Lithuania's Education Minister accuses Poles of being uncooperative in solving minority education issues

In Steponavičius' words, Poland wants Knut Vollebaek, high commissioner for national minority matters at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to be involved in the settlement of minority education issues in Lithuania and Poland. The Lithuanian minister said countries should settle bilateral matters without any outside interference.

"We see attempts on the Polish side to continue exerting certain pressure upon Lithuania in connection to the education policy of national minorities by including international organizations. At the same time, they have refused to admit to have had the same standards in national minority education which we are now gradually introducing," Steponavičius said.

In his words, Lithuania has also received an invitation from Vollebaek to solve the disagreement with Poland with his help.

"Lithuania's official position is that we are capable of solving the issue ourselves. We can take remarks of the international community into consideration, however, further consultations are not necessary," the minister told BNS on Tuesday.

Lithuanian-Polish relations have lately been tense amid disagreements over certain issues regarding ethnic minorities, including spelling of names of people and streets and education.

Lithuanians living in Poland have recently said they do not feel safe and called themselves hostages to Lithuanian-Polish relations.

Warsaw supports Polish politicians in Lithuania who call for for revocation of the amended Education Law and demand allowing Polish names to be spelled with Polish charecters in official documents.

The Lithuanian government has rejected criticism, saying that Lithuania's Poles enjoy the best opportunities to receive education in their native language outside Poland, and the new  Education  Law brings Lithuania closer to European and Polish standards.

The agreement to set up a two-country education experts team was made by Lithuanian and Polish prime ministers in Palanga last September. The group held five meetings, the last one taking place in late November.