The Board of the Lithuanian parliament Seimas has decided to set up a working group to prepare for the referendum on legalising dual citizenships.
“The goal is to prepare for the referendum, work out the wording, and draw up an action plan in preparation for the referendum scheduled for 2024,” the Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen said at a Board meeting last week.
The Board has already asked the parliamentary groups to delegate their members to the working group.
The Seimas Commission and the Lithuanian World Community urged the parliament to set up such a group and start preparations for the referendum.
Lithuania plans to hold a referendum on a constitutional amendment to introduce multiple citizenships together with the presidential election in 2024.
The country held a similar referendum in May 2019, together with the presidential election, but the bid to amend Lithuanian Constitution to allow for dual citizenship failed.
Under the existing law, emigrants who left Lithuania after it restored independence on March 11, 1990, are currently not allowed to hold dual citizenship, with some exceptions.
The Constitutional Court has clarified that only a referendum to amend the Constitution can open the possibility for Lithuanians who acquired citizenship of other countries after independence to have dual citizenship.
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