July 2019 - January 2021

Lithuania is currently seeking to promote regional development and consolidation of local government structures in the context of public administration reform. According to the European Semester’s Country Report Lithuania 2019, Lithuania could benefit from “more interaction between national and local authorities, the social partners and civil society organisations through all stages of policy-making and implementation would improve involvement, ownership and democratic accountability. In particular, local authorities need to be better equipped for developing their integrated territorial development strategies and selecting operations, and to be assisted through the entire process”. At the request of the Government of Lithuania, the Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Good Governance is helping to address the above issues through implementation of the project “Delivering Good Governance in Lithuania”. The project is funded by the European Commission via the Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS). The project’s two main objectives are:

1. Provide policy advice on Regional Development and on the implementation of the Lithuanian Regional Policy White Paper 2017-2030, through the organisation of the Peer Review.

2. Capacity-building for local authorities, based on the relevant Council of Europe tools in the following areas:

  • Strengthen capacity of local authorities to develop inter-municipal cooperation, to deliver economies of scale and promote regional development based on European standards and on the Council of Europe Inter-municipal Cooperation Toolkit.
  • Improve citizen participation through development of local strategies for citizen participation, and in line with European Guidelines on civil participation.
  • Build institutional leadership skills of mayors and senior local officials, through the Leadership Academy Programme, which will include sessions on good governance, gender mainstreaming, civil participation, inter-municipal and cross-border cooperation.
  • Promote the Council of Europe’s Twelve Principles of Good Governance, through benchmarking and implementation of European Label of Governance Excellence.

Read the short narrative report to find out what we achieved together! >>