REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
LAW ON LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK
18 September 2012 No XI-2220
(As last amended on 30 June 2020 – No XIII-3243)
Vilnius
SECTION 1
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. Purpose of the Law
1. This Law shall establish the principles and stages of legislation and the rights and duties of state and municipal institutions and agencies and other parties involved in legislation.
2. This Law shall not apply to international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, except for the registration and publication of these treaties.
3. This Law shall not apply to legal acts having individual application, except for provisions on the registration, publication and entry into force of the legal acts.
4. This Law shall not apply where citizens exercise the right to initiate legislation embedded in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter: the 'Constitution'), the right to petition and the right to submit proposals to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter: the 'Seimas') to amend or supplement the Constitution. A draft law or another legal act proposed for referendum must comply with the form, structure, content and language requirements specified in this Law.
5. Draft legal acts containing information comprising a state secret or an official secret shall be drawn up and coordinated, these legal acts shall be adopted, registered, published and enter into force in accordance with the procedure laid down by the entities adopting them.
Article 2. Definitions
1. Ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation means evaluation of the application and functioning of legal regulation.
2. Body means an agency maintained from the state or municipal budget or the state budgetary fund which has the statutory powers to draw up draft legal acts, as well as the Bank of Lithuania.
3. Public consultation means actions of entities submitting legislative initiatives, drawing up draft legal acts, adopting legal acts and/or conducting an ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation where such actions involve the provision of public access to the legislative initiatives and the draft legal acts, informing about the conducted ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation, as well as the assessment of proposals received from persons and the publication of the assessment results. The commencement of the consultation shall be announced to the public.
4. Evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation means establishing the positive and negative consequences of an envisaged legal regulation.
5. Consolidated version of a legal act means the text of a legal act in force at a specific time in the past or currently or adopted, signed and published by an entity concerned but still not in force, which has been drawn up on the basis of the official text of the original legal act and the official texts of the legal acts amending or supplementing that legal act and which includes all the amendments in the legal regulation provided for in that legal act.
6. Legislation means a process covering the submission of legislative initiatives, drawing-up of draft legal acts and adoption, signing and publication of legal acts.
7. Legislative initiative means a proposal to establish new or amend the existing legal regulation, specifying the objectives of establishing or amending the legal regulation and the main provisions thereof.
8. Accompanying documents of a draft legal act means documents provided for in this Law or other legal acts the drawing-up of which is obligatory and the submission of which, together with the draft legal act, is obligatory for the entity adopting the legal act, as well as other documents relating to the draft legal act.
9. Register of Legal Acts means the primary state register wherein the objects of the register specified in this Law are registered, the data of the register are collected, accumulated, processed, systematised, stored and provided in accordance with the procedure laid down in legal acts and other data processing operations are performed as specified in legal acts.
Article 3. Principles of legislation
1. The principles of legislation shall embody certain mandatory requirements for entities involved in legislation with a view to creating a uniform, consistent, coherent and effective legal system.
2. Legislation shall be guided by the following principles:
1) expediency, meaning that a draft legal act must be drawn up and a legal act must be adopted only where the objectives pursued cannot be achieved by other means;
2) proportionality, meaning that the selected measures of legal regulation must keep the administrative and other burden to a minimum and not restrict the entities of legal relationships more than required to achieve the objectives of legal regulation;
3) respect for an individual’s rights and freedoms, meaning that legal provisions must ensure and may not exclude an individual’s rights and freedoms and legitimate interests laid down in the Constitution, Union legislation, international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, laws and other legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania;
4) openness and transparency, meaning that legislation must be accessible to the public, legislative decisions linked to general interest may not be adopted without the public being aware of them and without having an opportunity to get involved; public policy objectives, the need for legal regulation and the entities involved in legislation must be known, the public and interest groups must be allowed to submit proposals relating to legal regulation at all the stages of legislation; also the entities that initiated the drawing up of draft legal acts, the entities that have drawn up the draft legal acts, the entities that have conducted the evaluation of the effect of the envisaged legal regulation and the entities conducting an ex post evaluation of existing legal regulation must be known;
5) effectiveness, meaning that when drawing up a draft legal act, all the possible alternatives of legal regulation must be assessed and the best one chosen, the legal act must provide for the measures allowing for the most effective and economical achievement of legal regulation, proposals received relating to legal regulation must be published and assessed, and legislative actions must be carried out within reasonable time limits;
6) clarity, meaning that legal regulation provided for in legal acts must be logical, consistent, concise, comprehensive, accurate, clear and unambiguous;
7) systematicity, meaning that legal provisions must be consistent with each other, legal acts of lower legal validity may not contradict legal acts of higher legal validity, the implementing legal acts of a law must be drawn up and adopted so that they enter into force together with the law or separate provisions thereof which are implemented by these legal acts.
