EU – Baltic States, Law and Regulations, Legislation, Lithuania, Society

Over two months, the group managed to collect 35,582 signatures of eligible voters out of the 50,000, the Central Electoral Commission said.

"The bill will not be submitted to the parliament for discussion due to the insufficient number of signatures of citizens," the commission said.

The group of citizens aimed to collect at least 50,000 signatures of eligible voters for the parliament to discuss their bill on invalidation of the Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners adopted by the Seimas on November 26 last year.

One of the members of the steering group, MP Zigmas Vaisvila, said the legal changes caused chaos in the state and set the illegal immigrants against Lithuanian citizens.

On Nov. 26 of 2015, the Lithuanian parliament legalized the possibility to relocate refugees to Lithuania from another EU member-state or a third country. Under the law, the relocation is conducted in cooperation with EU nations, third countries, EU institutions and international organizations.

Amid the refugee crisis in southern Europe, Lithuanian has pledged to take in 1,105 refugees from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea over two years.