In what appears to be a first for the green movement, the Lithuanian Ministry of Environmental Protection and various nongovernmental organizations have signed a series of agreements that take cooperation to a new level. The Ministry has proposed that Lithuanian NGOs working on environmental issues should sign "agreements of cooperation" with the Minister of Environment, Bronius Bradauskas. The government hopes these agreements will provide better opportunities for the public to participate in the decisionmaking process and allow information to flow more easily between the state and its citizens.
The government's obligations remain virtually unchanged from contract to contract. The government promises to provide NGOs with access to information on environmental issues and legislative drafts so NGOs can offer their comments and suggestions. The Ministry also promises to support environmental NGOs in their activities, and to examine all proposals and comments, and make known the decisions they make regarding those proposals.
The NGO side of the bargain is not as clear because the large number of NGOs and their diverse activities make it impossible to come up with a single, standard document. In every case, the NGO involved has been able to amend the NGO obligations section of the document to match their own policy and position.
In general, NGOs are obliged to keep the government informed of their activities, to cooperate with the government on specific projects and programs, including funding, and to assist the Ministry of Environmental Protection fulfill its duties, within the scope of the NGO's activities.
Though these agreements are a positive step toward better cooperation, closer inspection reveals they don't offer anything new. What they propose is what should already be happening: the Lithuanian government should already be providing free and easy access to information, and the country's NGOs should already be cooperating with the government in any way possible. But now that it's all down in writing, perhaps all will be as it should.