Young people who have reached the age of 18, but not older than 23, will be called for compulsory military service.
By the way, soldiers volunteers will not be able to be members of the Seimas and municipal councils.
On Thursday Seimas adopted relevant amendments to the laws on conscription and the organization of the National Defense System and military service.
Now the law stipulates that young people between the ages of 19 and 26 can be called up for compulsory service.
The Minister of National Defense, Raimondas Karoblis, has previously mentioned that by advancing the age of conscripts, we want to disrupt civilian life as little as possible - so that those called to military service do not have to leave their families, jobs, businesses, etc.
According to the adopted amendment, the 26-year-old limit remains valid for those persons for whom military service was postponed due to higher education studies.
The provision that men and women between the ages of 18 and 38 can become conscript soldiers on a voluntary basis has also been left.
Representatives of the Ministry of National Defense and the army estimate that the list of potential conscripts would be shortened by approximately 90 as a result of the aforementioned changes. up to 60 thousand persons, therefore, to the final approximately 25 - 30 thousand every second young man of conscription age who does not study in higher education would enter the list.
Every year, 3,8 thousand people are called up for compulsory military service. - 4 thousand young people.
On Thursday, the Seimas also banned volunteer soldiers from being members of the Seimas and municipal councils.
It is stipulated that when a volunteer soldier or another soldier of voluntary non-permanent military service is elected as a member of the Seimas or a municipal council, the validity of the soldier's contract is considered to be suspended from the beginning of the politicians' powers.
The contract will be renewed the next day, after the politicians' powers have ended.
"It is to be hoped that before the next elections there will not be such misunderstandings as there were before these municipal elections", said conservative Andrius Kupčinskas, author of the amendment.
During the municipal elections held in March of this year, four military volunteers were elected to the municipal councils. The Chief Electoral Commission then decided that the Electoral Act did not prohibit them from administering the oath of councilor.
At that time, the Ministry of National Defense and the army take the position that the presence of a military volunteer in politics is incompatible according to the Constitution.
The military claims that the participation of politicians in the National Defense Volunteer Forces poses the risk of having a "paper army", as it will not be clear whether these individuals would report to the units in the event of mobilization.
The Constitution provides that persons performing actual military service cannot be members of municipal councils. Volunteer soldiers are considered part of the army according to other legislation.
According to the data of the Ministry of National Defense, slightly more than 5 thousand people serve in the volunteer forces of the National Defense. people.
Citizens of Lithuania between the ages of 18 and 60 can serve as volunteer soldiers. After a person becomes a volunteer soldier, he is sent to a three-week skills course, after which volunteer soldiers usually serve on weekends, participating in exercises for 20 to 50 days a year.
Author: Jūratė Skärytė