Article 4. Stages of legislation
1. The stages of legislation shall be as follows:
Article 5. Use of the Legislative Information System for legislation
1. The Legislative Information System of the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter: the ‘Legislative Information System’) shall be used to ensure the openness, transparency and concentration of legislation.
2. The following shall be processed and published in the Legislative Information System:
3) accompanying documents of draft legal acts (a comparative version of the draft legal act, the explanatory note, the conclusion of the evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation where the results of such evaluation are not indicated in the explanatory note, the conclusions of a study carried out necessary for the drawing up of the draft legal act and of other studies on the basis whereof the draft legal act was drawn up, other documents specified in the legal acts the drawing up and submission of which together with the draft legal act to the entity adopting the legal act is obligatory);
5) information relating to an ex poste evaluation of the existing legal regulation as well as an evaluation report;
7) other documents of bodies or other entities relating to draft legal acts, whereby the draft legal acts are submitted to obtain conclusions, whereby conclusions relating to the draft legal acts are submitted, whereby comments and proposals relating to the draft legal acts are assessed or whereby the results of the meetings intended to resolve disagreements relating to the draft legal act and the submitted comments and proposals are recorded, as well as documents and information of bodies or other entities relating to legislation the publication whereof in the Legislative Information System is laid down by legal acts.
3. Where the person in charge of drafting of an original legal act is a lobbyist, this fact shall be published in the Legislative Information System. Where the lobbyist is a legal person, the business name and the registered office of the legal person and the forename and surname of its employee carrying out lobbying activities shall be specified; where the lobbyist is a natural person, his forename and surname shall be specified, as well as the forename and surname (in case of a natural person) or the business name and the registered office (in case of a legal person) of the client of the lobbying activities in whose interest the lobbyist has drawn up a draft legal act and influences the drawing up of the draft legal act.
4. The Legislative Information System shall allow all persons to publish proposals relating to legislative initiatives and draft legal acts published in this system, as well as relating to the existing legal regulation the ex post evaluation whereof is conducted.
5. The data specified in this Law and processed in the Legislative Information System shall be public.
6. The processing of data of the Legislative Information System specified in this Law shall be regulated by the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Management of State Information Resources (hereinafter: the 'Law on Management of State Information Resources'), this Law and legal acts adopted by the controller of the data of the Legislative Information System. The procedure for using the Legislative Information System for legislation shall be laid down by the Minister of Justice upon coordination with the controller of the data of the Legislative Information System, the Bank of Lithuania and the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania.
Article 51. Entry of a person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation, rights and duties of the person, removal of the person from the list of persons exerting influence on legislation
1. A person intending to exert influence on legislation may voluntarily submit to the Chief Official Ethics Commission a request to be entered on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation.
2. A request to enter a person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation shall specify:
1) the forename and surname, personal number, home address, place of work and position in the year following the submission of the request, if the request is submitted by a natural person;
3. The Chief Official Ethics Commission shall, within five working days from the submission of the request specified in paragraph 2 of this Article, take a decision regarding the entry of the person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation. If additional information or documents are necessary for taking a decision, the time limit specified in this paragraph shall be calculated from the receipt of all the necessary information or documents.
4. The Chief Official Ethics Commission shall refuse to enter a person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation only if that person has provided incorrect or incomplete data and/or additional information specified in this Article. In that case, the Chief Official Ethics Commission shall present to the person a reasoned decision to refuse to enter the person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation. The Chief Official Ethics Commission shall inform in writing the person who has submitted the request to be entered on the list of person exerting influence on legislation about the decision to enter or refuse to enter the person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation within three working days of the adoption of the decision.
