Lithuania Unitary state

History and trends

Lithuania is a semi-presidential Republic. Its Constitution was adopted on 6 November 1992.

Lithuania was invaded by the Soviets in June 1940, becoming a Soviet republic on 21st July. It was subsequently annexed by the USSR on 3rd August. Following German occupation between 1941 and 1944, it once again became a socialist republic.

Lithuania declared independence from the USSR on 11th March 1990. One year later, it finally emerged from the shackles of Soviet rule after the failed Soviet coup d’état attempt in August 1991, which led to the collapse of the USSR. Lithuania was once again liberated, and its independence was officially recognised in September that year.

Lithuania joined NATO in March 2004, the EU in May of the same year, and the Schengen Area in December 2007.

Lithuania’s local government landscape is governed principally by article 11 of the Lithuanian constitution of 25th October 1992, which states that: “The administrative divisions of the territory of the State of Lithuania and their boundaries shall be determined by law”.

Chapter 10 of the constitution, entitled “Local Governments and Administration”, concerns first-tier local governments. In 2005, Lithuania was subdivided into 10 counties or regions, and 60 municipalities.

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Local level :

Lithuania is divided into 60 municipalities. The municipality corresponds to the first NUTS level, as defined by the European Commission for Eurostat purposes.

There are three types of municipality:

• District municipalities (rajonos savivaldybės) – 43 in total, each corresponding to the districts (raions) inherited from the Soviet era.

Even today, they are still commonly referred to as raions (rajonas), since the word “municipality” was not introduced until 1994.

• City municipalities (miestos savivaldybės) – 8 in total, with 6 corresponding to the country’s 6 biggest cities. Of these 6 cities, 5 are the administrative centres of the corresponding districts (the exception being the Klaipėda district municipality). City municipalities cover urban areas, while district municipalities represent the rural areas around these cities.

The Visaginas City Municipality (the country’s 13th biggest city) enjoys a special status because it has a majority Russian population. Lastly, the Palanga City Municipality comprises both the town of Palanga and several other coastal resorts on the Baltic Sea.

• Ordinary municipalities– 9 in total, all created in 2000 by the Municipal Reform Act. These municipalities have neither “city” nor “district” in their name. Neringa Municipality was formerly known as Neringa City Municipality.

The seniūnija (plural: seniūnijos) is Lithuania’s smallest administrative division. It translates literally as “eldership”. A seniūnija may equally be a small region consisting of several villages, a small town, a medium-sized city, or part of a big city.

The size and population of each seniūnija depends on its location. The seniūnijos are in charge of relatively small-scale local affairs such as roads, waste collection, civil registry and family records.

Their main purpose is to give the seniūnas (the head of the seniūnija) time to get to know and talk to every resident of the seniūnija in person.

In modern-day Lithuania, there are 546 seniūnijos, each operating as a municipal district.

The seniūnijos correspond to NUTS level 5 and LAU level 2.

Significant changes were made to Lithuanian law on local governments and local government funding in 2009 and 2010.

Counties (apskritys):

Counties (apskritys) are a territorial and administrative subdivision of Lithuania. There are currently 10 counties, all named after their administrative centres. Their primary duty is to ensure that municipalities obey the laws and the constitution of Lithuania. They have relatively limited powers.