Lithuania's membership in the EU
Coordination of EU Affairs in Lithuania
Lithuania's Positions Regarding EU Issues
The Positions of the Republic of Lithuania regarding the Issues Discussed in the European Union
Preparation of the positions
EU deals with a wide range of questions and a newly adopted EU document is often related to several spheres. The Member State has to ensure fast and efficient cooperation among various state institutions in order to take into account the opinion and needs of all likely to be affected by the new law; it is also essential to assess the role played by the Parliament (Seimas), the Government, the President and different ministries in the process.
The preparation of positions is a process when an EU law project is being discussed nationally. A position is drawn up by responsible institutions in accordance with Lithuanian national interests, approved by the Government, forwarded to the Seimas and later sent to the Lithuanian representatives in the European Union. It is their aim to achieve that the acceptable provisions stay in the EU law project or are included into it.
The main role in co-ordinating the preparation of positions in Lithuania is played by the Government following a number of key principles:
- Ministerial responsibility for the preparation of the position and centralized supervision. This means that the positions under discussion in the EU institutions are drawn up, coordinated with other ministries and institutions as well as with social-economic partners by relevant organizations, ministries or state institutions responsible for their content, while the Office of the Government (often in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) supervises the discipline of the process and the quality of positions (the functions of the Office of the Government in EU affairs co-ordination are presented in more detail in the scheme).
- Early and active involvement in the EU law-making process. Lithuanian positions for all proposed EU laws must be prepared within 15 working days from the date of the submission of the proposal to the responsible Lithuanian institution. Later, when considering the document (in the meetings of COREPER, Council of European Union) positions are simply renewed.
- Two main forums are devoted for discussing the Lithuanian positions in the Government – the weekly meetings of the ministries’ state secretaries and Government meetings. If necessary, special co-ordination meetings on exceptionally important questions are held in the Office of the Government. Lithuanian positions regarding the issues discussed in the Council of European Union are presented by responsible ministers during the meetings of the parliamentary European Affairs Committee.
Documents
All documents received from the EU (the Commission) fall into five groups:
- Proposals of EU laws,
- Strategic documents (such as the Commission’s Green Papers),
- Agendas of various meetings,
- Reports of the meetings,
- Information documents of different order.
Not all questions discussed in the EU are of equal importance to Lithuania. Therefore, the Lithuanian Government has established the priorities of the EU membership that, accordingly, receive special attention.
Priorities
Issues of major importance to Lithuania are enumerated in the Lithuanian annual report of the most topical questions in EU politics that is renewed by the Government every year according to the agendas of the European Commission and Council and attempts to suggest possible Lithuanian position and a roadmap for further actions in each case. The Commission’s initiatives of EU laws may be considered topical or very topical if they are likely to cause significant changes in the status quo of a particular EU policy. Other set criteria are also taken into account:
- Issues that are important for the economic and social development of Lithuania, provision of welfare, and the implementation of foreign policy priorities;
- Issues that may cause undesirable political, economic or social consequences on the macroeconomic level or for separate interest groups;
- The implementation of the proposed decision may cause great difficulties to Lithuania;
- Issues that comprise sensitive areas to Lithuania where it is difficult to anticipate the impact of the initiative.
The Lithuanian system for co-ordinating the preparation of positions
The rules approved by the Lithuanian Government 29 April 2005 for co-ordinating EU affairs imply the below scheme (please click on the item in order to see the legend):
This scheme may be illustrated by a practical example describing how Lithuania made beneficial changes in the field of railway transport. The European Commission proposed several interrelated laws called the Third Railway Package. As depicted in the scheme, the project of the proposed law first arrived to the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania which afterwards forwarded it to the Seimas, the Department of European Law, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for information and consideration. It was also sent to the Ministry of Transport so that the Ministry would draw up the Lithuanian position in this respect.
Upon arrival of the proposal, the Ministry of Transport carried out an analysis of Lithuanian laws and international treaties as well as made a basic impact assessment (emphasizing the possible negative and positive aspects of the proposed EU law implementation). On the grounds of this assessment Lithuanian position was formulated: some of the proposed provisions should be changed so as to comply better with Lithuanian interests, namely so that they would be more favourable to the unique situation of Lithuania as a transit country between Russia and Kaliningrad region. As seen from the scheme, the prepared position was co-ordinated with other institutions (in this case – National Railway Inspection, Ministries of Health, Social Security and Labour, Finance and other line ministries), then it was approved at the Government meeting and on the grounds of this position Lithuanian representatives introduced significant and beneficial changes into the project.
Provided in the diagram below, there is some data about the documents received by Lithuania from the EU and the national positions drawn up regarding these documents. As one can see, there is a vast flow of documents – on average almost 100 documents are received from the EU institutions every day. The proper management of incoming information amounts to a considerable load for the Lithuanian Government as well as to the governments of other smaller EU states.
EU documents received by Lithuania and positions prepared 2004-2006
The management of the flow of documents is supported by a special information system of the Lithuanian membership in the EU – LINESIS. It is designed to register and administer EU documents, to work with Lithuanian positions, and to co-ordinate the transfer of EU law into Lithuanian national legislation. In terms of its capacity LINESIS is an EU-wide unique totality of organization, telecommunications and programme measures and databases.
EU affairs and civil society
Efforts are made so that the voice of all parties concerned is heard and the process of European policy formation and implementation is transparent, effective and democratic. Therefore, there exists a ‘mirror’ version of LINESIS designed for the social-economic partners. Public information related to the received EU documents and Lithuanian positions is announced in this information system. Thus the partners can see the documents and what institutions are responsible for drawing up the Lithuanian position; they may contact the appropriate ministries and other institutions in order to cooperate or to influence the development of the position.
According to the institution survey carried out by the Office of the Government in 2005, the closest cooperation with social and economic partners takes place in the fields of social security and labour, the common market, environment, internal affairs, agriculture, and cultural policy. Many ministries not only involve their social and economic partners into the appropriate working groups, but also present particular questions of the EU agenda in specialized events. The most active participants in the EU working groups are associated business structures and trade unions, for instance, Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, Lithuanian Business Employers’ Confederation, Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation, Lithuanian Trade Union “Solidarity”, Lithuanian Labour Federation etc.