5. A person entered on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation shall be entitled:
1) to obtain information from the bodies regarding draft legal acts which are being drawn up in accordance with the spheres of legal regulation indicated in the request to be entered on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation;
2) to be involved, in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts, in drawing-up of legal acts as well as to draw up them, submit proposals and explanations on the content and drawing-up of legal acts;
3) to conduct, on his/its own initiative, an evaluation of legal acts, draft legal acts, submit conclusions and comments on draft legal acts;
4) to explain to the public, persuade bodies or other entities involved in legislation that it is considered appropriate to adopt or reject a certain legal act;
5) to participate, in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts, in meetings, sittings, debates regarding draft legal acts;
6) to obtain from bodies, in order to exert influence on legislation, passes (including permanent passes) for access to their premises, provided that this is not precluded by the specific laws and other legal acts governing activities of certain bodies;
10) to obtain from bodies copies of draft legal acts as well as other information, provided that this is not contrary to laws of the Republic of Lithuania and that the information requested has not been made publicly available in cyberspace or the media; Information the preparation of which does not require to produce voluminous or specially adapted or otherwise processed documents shall be communicated to persons not later than within three working days from the receipt of the person’s request, and the information the preparation of which require to produce voluminous or specially adapted or otherwise processed documents shall be communicated to persons not later than within seven working days from the receipt of the request. Bodies which refuse to communicate information must notify in writing about the reasons of refusal to communicate such information not later than on the next day following that of the receipt of the person's request.
6. A person entered on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation must:
1) introduce himself to bodies or other entities involved in legislation (to indicate his forename and surname and, if he acts on behalf of a legal person, also the business name of the legal person) where he intends to exert influence on legislation, to indicate which draft legal acts he wishes would be adopted or would not be adopted;
2) present declarations of transparent legislative processes in accordance with the procedure laid down by this Law;
7. At the decision of the Chief Official Ethics Commission a person shall be removed from the list of person exerting influence on legislation if the person:
1) applies to the Chief Official Ethics Commission requesting to be removed from the list of persons exerting influence on legislation;
8. A person who has been removed from the list of person exerting influence on legislation in the case referred to in point 2 of paragraph 7 of this Article may not be entered on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation for one year from the entry into force of the decision to remove the person from the list of persons exerting influence on legislation.
Article 52. Declaration of transparent legislative processes
1. A person entered on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation shall be required to submit an annual declaration of transparent legislative processes and to declare the influence on legislation. Declarations of transparent legislative processes of the previous year must be submitted electronically in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Chief Official Ethics Commission by 1 February of the current calendar year following the indicated period in the Information System of Transparent Legislative Processes of the Chief Official Ethics Commission (hereinafter: the ‘Information System of Transparent Legislative Processes’).
2. A person entered on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation must indicate in an annual declaration of transparent legislative processes the following:
2) the title of a legal act, a draft legal act which was the subject of the influence exerted on legislation as well as a short description of the subject matter the person wished to amend;
3) information about the participation in the working/commissions for drawing-up of draft legal acts;
3. A person who has not submitted an annual declaration of transparent legislative processes in accordance with the procedure laid down in this Article shall be warned in writing by the Chief Official Ethics Commission and shall set an additional time limit of at least fourteen days and not more than one month for the submission of the annual declaration of transparent legislative processes.
Article 53. Information about influence exerted on legislation
1. In order to ensure openness and transparency of influence exerted on legislation, the following shall be processed in the Information System of Transparent Legislative Processes and published on the website of the Chief Official Ethics Commission:
1) information on persons entered on the list of persons exerting influence of legislation: the forename and surname of the person or the business name of the legal person, the sphere/spheres of legal regulation in which the person intends to exert influence on legislation, the date and number of the decision of the Chief Official Ethics Commission to enter the person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation, the submitted annual declarations of transparent legislative processes, information on the removal of the person from the list of persons exerting influence on legislation;
2) data of the annual declarations of transparent legislative processes referred to in Article 52(2) of this Law;
3) information of the President of the Republic, Members of the Seimas, members of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, vice ministers, Chancellor of the Government, chancellors of the ministers, heads of the parliamentary political parties, mayors, municipal councillors, directors and deputy directors of the municipal administrations which is voluntarily declared about the influence exerted on them regarding legislation.
