Agreement between Holy See and Lithuania on higher education
On Friday 8 June at the Government Palace in Vilnius the Holy See and the Republic
of Lithuania signed an Agreement on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher
Education. Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, apostolic nuncio to Lithuania, signed on behalf
of the Holy See, while Audronius Azubalis, minister for foreign affairs, signed for
Lithuania. The Agreement is in line with the 1997 Lisbon Convention, the various
goals of which include that of favouring reciprocal recognition of periods of study
and of qualifications in the field of higher education. Such recognition serves, among
other things, to facilitate the movement of students and free circulation in the ambit
of higher education within the region of Europe. Moreover, the Agreement is also in
line with the aims of the Bologna Process, which has created the European Higher Education
Area, currently involving forty-seven European countries, including the Holy See,
with the support of a number of international organisations. The current Agreement,
apart from defining the principal terms it uses and its field of application, establishes
rules, procedures and instruments to guarantee the recognition of higher education.
It completes the juridical framework of relations between the Holy See and the Republic
of Lithuania, which are already regulated by three Agreements signed on 5 May 2000.
They concern cooperation in the field of education and culture, juridical aspects
of relations between the Catholic Church and the State, and pastoral assistance to
Catholics in the armed forces. The current Agreement will enter into force on the
day the two parties announce they have completed the respective internal legal procedures.