Chapter 9: Lithuania
(continued)
The public information law was passed in 1996. This law sets the right of access to any official information. Another positive aspect of this law is the fact that all related information is available to the public free of charge.
The territorial planning law was passed at the end of 1995. This law provides guidelines for public participation in the decisionmaking process. According to this law, the public has the right to comment on territorial designs, propose changes in them, or make claims to organizers of territorial planning. The public also has the right to have its comments taken into account.
The Environmental Impact Assessment law was adopted in 1996. Unfortunately, there are still no regulations establishing the order of implementation/usage of this law. For this reason, the law is not being used in practice. Following the requirements of EU directives, present legislation on the subject is under revision and will be accommodated to EU standards.
The Construction Law was passed in 1996. This law sets the right to access to information on planned construction activities. Several regulations were passed on public participation and access to information. Unfortunately, not enough has been done in this field.
During the period between ministerial conferences, Lithuania ratified a few important international treaties which strengthened democratic rights on access to information and consolidated environmental legislation. The Bern Convention on Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitat was ratified in 1996 and the national Law on Wildlife and Natural Habitats was passed according this convention. At the beginning of 1997 the regional Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area was ratified and several legislative and regulatory measures were taken for implementation of this treaty.
According to the requirements of the EU, directives and national legislation at present are under preparation for the accommodation of EU standards. The recent process makes social life very curious. Following the world wide democracy process, numerous democratic rights have been set in national legislation. However, after the long period of Soviet rule people are not aware of how to use these rights. This is the reason why the public is so passive in the decision making process and so active in protest after decisions are made that have an impact on their own interests.
Despite progress in the confirmation of new laws, regulations and the accommodation of democratic rights in Lithuania, the environmental legislation structure is still not fully formed and contains many gaps. Even in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, citizens rights to a healthy environment are not set. In spite of rights set in newly passed laws, governmental ordinances, rules and regulations which should provide the order of usage of these rights have not yet been adopted. Due to the lack of such documents state officers have the freedom to behave on their own and to ignore the citizens' rights set in the laws. There are also no documents providing guidelines on how public authorities should provide information to the public. The lack of these and another regulatory acts limit the rights of citizens.
There are many gaps in the Lithuanian justice system as well. First, the system of courts is very imperfect, incomplete and must be improved. The operation of the courts is also not very good and highly bureaucratic. Usually ordinary people cannot apply to the court (even on simple civil issues) without the advice of a professional lawyer. Due to the lack of above mentioned regulations, the courts investigate cases for very long periods and usually the decisions are not in the public's favor.
There are a lot of gaps in national legislation concerning the responsibility of state officers. Due to the lack of special regulations, it is not so easy to call state officers into account or to punish them administratively if they avoid fulfilling their responsibilities. Such situations limit human rights, diminishing trust of state authorities and promoting legal nihilism within the country.
The Environmental Protection Ministry has formed good relations with NGOs and is spreading information well enough among them and society. They have however, not paid enough attention to public participation issues.
From the NGOs point of view, the general situation of public participation in Lithuania is at a low level and has to be improved through different measures. First of all, recent laws and procedures need to be developed to a certain level and missing laws and procedures need to be prepared and passed. The drafting process needs to be more open and transparent. The drafting panels during the preparation process should discuss with the target groups and society in a more open and active manner. This would help avoid needless conflicts in future stages of decision making and implementation. The public and NGOs also must be more actively involved in the legislation and rule making process.
The knowledge of society concerning public participation is also at a very low level. State officials especially need to be trained and educated on this issue because NGOs are usually better prepared.
During last year's processes of setting new citizen's rights, the promotion of democracy and activating of public participation in state rulings was very active in comparison with the previous period. According to folk wisdom though, the stick has two ends: people simply are not able to "consume" as much democracy as they have to and this results in legal nihilism within society. In other words, the promotion of democracy by pressing is good for the authorities but for the people it should be a continuos process.
