The project “Improvement of the NGO legal framework” is over: what is next?

On 31 December 2008 the project "Improvement of the NGO legal framework" implemented by the NGO law institute was completed. The project was aimed at evaluation of the NGO legal framework in Lithuania, based on the experience of other countries, laying down the guidelines for its improvement and initiating the amendments of the legal acts that would benefit the development of the public sector.

The research named "Issues of the NGO legal framework in Lithuania" was the main activity in the course of the project; it presented the major issues of the regulation related to non-governmental organizations. The research was carried out, presented to and discussed with various ministries and organizations in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda; most of them have expressed their support of the proposed amendments of the legal framework. The most important result is that topical NGO law issues were brought back on stage and the interested persons were encouraged to discuss them and think over possible ways to improve the situation.

After the research was presented and discussed as a scientific basis for al further activities, a workgroup of several interested non-governmental organizations was created; the new workgroup has concentrated on the specific plan to implement the proposals in the laws of the Republic of Lithuania. It was decided to start with the issues of the NGO definition and the attribution of NGOs to public legal persons: the draft laws were prepared for this part; they were presented to related ministries and several parliamentary groups of the Seimas.

The project term has expired as soon as the processes have started, nevertheless one could not deny that the processes prove that the main goal was achieved - the amendments of the new and more beneficial legal acts were initiated and developed.

On the other hand, we are excited to inform that a new project supported by the Baltic-American Partnership Program was launched on 1 January 2009 (unfortunately, it is one of the last before the program is closed) - "Initiative of progressive changes of NGO law". The National Development Institute, the Lithuanian Youth Council and the Civil Responsibility Foundation are the partners of the project. The work which had been started in cooperation with the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, public authorities and Lithuanian NGOs themselves will continue in the course of the project.