The Lithuanian parliament decided on Thursday (18 of October 2018) to hold a referendum on dual citizenship next May, during the presidential elections.
The referendum will be held for two days, on May 12 and May 26 of 2019.
Currently, the Lithuanian Constitution stipulates that Lithuanian citizenship is acquired by birth or on other grounds established by law, and no one may be a citizen of Lithuania and another state at the same time, except in individual cases provided for by the law.
Lithuania’s legislators have been long pressured by Lithuanian society from abroad to ensure dual citizenship amid growing emigration.
Lithuanian Citizens will vote for the following text of the amendment to the Constitution:
Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania is acquired at birth and on other grounds established by the constitutional law.
A citizen of the Republic of Lithuania according to his origin who has acquired the citizenship of the state, which has been established by the constitutional law of the Republic of Lithuania, which meets the criteria of European and transatlantic integration chosen, does not lose citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania. In other cases, a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania may not be a citizen of another state, except for the exceptions provided by the constitutional law. The procedure for the acquisition and loss of citizenship is established by the constitutional law.
The criteria for the European and transatlantic integration of the states would be established in the constitutional Law on Citizenship.
These are good news for citizens of Lithuania who left Lithuania after the 11 of March 1990 to European Union or some other countries – in case of positive voting in referendum, they will be allowed to keep Lithuanian citizenship even if they get the citizenship of the other EU, NATO, OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) member. These changes if confirmed would come into force from 1 of January 2020.
This change will not influence the applicants – descendants who have the right to reinstate the Lithuanian citizenship under the existing exception (the ancestors of such applicants were citizens of Lithuania before 15 June of 1940 and had left Lithuania before 11 March 1990 or was exiled from the occupied Republic of Lithuania before 11 March 1990).