Country Report on Lithuania A country report on Lithuania’s position in the EU UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM CoRe Studies VI EUROPEAN POLICY STUDIES Country Report on Lithuania A country report on Lithuania’s position in the EU Country Report Series (CORE‐series) European Policy Studies Universiteit van Amsterdam June 2013 ©Caroline Duits, Elva Goedegebuur, Bodo von Haumeder, Tomas Hos, Shaho Jabbari, Raoul Köhler, Nathalie Koopman, Rosalinde Kranenburg, Veerle Vastwijk, Sjoerd Verest and Arkasha Verschuren. Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden verveelvoudigd, opgeslagen in een geautomatiseerd gegevensbestand of openbaar gemaakt, in enige vorm of op enige wijze, hetzij electronisch, mechanisch door fotokopieën, opnamen of enige andere manier, zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de auteurs. Voor zover het maken van kopieën uit deze uitgave is toegestaan op grond van artikel 16B Auteurswet 1912 jO, het besluit van juni 1974, Stb. 351, zoals gewijzigd bij het Besluit van 23 augustus, Stb. 471 en artikel 17 Auteurswet 1912, dient men de daarvoor wettelijke verschuldigde vergoedingen te voldoen aan de Stichting Reprorecht (Postbus 882, 1180 Amstelveen). Voor het overnemen van gedeelte(n) uit deze uitgave in bloemlezingen, readers en andere compilatiewerken (artikel 16 Auteurswet 1912) dient men zich tot de uitgever te wenden. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, now known of hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, without prior written permission of the authors. ISBN 978‐90‐807611‐8‐6 Table of contents Table of contents ......................................................................................................................................... i List of abbreviations .................................................................................................................................... vii List of tables, figures and boxes .................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgement ....................................................................................................................................... xi Preface ........................................................................................................................................................ xii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... xiii Section 1: History and Culture........................................................................................................................ 1 1. History of Lithuania ......................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Prehistory (until 1009) .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.2 Pre‐Christian time (11th to 14th centuries) ................................................................................................ 3 1.3 The Polish‐ Lithuanian Personal Union (1386–1569) ............................................................................... 5 1.4 The time of Rzeczospolita (1569 – 1795) ................................................................................................. 7 1.5 Russian and Prussian supremacy (1795 – 1917) .................................................................................... 10 1.6 The Russian Revolution and its impact on Lithuania .............................................................................. 12 1.7 World War I and the First Independence ............................................................................................... 12 1.8 Political instability during the Interbellum ............................................................................................. 14 1.9 World War II: Lithuania under the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany ...................................................... 15 1.10 Anti‐Soviet resistance: The Forest Brothers ......................................................................................... 17 1.11 The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic .............................................................................................. 18 1.12 The move towards full independence .................................................................................................. 20 2. National history narrative: analysis .............................................................................................................. 21 3. Culture .......................................................................................................................................................... 27 3.1 National identity ..................................................................................................................................... 27 3.2 Language ................................................................................................................................................ 29 3.3 Religion ................................................................................................................................................... 30 3.4 Traditions and etiquette ......................................................................................................................... 31 3.5 Symbols .................................................................................................................................................. 32 3.6 National myths ....................................................................................................................................... 33 3.7 Architecture, art and literature .............................................................................................................. 34 Section 2: The political and legal system ..................................................................................................... 35 4. Institutions, power and politics ..................................................................................................................... 37 4.1 The Lithuanian Constitution ................................................................................................................... 37 4.2 The legislative power: Seimas ................................................................................................................ 42 4.3 The executive power .............................................................................................................................. 46 4.4 The judiciary ........................................................................................................................................... 50 5. Foreign, Security and Defence Policy ............................................................................................................ 53 5.1 Foreign policy ......................................................................................................................................... 53 5.2 Security and Defence Policy ................................................................................................................... 61 6. EU Policy in Lithuania .................................................................................................................................... 64 6.1 Lithuanian system of transposing EU Law .............................................................................................. 64 6.2 Monitoring EU law compliance .............................................................................................................. 66 6.3 EC statistics regarding Member States EU law compliance ................................................................... 66 6.4 Foundation of the Lithuanian EU law transposition system .................................................................. 68 6.5 Challenges to the Lithuanian EU law compliance ................................................................................... 69 6.6 Concluding remarks ................................................................................................................................ 69 7. Democracy and civil society in Lithuania ...................................................................................................... 71 7.1 Civil society and democracy until 1991 .................................................................................................. 71 7.2 Current civil society in Lithuania ............................................................................................................ 72 7.3 Explanations for the current situation of civil society and democracy .................................................. 77 7.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 80 8. Corruption in Lithuania ................................................................................................................................. 82 8.1 Corruption: Public institutions, the general public and the private sector ............................................ 82 8.2 Anti‐corruption measures: Legal framework ........................................................................................