Lithuania scored well on this year's Economic Freedom of the World index, which put it in the 19th spot, ahead of other Baltic states and many European Union members. However, further advances could be hampered by corruption, says Fraser Institute economist Dr. Robert Lawson.
Corruption
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While recent corruption scandals are damaging the ruling Social Demcrats’s opinion poll ratings, their coalition partners the Order and Justice party’s ratings seem unaffected by a raft of their own scandals.
Replacing the government months before general elections would be "irresponsible", Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said on Wednesday, after the Social Democratic Party had accused her of attempts to overthrow PM Algirdas Butkevičius' cabinet.
Members of the Order and Justice party, part of the ruling coalition party in Lithuania and whose Rolandas Paksas leader has been accused of corruption, held a protest outside the house of Lithuanian state prosecutor, Irmantas Mikelionis, in Vilnius District yesterday.
MEP Rolandas Paksas has denied allegations of accepting a bribe, saying that prosecutors' announcement on Tuesday that they would seek his legal immunity stripped was just a continuation of a campaign against him that started in 2004.
On Monday, 22 Vilnius taxi companies and 27 individuals were named in a case involving allegations of corruption among Vilnius' tax companies, which prosecutors believe have hidden millions in taxes from the government.
Corruption suspicions in several Lithuanian ministries have severely damaged the government's ratings, a new poll shows. Popularity of Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius and his party, the Social Democrats, has suffered as well.
The ministers of environment and agriculture will have to go if they are caught lying about investigations they are currently subject to, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has suggested on Monday evening after meeting with the president.
The Restoration Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis has called on all Lithuanians to unite in opposing the Astravyets nuclear power plant being constructed in Belarus in his speech to mark February 16.
The International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that will halt its €35 billion bailout programme to Ukraine unless the country takes immediate action to tackle rampant corruption.
Not a single conviction for bribing a member of the medical profession in Lithuania has been recorded in the seven years from 2006 to 2013, according to Transparency International Lithuania.
Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius was questioned by Special Investigation Service (STT) officers investigating construction fraud in Druskininkai.
It is little wonder that the resignation of Aivaras Abromavičius, Ukraine’s Lithuanian-born Minister of Economy, has created a political uproar and a government crisis. The move should also encourage Lithuania and like-minded countries to sharpen policies towards Kiev.
The prime minister has to take responsibility for corruption scandals that have rattled his cabinet in recent months, said Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė after meeting with PM Algirdas Butkevičius on Wednesday morning.
More than 120 officials of the State Border Guard Service have been convicted of corruption in the last decade, with charges brought against 15 border guards last year.
Mayor of Druskininkai Ričardas Malinauskas has admitted giving money to contractors who were working on a property that has been the subject of an anti-corruption investigation. He still denies that he is the owner of the property, insisting he was only mediating.
Lithuania's corruption levels are more similar to a Soviet state than an EU country, because the extent of bribery in Lithuania is still a major problem, according to Sergėjus Muravjovas, the head of the Transparency International bureau in Lithuania.
Many Lithuanian politicians have no moral standards at all and will do whatever they think they can get away with, with many operating in a Brezhnev way of doing things, according to political scientist Liutauras Gudžinskas who was speaking on Žinių Radijas.
Minister of Agriculture Virginija Baltraitienė might have to explain herself to official ethics watchdogs after it has emerged that the ministry's food for poor programme awarded a government contract to a company linked to the minister's party colleague Viktor Uspaskich.
Will pressure from the United States, fear of losing the last dollar correspondent account, and an impending vote on admission into the OECD finally force Latvia to curb the laundering of dirty money for shady figures from the former Soviet Union via Latvia’s non-resident banks?