Европеизация субнациональных институций : вариант Литвы

Abstract

The task of the article was, to evaluate changes on the sub-national level caused by implementing European Cohesion policy instruments. Our effort was, to analyze process of the formation of ,,European elites" in the Lithuania's municipalities. By that, modernization of the way of thinking as well as changes of their value system should be detected. Are European actors of local level constructive or rather reactive, was another task to define. It was also to evaluate importance of institutional as well as of social factors when seeking to reduce territorial disparities as remote goal of the Cohesion policy. It has been shown that research instruments are to be adjusted to the period under research: to concentrate pre-accession analysis on the legal acts, early accession - on the institutions and agency, and the remote period to evaluate according economic variables. It seems fruitful to analyze the effect of Cohesion within four points continuum: it allows comparative analysis of institutions and agency's evaluations. It has been shown that increase in volume of financial support on sub-national level may lead to the formation of ,,European local elites" - critical mass of officials perceiving importance of Europ¬ean Cohesion instruments and being interested in using them for reducing territorial disparities. Hereby we do state that regarding principle of subsidiarity plays essential role for effectiveness of Cohesion policy. When ignoring this principle, it is difficult to achieve reducing territorial divide. Ignorance of this principle in Lithuania, hyper-centralization of European policy measures might be consid¬ered as a constraint for achieving general goals of Cohesion.