2. The data referred to in point 1 of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be made publicly available on the website of the Chief Official Ethics Commission from the entry of the person on the list of persons exerting influence on legislation and for a further period of three years after the removal of the person from the list of persons exerting influence on legislation.
3. The data referred to in point 2 of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be made publicly available on the website of the Chief Official Ethics Commission for a period of three years from the publication of the annual declarations of transparent legislative processes.
Article 6. Register of Legal Acts
1. The Register of Legal Acts shall be intended for the registration, publication, accounting and systemisation of objects of the Register of Legal Acts specified in paragraph 2 of this Article and provision of information.
2. The objects of the Register of Legal Acts shall be as follows:
7) international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, except for international treaties where the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania as a Member State of the European Union are one party to an international treaty which are published in the Lithuanian language in the Official Journal of the European Union and announcements delivered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania relating to the entry into force, validity, amendment, provisional application, suspension, termination, objection to an amendment or to clauses of all international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania;
11) regulatory acts of ministers, heads of Government bodies and other state institutions and bodies and collegial institutions;
16) regulatory acts of municipal institutions, as well as legal acts adopted by municipal mayors the publication whereof in the Register of Legal Acts is mandatory under legal acts;
17) regulatory acts adopted by the management bodies of associations, state or municipal enterprises and public bodies authorised to perform public administration, whose owner or stakeholder is the State or a municipality, as well as panels of regional development councils. Legal acts adopted by the management bodies of other associations, state or municipal enterprises and public bodies whose owner or stakeholder is the State or a municipality shall be the objects of the Register of Legal Acts only in the cases where the publication of these legal acts is mandatory under legal acts;
18) legal acts having individual application adopted by ministers, heads of Government bodies and other state and municipal institutions and agencies and collegial institutions, as well as by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania or the Chairman of the Board and the management bodies of associations, state or municipal enterprises and public bodies authorised to perform public administration in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts, whose owner or stakeholder is the State or a municipality, as well as panels of regional development councils, the publication whereof in the Register of Legal Acts is mandatory under legal acts;
19) rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court, as well as announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act;
3. The following data of the objects of the Register of Legal Acts shall be processed in the Register of Legal Acts:
6) the chronological order (the date of adoption, publication, entry into force, amendment or supplementation, repealing and suspension of validity of the legal act and the period of its validity);
4. The data of the Register of Legal Acts shall be available free of charge. In cases where the data of the Register of Legal Acts are provided in accordance with the procedure laid down by laws and other legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania to persons entitled to receive the data with the purpose of providing services to third parties, or where persons request data the preparation and submission of which requires additional costs, the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts shall set the amount of a fee for these services, taking into consideration the amount of data provided and information technology solutions used. The amount of the fee for the services provided shall be made publicly available on the website of the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts.
5. The manager and administrator of the Register of Legal Acts shall be the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
6. The data of the Register of Legal Acts shall be processed in compliance with this Law, the Law on Management of State Information Resources, other laws, the regulations of the Register of Legal Acts approved by a resolution of the Seimas and other legal acts. Other laws shall apply to the processing of the data of the Register of Legal Acts to the extent that is not covered by this Law.
7. A consolidated version of a legal act (in cases where different dates of entry into force of certain provisions of the amended legal act are provided for in a single legal act, several respective consolidated versions of the legal act) shall be published in the Register of Legal Acts not later than within three working days after the publication of the legal act amending or supplementing this legal act. The administrator of the Register of Legal Acts shall be responsible for proper preparation and publication of the consolidated version of the legal act.
