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Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

is divided into three layers of

administrative divisions Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

. The first-level division consists of 10 counties ( Lithuanian: singular – ''apskritis'', plural – ''apskritys''). These are sub-divided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: plural – ''savivaldybės'', singular – ''savivaldybė''), which in turn are further sub-divided into over 500 smaller groups, known as elderships (Lithuanian: plural – ''seniūnijos'', singular – ''seniūnija''). At the end of its tenure as a Soviet Socialist Republic, Lithuania's administrative divisions consisted of 44 regions, 12 cities, 80 towns, 19 settlements, and 426 rural districts. The reform of this system was an immediate concern for the new government. The

Constitution of Lithuania The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucija) defines the legal foundation for all laws passed in the Republic of Lithuania. It was approved in a referendum on 25 October 1992. History Statutes of Lithu ...

, ratified in 1992, delegated the power of establishing future administrative units to the Lithuanian Parliament (

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendme ...

). Accordingly, the Seimas passed two fundamental laws: a 1993 law on government representation and a 1994 law specifying the territorial-administrative units and their boundaries. The current system of a set of municipalities under 10 counties was codified by 1995. Several changes were made in 2000, resulting in 60 municipalities. Ordinary municipal councilors are elected every four years from electoral lists using proportional representation. The mayor, who is a member of the council, is elected directly by the residents in a majority vote in run-off election. Before 2015, the mayors were elected by the municipal councils. The largest municipality by population in Lithuania is

Vilnius City Municipality Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

with 542,626 residents, home to one fifth () of the country's population. The smallest municipality by population is

Neringa Municipality Neringa () or Neringa Municipality ( lt, Neringos savivaldybė) is a municipality of Klaipėda County in westernmost Lithuania, comprising several villages in the Curonian Spit. In terms of population, it is the smallest municipality of the coun ...

with 2,879 residents. The largest municipality by land area is

Varėna District Municipality Varėna (; pl, Orany; yi, אוראַן ''Oran'') is a city in Dzūkija, Lithuania. History The town was founded in 1862 near the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway, south of Sena Varėna (Old Varėna). At that time it was a small settleme ...

, which spans , while the smallest is Alytus City Municipality at .

Powers and functions

Municipalities are established to perform certain functions provided by

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. According to the abovementioned Republic of Lithuania Law on Local Self-Government, the functions of

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

are “''functions related to local government,

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

and provision of

public services A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

defined by the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

and attributed to municipalities by this and other laws''”. The processes of integration into

international organization An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states an ...

s - like the EU and NATO - are considered to be important external factors influencing the development of municipal powers in the country.

, which has become a member of these organizations, has been assigned completely new responsibilities, some of which, naturally, also belonged to municipalities. In the case of EU integration, municipalities have been assigned the necessary information supply to the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

, and in the case of integration into

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

have had new functions related to

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

issues.Burbulytė-Tsiskarishvili, G., Dvorak,J., Žernytė, A. (2018). Savivaldybių funkcijų ir galių kaita 1994 - 2016 metais. Viešoji politika ir administravimas, t.17, No.3
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Municipalities

Notes and references

;Notes ;References

Sources

* {{Europe topic, List of places in, LT=Municipalities of Lithuania Subdivisions of Lithuania Lithuania, Municipalities Lithuania 2 Municipalities, Lithuania

Municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Powers and functions

Municipalities

See also

Notes and references

Sources