"Our conclusion is that the Seimas has not yet exhausted all possibilities of discussing and adopting amendments to laws that would allow having citizenship of Lithuania and some foreign state without changing the Constitution," Regina Narušienė, a member of the commission, told a news conference on Friday.
She said the commission wanted parliament to postpone debates in connection to holding a referendum.
"We decided that there should be more discussions and more understanding, therefore, we're asking parliament to set up a task force that would include representatives of the Lithuanian World Community and experts so that we can understand better the essence of the problem, ways of solving it and search for ways of legal regulation that would enable Lithuanians who emigrated after March 11, 1990, to keep their Lithuanian citizenship, while accepting citizenship of another country," said Narušienė.
She maintains that it is possible to stipulate the institute of dual citizenship without amending the Constitution, although the Constitutional Court has ruled that cases of dual citizenship should exist as rare exceptions rather than a matter of course.
The Constitution of Lithuania says that "with the exception of individual cases provided for by law, no one may be a citizen of both the Republic of Lithuania and another state at the same time." Such an article is part of Chapter 1 which can be amended by referendum only and more than a half of voters have to vote in favor.
The parliament is already considering holding a referendum on dual citizenship in conjunction with the 2014 presidential election.