Article 7. Public consultation
1. The purpose of public consultation shall be to ensure openness and transparency in legislation, to get feedback from the public on the issues of legal regulation and their solutions, to allow the public to influence the content of a draft legal act and to better assess the positive and negative consequences of the existing legal regulation and an envisaged legal regulation and the costs of the implementation thereof, to submit proposals relating to the legislative initiatives and draft legal acts published in the Legislative Information System, as well as to the existing legal regulation an ex post evaluation of which is conducted.
2. The public must be consulted in due time and on essential issues (effectiveness of consultation), also to the extent necessary (proportionality of consultation).
3. Methods of public consultation and ways of recording the results shall be selected by the entities initiating public consultation. Information on the results of public consultation must be provided to the entity adopting a legal act and made available to the public in the Legislative Information System.
Article 8. Legislative initiatives
1. The bodies shall publish legislative initiatives in the Legislative Information System, indicating the main principles of and motives for a proposed new legal regulation or the existing legal regulation that is being amended, a preliminary title of a draft legal act, the reasons and purpose of the drawing-up of the draft legal act, and may also indicate the time limits for the start and end of the drawing-up of the draft legal act and the person in charge of drafting of the legal act.
Article 9. General provisions for the drawing-up of draft legal acts
1. An entity drawing up a draft legal act shall draw up the draft legal act in compliance with the principles of legislation referred to in Article 3 of this Law and the draft legal act's form, structure, content and language requirements specified in this Law.
2. When drawing up a draft legal act whereby national law is harmonised with Union law or international law, all the possible alternatives must be considered and a solution in the best interest of Lithuania must be selected from them.
3. Implementing legal acts must provide for the measures which are most in line with the objectives of the implemented laws and are the most economical and effective.
4. Conclusions on the conformity of draft legal acts with Union law, judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union, international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and rulings of the European Court of Human Rights shall be provided by institutions authorised by the Government. These conclusions of the institutions authorised by the Government shall also be provided to the entity adopting a legal act.
5. All persons shall be entitled to submit proposals relating to a draft legal act published in the Legislative Information System. The proposals received which have not been submitted via the Legislative Information System must also be transferred and published in the Legislative Information System by the entities drawing up draft legal acts. The entity drawing up the draft legal act shall assess all the proposals submitted.
Article 10. Working groups/commission for the drawing-up of draft legal acts
1. A working group (committee) may be set up for the drawing-up of a draft legal act. Representatives of state and municipal institutions and agencies, non-governmental organisations and higher education and research institutions, professionals from the respective fields and other persons may be members of a working group/commission.
2. A working group/commission all or some of whose members would be remunerated for work in the working group/commission may only be set up in cases where specific and/or scientific knowledge, a detailed analysis of the existing situation and/or analysis of foreign practices are necessary for the drawing-up of a draft legal act and the entity initiating the drawing-up of the draft legal act lacks the knowledge and/or competences and/or cannot carry out the required analysis.
3. Information on working groups/commissions set up for the drawing-up of draft legal acts, their composition and the draft legal act assigned to be drawn up shall be published in the Legislative Information System and on the website of the entity that has set up the working group/commission.
4. The composition and period of activity of a working group/commission for the drawing-up of a draft legal act must be specified in the accompanying documents of the draft legal act.
5. Work in working groups/commissions for the drawing-up of draft legal acts set up by the Seimas, the divisions of the Seimas or Seimas officials shall be remunerated in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Remuneration of Employees of State and Municipal Bodies and Members of Commissions.
6. Work in working groups/commissions for the drawing-up of draft legal acts set up by the President of the Republic, the Government, the Prime Minister or the bodies maintained from the state or municipal budget or the state budgetary funds shall be remunerated in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Remuneration of Employees of State and Municipal Bodies and Members of Commissions.
7. The procedure of remuneration for work in working groups/commissions for the drawing-up of draft legal acts set up by municipal councils, municipal mayors/their deputies, directors of municipal administrations and heads of other bodies maintained from municipal budgets shall be laid down by the municipal councils.
