Zigmantas Balčytis

Zigmantas Balčytis was born on 16 November 1953 in Juodžiai village, Žemaičių Naumiestis area, Šilutė district.

In 1971 Balčytis enrolled at Vilnius University’s Faculty of Finance and Accounting to study economic cybernetics, graduating in 1976 as an economist-mathematician.

He finished Žemaitkiemis eight-year school in 1968 and graduated from Šilutė First Secondary School in 1971.

Although Balčytis announced plans in early 2017 to step down from the European Parliament for a new international role, he repeatedly postponed his resignation as the project was delayed. In the end, the planned board never became operational, and Balčytis served out his full term as an MEP through 2019 before returning to Lithuanian politics.

In March 2017, Balčytis announced he would resign from his European Parliament seat to pursue an international career opportunity.

In 2017, Balčytis was invited to become a member of the board of a newly forming international organization that would evaluate credit rating agencies’ recommendations and IMF assessments for various countries, with monthly board meetings planned in New York.

As of mid-2017, he had repeatedly delayed resigning from his European Parliament seat because the new international board had not yet begun operations; Balčytis remained an MEP until 2019 while awaiting the project’s launch.

After the 2014 presidential election, the ruling Social Democratic Party (LSDP) put forward Balčytis as its nominee for Lithuania’s European Commissioner, though he was ultimately not appointed to the post.

From 1996 until his election to parliament in 2000, he was the first deputy general director of the Lithuanian-Hungarian joint venture “Lithun,” a major road construction materials company.

In 1994 he was appointed Deputy Governor of Vilnius County, dealing with financial, economic, land restitution and other issues.

In 1992, Balčytis became the director of the Vilnius Asphalt-Concrete Plant.

Between 1989 and 1991 he served as the administrative manager of trade unions (trade union affairs) and director of a training center.

He was Deputy Director of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic from 1984 to 1989.

From 1978 to 1984 he worked in the Komsomol (Communist Youth) organization in Lithuania.

His professional career began in 1976 at the Ministry of Food Industry’s Design and Construction Bureau.

He was one of the founding members of the Democrats “For Lithuania” Union (Demokratų sąjunga „Vardan Lietuvos“), established in January 2022.

In mid-2021, Balčytis briefly joined the Lithuanian Regions Party (which evolved from the LSDDP) and served as one of its vice-chairmen from July to October 2021.

After the Social Democratic Party (LSDP) decided to leave the ruling coalition in 2017, a breakaway faction founded the Social Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (LSDDP) on 13 April 2018. Balčytis joined this new party and later represented it in the Seimas.

In 2017, Balčytis was one of ten candidates in the election for the Chairperson of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP). He was nominated by party branches as a contender for the leadership, though he did not win (the post ultimately went to Gintautas Paluckas).

Zigmantas Balčytis served as a Member of the European Parliament for two consecutive terms, from 2009 to 2014 and from 2014 to 2017.

After winning election to the European Parliament in June 2009, Balčytis resigned from the Seimas in mid-2009, vacating his Šilalė–Šilutė constituency seat to take up his MEP position.

He also won a seat in the 2008 parliamentary elections (2008–2012 Seimas term) as a member of the Social Democratic Party.

In 2008–2009, during the 10th Seimas, Balčytis served as the leader (senior whip) of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party’s faction in parliament.

He led the Seimas delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2007–2008.

In 2006, after Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas resigned, Zigmantas Balčytis was appointed to temporarily serve as acting Prime Minister of Lithuania.

During that 2006 interim period, he also continued as Finance Minister and was the acting Minister of Social Security and Labour.

In 2005, he became a Deputy Chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), a post he held until he left the party in 2018.

Balčytis was Minister of Finance of Lithuania from May 2005 to May 2007.

He was re-elected as a Member of the Seimas for the 2004–2008 term from the same Šilalė–Šilutė constituency, this time nominated by the Social Democratic Party (LSDP).

