Environmental performance reviews. Lithuania

The ECE Committee on Environmental Policy included the Environmental Performance Review of Lithuania in its work programme in January 1997. The review team prepared a report on the environmental performance of Lithuania before, during and after the review mission in Vilnius in October 1997. The report by the review team, including draft recommendations for the solution of existing problems in national environmental policy and management, was updated in a further discussion in Vilnius in May, 1998, before it was submitted for evaluation to the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy at its annual session in Geneva, on 29 September 1998. The evaluation by the Committee was based on the in-depth preparation by two reviewing countries, Bulgaria and Finland. At the end of its evaluation, the Committee agreed on a final set of recommendations for inclusion in this Publication. The Peer Review of the EPR report by the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy permitted to address both strengths and weaknesses of environmental management in Lithuania during the transition process. Despite the considerable socio-economic difficulties that are being experienced, the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment has patiently succeeded in becoming an important actor in decisions affecting the development of the country's environment. The time-consuming process towards forthcoming and open partnership with all governmental and non-governmental forces involved or interested in such management has started. It can be hoped that the further evolution of the skills and means required for both the adaptation of environmental management to pan-European practices and the handling of existing management problems will enable the Ministry of Environment to develop successfully its routines for problem solution