Article 11. Procurement of the drawing-up of a draft legal act or a study necessary for the drawing-up of the draft legal act
1. If specific and/or scientific knowledge and/or competences, a detailed analysis of the existing situation and/or an analysis of foreign practices are necessary for the drawing-up of a draft legal act, the services of drawing-up of the draft legal act or a study necessary for the drawing-up of the draft legal act may be procured only in the cases where the drawing-up of the draft legal act and/or the study necessary cannot be carried out by the entity drawing up the draft legal act or a working group/commission set up by it, or it is not possible to set up the working group/commission for the drawing-up of the draft legal act for objective reasons.
2. Information on the procurement of the drawing-up of a draft legal act or a study necessary for the drawing-up of the draft legal act, the entities that have drawn up the draft legal act or carried out the study, as well as the results and/or the price of the drawing-up of the draft legal act and/or the study must be published in the Legislative Information System and on the website of the entity drawing up the draft legal act.
3. The accompanying documents of a draft legal act must specify the price of the drawing-up of the draft legal act and/or a study necessary for the drawing-up of the draft legal act, as well as reasons to substantiate the necessity of procurement of the drawing-up of the draft legal act and/or the study necessary for the drawing-up of the draft legal act and the entities that have drawn up the draft legal act and/or carried out the necessary study.
Article 12. Concept of an envisaged legal regulation
1. Before establishing a new or substantially amending the existing legal regulation, a concept of an envisaged legal regulation may be developed, providing an analysis of the existing situation, specifying issues to be addressed, the objective, principles and main provisions of the envisaged legal regulation, the likely positive and negative consequences of the envisaged legal regulation, the provisions substantiating the envisaged legal regulation and other important information.
2. The concept of an envisaged legal regulation shall be approved by an entity adopting a decision to develop the concept.
3. In the event of a change in legal, social, financial, economic or other important circumstances as a result of which the provisions of the concept of an envisaged legal regulation have become obsolete, inappropriate or unfeasible, the concept of the envisaged legal regulation must be amended or repealed.
Article 13. Form and structure of a legal act
1. A law must contain the following in the chronological order:
2. A law shall be composed of parts, chapters, sections and articles. An article of the law shall be composed of paragraphs and points of the paragraphs, while the points may be divided into sub-points. Large-scale codified laws (codes) may, if necessary, be divided into books. Taking into account the nature, content and scale of the law, not all of its constituent parts may be present.
3. A legal act, excluding laws, must contain the following in the chronological order:
4. Resolutions of the Seimas and decrees of the President of the Republic shall be composed of articles and paragraphs and points of the articles. Legal acts adopted by other state and municipal institutions and agencies shall be composed of points and sub-points and paragraphs of the points. A large-scale legal act may be divided into chapters and sections, if necessary, chapters/sections may be subdivided into sub-chapters/sub-sections.
Article 14. Requirements for a draft legal act and its drawing-up
1. Draft legal acts shall be drawn up in compliance with the norms of the standard Lithuanian language and legal terminology.
2. Where an article/paragraph or a point of an article of a legal act is amended, a new version of the amended article/paragraph or point shall be presented. Where the legal act is supplemented with an article/paragraph or a point, a version of the new article/paragraph or point shall be presented. Where an article/paragraph or a point of the article of the legal act is repealed, that article/paragraph or point shall be specified.
3. Where more than half of articles or points of an amended legal act are amended, the whole legal act shall be set forth as a new version.
5. When providing references to a particular law in legal acts (except for the cases where a reference is provided to the law itself), the full title of the law must be indicated.
6. When providing references to other legal acts, except for laws, in legal acts, the forename/forenames of the entity/entities that adopted the legal act, the date of adoption thereof, the type of the legal act, the number granted by the entity/entities that adopted the legal act and the full title of the legal act shall be indicated.
7. A legal act whereby the provisions of Union legislation are harmonised and implemented must indicate the concrete legal acts of the European Union pursuant to the requirements laid down by an institution authorised by the Government.
Article 15. Evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation
1. When drawing up a draft legal act which provides for regulation of previously unregulated relations, also whereby legal regulation is substantially amended, evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation must be conducted. The comprehensiveness of this evaluation must be proportionate to the likely consequences of the envisaged legal regulation. A decision on the evaluation of the effect of the envisaged legal regulation shall be adopted by the person in charge of drafting of the legal act.