He served as Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania from 5 July 2001 until 14 May 2005.

Balčytis was first elected to the Seimas (Parliament) in the 2000–2004 term, representing the Šilalė–Šilutė constituency (No. 33) as a candidate of the LDDP.

Balčytis became a member of the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party (LDDP) around 2000 and, after the LDDP merged with the Social Democratic Party (LSDP), he was considered an LSDP member from 2000. He also served as Deputy Chairman of the LSDP Finance Commission from 2001.

In 1994 Balčytis served as a member of the Vilnius City Municipal Council.

Balčytis was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SSKP) from 1984 to 1989, and of the independent Communist Party of Lithuania from 1989 to 1990.

In the 2020–2024 term, Balčytis was Chairman of the Seimas Audit Committee (from December 2020 until the end of the term).

He also served as a member of the Seimas Committee for the Future (Ateities komitetas) during 2020–2024.

Earlier in his career, he was a member of the Seimas National Security and Defence Committee in 2008–2009.

During the 2004–2008 Seimas term, Balčytis served on several committees: he was a member of the Economic Committee (2004–2006), the Budget and Finance Committee (2006–2008), and the European Affairs Committee (2008).

In his first term in parliament (2000–2004), he was a member of the Seimas Budget and Finance Committee.

In the first round of the 2024 parliamentary elections (held on 8 October 2024), Balčytis, running as a Democrats “For Lithuania” candidate in the Šilutė single-member constituency, finished second with 26.22% of the vote. He did not win the runoff, but since the Democrats party cleared the 5% threshold nationwide, Balčytis was elected to the Seimas via the party’s list.

He was again elected to the Seimas in 2024, this time via the national party list of the Democrats “For Lithuania” Union, after the party passed the electoral threshold.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, Balčytis was elected to the Seimas from the Šilutė single-member constituency (No. 32), running as a candidate of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Labour Party (LSDDP).

In the second round of the 2014 Lithuanian presidential election on 25 May 2014, Balčytis lost to incumbent President Dalia Grybauskaitė, receiving 40.14% of the vote to Grybauskaitė’s 57.87%.

He was the Social Democratic Party’s candidate in the 2014 Lithuanian presidential election. In the first round on May 11, 2014, Balčytis finished second with 13.63% of the vote, advancing to the runoff against incumbent Dalia Grybauskaitė.

In the 2008 Seimas elections, Balčytis ran as No. 6 on the Social Democratic Party’s national list. He received 13,867 preferential (reitingo) votes, retaining his 6th position on the list. This ensured that he obtained a seat in Parliament via the multi-member constituency, since the LSDP won enough votes for at least six list mandates.

Balčytis has consistently filed annual asset and income declarations as required. He is not among the richest Lithuanian politicians – for example, in mid-2020 the tax authority listed 121 public officials with over €1 million in assets, a group that did not include Balčytis. His declared wealth has grown gradually, largely reflecting his earnings (with higher savings accrued during his Brussels tenure).

As a Member of the European Parliament (2009–2017), Balčytis received a standard MEP salary – about €8,020 per month before tax (approx. €6,250 net after EU taxes). By contrast, as an MP in Lithuania (e.g. during 2020–2024), his take-home pay was around €2,183 per month, set to increase to roughly €3,781 from 2025 under a new law.

Zigmantas Balčytis has been awarded the Order for Merits to Lithuania (Komandoro kryžius – Commander's Cross) for his service to the state.

He has been honored with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Christ by the Republic of Portugal.

He received a commemorative badge for his personal service to Lithuania’s Trans-Atlantic integration, awarded on the occasion of the country’s invitation to join NATO.

Balčytis is married, and under Lithuanian law his spouse’s assets and income are declared alongside his. However, his official biographies do not publicize personal family details, and there is no indication that any family member holds unusual wealth or economic interests separate from his own public service income.

Zigmantas Balčytis is married to a woman named Severina and they have two children: a son, Donatas, and a daughter, Kamilė.