The Joint Council of Europe - European Union Project “Delivering Good Governance in Lithuania” is due to end on 25 January 2021. A closing conference will be organised on 19 January, online, to present the results to the stakeholders.

Despite COVID-19-related restrictions, all the planned activities of the project were implemented and some important results were achieved. Notably, with the help of the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance, the Law on Regional Development in Lithuania was developed in line with Council of Europe standards and recommendations and was adopted by Parliament. The institutional capacities of participating local authorities to deliver good governance were strengthened through implementation of the Centre of Expertise tools on Civil Participation in Decision-Making, Leadership Academy Programme, Inter-municipal Cooperation, and the European Label of Governance Excellence. The participating municipalities prepared strategies for improving civil participation at local level; identified areas for inter-municipal cooperation and learnt how to prepare cooperation agreements. More than half of all municipalities in the country have undergone a process of self-evaluation and evaluation by their citizens of their performance and compliance with the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance. Fourteen of them were awarded the European Label of Governance Excellence for demonstrating adherence to the principles, and all of them have identified areas for improvement.

The closing conference will gather representatives of the Ministry of Interior of Lithuania, partner institutions, mayors and other local authorities, experts, representatives of the DG REFORM of the European Commission and the DG Democracy of the Council of Europe.