2. When conducting an evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation, the likely positive and negative effect on the area of that legal regulation and on persons or groups thereof in respect of whom the envisaged legal regulation will apply shall be determined. Taking into account the nature and scope of the new legal regulation provided for in the legal act, the effect on the economy, state finances, social environment, public administration, legal system, crime situation, level of corruption, environment, administrative burden, regional development and other areas must be evaluated.
3. The results of the evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation provided for in a draft law or another draft legal act of the Seimas shall be presented in an explanatory note or a separate document. When drawing up other draft legal acts, the results of the of the effect of the envisaged legal regulation shall be presented in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Government or an institution authorised by it, a municipal council or an institution authorised by it.
Article 16. Evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation on the level of corruption, competition and regulated professions
1. An evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation on the level of corruption (anti-corruption evaluation of legal acts or their drafts) shall be conducted in the cases specified in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Prevention of Corruption. This evaluation procedure shall be laid down by the Government.
2. In the cases laid down in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Competition, the persons in charge of drafting legal acts shall conduct an evaluation of the effect of draft legal acts related to competition. This evaluation procedure shall be laid down by the Government.
3. In the cases laid down in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Recognition of Regulated Professional Qualifications, the persons in charge of drafting legal acts shall conduct an evaluation of the effect of draft legal acts related to regulated professions. This evaluation procedure shall be laid down by the Government.
Article 161. Repealed.
Article 162. Evaluation of the effect of an envisaged legal regulation on regional development
The person in charge of drafting a legal act shall conduct an evaluation of the effect of the draft legal act on regional development, where the legal regulation established, amended or repealed by the draft legal act may have an effect on regional development. The procedure for evaluating the effect of legal regulation on regional development shall be laid down by the Government.
Article 17. Drawing-up of draft legal acts electronically in the Legislative Information System
1. Draft laws and other draft legal acts shall be drawn up electronically in the Legislative Information System.
2. The Legislative Information System shall provide the entity drawing up a draft legal act with an opportunity to make the process of drawing-up of the draft legal act public, i.e. publish different versions of the draft legal act being drawn up and information relating to the drawing-up of the draft legal act.
3. The drawing-up of draft legal acts electronically shall usually involve the participation of the bodies wherewith the draft legal act is to be coordinated. The drawing-up of draft legal acts electronically may also involve the participation of other persons or groups thereof submitting proposals on the draft legal act being drawn up.
4. To obtain conclusions, a draft legal act shall be submitted by publishing it in the Legislative Information System and indicating the entities whose conclusions must be obtained. The conclusions on the draft legal acts shall be submitted by publishing them in the Legislative Information System.
5. Where a draft legal act involved public consultation, the results of the public consultation, as well as assessment of the comments and proposals received from the entities to whom the draft legal act was submitted to obtain conclusions must be provided to the entity adopting the legal act.
6. When participating in the drawing-up of a draft legal act electronically, natural persons must indicate their forename and surname and legal persons must indicate their business name.
7. When electronically drawing up a draft legal act which amends the legal regulation provided for in the legal act in force, a link between the draft legal act being drawn up and a consolidated version of the legal act in force at the time and other data from the Register of Legal Acts and the Legislative Information System relating to the draft legal act being drawn up shall be ensured.
Article 18. Adoption and signing of legal acts
2. An adopted legal act may not be corrected, except for spelling and grammatical mistakes discovered after the adoption of the legal act, which do not affect the content and meaning of the legal act.
3. Adopted legal acts shall be signed by duly authorised entities in accordance with the procedure laid down by legal acts. Adopted legal acts, except for laws and other legal acts signed by the President of the Republic, may be signed in the Legislative Information System with an advanced electronic signature.
Article 19. Registration and publication of legal acts
1. The legal acts referred to in points 1 to 18 of Article 6(2) of this Law shall be registered and officially published in the Register of Legal Acts.
2. A legal act signed by an entity with the powers laid down in legal acts that is an object of the Register of Legal Acts shall, not later than on the working day following the signing, be registered and published in the Register of Legal Acts, except for the objects of the Register of Legal Acts referred to in Article 6(2)(7) of this Law.
