Šatūnas. He has recently announced his plans to assume the position of the head of the European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius’ office in March.
In Lithuania, ambassadors are appointed by the president upon the government’s nomination and approval of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The Lithuanian government decided on Monday to propose to Nausėda the candidacy of Pranckevičius to become the country's ambassador to the EU.
“With a heavy heart, I am nominating him. Despite the fact that Lithuania could have an extremely good representative in Brussels, the ministry is losing an extremely good deputy minister,” Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.
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