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Dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to present to you today the report and the draft recommendation on local democracy in Lithuania, approved at the Monitoring Committee meeting on 28 June 2018. I would have liked making this presentation with my colleague Artur TORRES PEREIRA, but he left the Portuguese delegation of the Congress. He is with us this week as he will receive a medal as a Congress honorary member. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his work and commitment in this monitoring process.
I am glad that Mr Darius URBONAS, Vice-Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania is participating in our exchange of views after the adoption of the report.
Artur TORRES PEREIRA and I visited Lithuania from 23 to 24 January 2018, assisted by Professor Tania GROPPI as expert. As it is explained in the programme, we met there a wide-range of interlocutors and attended many fruitful meetings that gave us a clear understanding of the recent developments of local democracy in Lithuania. Let me deeply thank the Lithuanian delegation for their hospitality and a very warm welcome and the Permanent representation of Lithuania - for their support in organising the visit.
As you certainly know, Lithuania is a country with a tormented history: for centuries it has been torn apart by wars, occupation, and struggles for independence. This independence was finally painfully gained in 1991, my country – Iceland – being the first one to officially recognise it.
And since 1991 very impressive progress has been achieved by Lithuania in developing local democracy. It joined the Council of Europe in 1993, ratified the Charter in 1999 and became the 9th country to ratify its Additional Protocol in 2012, shortly after the latest Congress monitoring visit to Lithuania.
Overall, I would say that the present situation of local self-government in Lithuania deserves a positive assessment. The country has applied important efforts to improve this area since the last Congress monitoring visit in 2011. I am really glad to stress that many provisions of the Charter are fully respected and integrated within the national legislation. Let me mention just some of the most recent developments:
· the Additional Protocol was ratified,
· the principle of subsidiarity is now laid down in the legislation,
· the autonomy of municipalities has been extended and they now manage a substantial share of public affairs,
· local authorities and their association (ALAL) are regularly consulted by the government,
· the local budgets are slowly – but surely – recovering from the 2008 crisis,
· the implementation of new rules has increased the citizens’ participation in public decision-making at the local level,
· after more than 10 years of discussion, direct elections of mayors were introduced in 2014. All members of a municipal council are now directly elected. The first direct mayoral elections in Lithuania successfully took place in March 2015.
However, I would like to point out to some weaknesses which still require special attention of the national authorities, some of them having been already raised in the previous report. For the sake of clarity, I will try to group my concerns into three parts. This is not an exhaustive list and I will ask you to refer to the report for more detailed information.
First of all, we have observed that even though the legislation has been greatly amended to comply with the Charter, it is not yet fully implemented in practice and some practices really need to be reviewed. For example:
· Interference by State authorities within the municipal independent functions still undermines the autonomy of local authorities, and so do a heavy regulation and a too detailed description of municipalities’ functions which often limit the rights of municipalities to act autonomously.
· even though citizens’ participation has been increased in theory, the issue remains open as for the practical implementation given that Lithuanian municipalities are relatively bigger in size and population than their European counterparts.
I am also concerned about the financial autonomy of municipalities and their financial resources.
· In spite of a quick recovery from the financial crisis and the increase in the resources allocated to municipalities over the past few years, local finances are still not adequate in the light of the responsibilities of local governments.
· local authorities’ access to the national capital market remains quite limited, partly because of a Constitutional Law on the Implementation of the Fiscal Treaty. We understand that international engagements should be respected but we recommend introducing some mechanisms allowing municipalities to have a smooth access to the capital market for their investment expenditures, which is crucial for their development.
My third and final point is about the administrative structure of Lithuania.
· It is problematic that the capital city of Vilnius does not benefit from any special status, despite its administrative, political and economic importance. The capital is governed by general laws and regulations on local government. Moreover, it seems that granting a particular status to the capital is not being considered at the moment. I would strongly recommend to the Lithuanian authorities to (re)launch a debate on a particular status of Vilnius as a capital city.
· Another particularity of Lithuania is that it has no proper regional level of self-government. Instead, it has Regional Development Councils that have been assigned significant responsibilities since the last Congress monitoring visit. However, these Councils cannot be considered as genuine regions for they do not enjoy prerogatives of self-organisation, nor do they have a genuine competence to manage a substantial share of public affairs. We will follow with interest the on-going discussions on the possibility to establish a regional tier of local government in Lithuania.
However, despite those weaknesses that I have just mentioned, in my view, overall, the current situation of local democracy is positive and we can only encourage Lithuania to continue its efforts in this right direction.
I hope that you will adopt the draft recommendation and I remain of course at your disposal for any questions.
Thank you for your attention.