3. The registration and publication of a legal act in the Register of Legal Acts shall be considered to be the official publication of the legal act. The registration and publication of the legal acts provided for in Article 20(12) of this Law and of territorial planning documents approved whereby in the Register of Territorial Planning Documents of the Republic of Lithuania shall be considered to be their official publication.
4. Signed legal acts shall be stored by the entity that has adopted the legal act in accordance with the procedure laid down by this entity. One printed copy of the legal act signed with an electronic signature shall be stored by the entity that has adopted the legal act in accordance with the procedure laid down by this entity.
Article 20. Entry into force of legal acts
1. A regulatory act shall enter into force on the day following that of its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts unless a later date of entry into force is provided for in the legal act itself, except for the cases provided for in paragraph 12 of this Article.
2. A law amending the Constitution shall enter into force not earlier than one month after the adoption.
3. Tax laws of the Republic of Lithuania imposing new taxes, new tax rates, tax incentives, sanctions for infringements of the tax laws or substantially amending the procedure of specific taxation or the principles of legal regulation of taxation and their application shall enter into force not earlier than six months after their official publication. This provision shall not apply to laws amending tax laws of the Republic of Lithuania relating to the Law on the Approval of Financial Indicators of the State Budget and Municipal Budgets for the corresponding year, legal acts whereby national law is harmonised with Union law as well as tax laws of the Republic of Lithuania necessary during the period of exceptional circumstances as defined in the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Implementation of the Fiscal Treaty.
4. Legal acts amending the existing or establishing a new legal regulation of activities of economic entities or supervision thereof shall generally enter into force on either May 1 or November 1, however, in all cases not earlier than three months after their official publication. This provision shall not apply where the legal regulation is established or amended under the obligations defined in Union legislation and requirements of international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, also where the legal regulation that is more favourable to economic entities is established.
5. A legal act having individual application that is an object of the Register of Legal Acts shall enter into force on its publication in the Register of Legal Acts unless a later date of entry into force is provided for in the legal act having individual application itself.
6. A resolution of the Seimas on the removal from office of persons referred to in Article 74 of the Constitution or revocation of the mandate of a member of the Seimas in accordance with the procedure for impeachment, as well as a resolution of the Seimas whereby termination of the impeachment procedure upon a person's resignation is formalised shall enter into force on its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts and/or the media.
8. A resolution of the Seimas whereby the Speaker of the Seimas is assigned to temporarily act for the President of the Republic shall enter into force on its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts.
9. Other legal acts adopted by the Seimas not referred to in paragraphs 1-8 of this Article shall enter into force on the day following their official publication in the Register of Legal Acts, unless a different procedure of entry into force is laid down in the legal acts themselves.
10. A decree of the President of the Republic on the temporary deputising for the President of the Republic shall enter into force as of its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts.
Article 21. Registration, official publication and entry into force of acts of the Constitutional Court. Registration and official publication of announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court
1. Rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court, as well as announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act shall be registered and officially published in the Register of Legal Acts.
2. Signed rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court shall be forwarded to the processor of the data of the Register of Legal Acts not later than on the following working day. These acts of the Constitutional Court must be registered in the Register of Legal Acts and officially published not later than on the working day following their forwarding to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts, unless a different date of publication is laid down in the acts themselves.
3. Announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act must be registered in the Register of Legal Acts and officially published on the day of their forwarding to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts.
4. Rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court, as well as announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court regarding the suspension of validity of a contested act and renewal of validity of the suspended act shall enter into force on the day of their official publication in the Register of Legal Acts.
Article 22. Registration and publication of court decisions in the Register of Legal Acts
1. All decisions, judgments and rulings of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, as well as effective decisions of administrative courts regarding the legitimacy of regulatory administrative acts shall be registered and published in the Register of Legal Acts.
2. The National Courts Administration shall be responsible for forwarding the courts' procedural decisions referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article for registration and publication in the Register of Legal Acts. The National Courts Administration shall provide the data to the Register of Legal Acts in accordance with the procedure established by the Judicial Council, which has been coordinated with the manager of the Register of Legal Acts.
Article 23. Subject of an ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation
1. When conducting an ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation, the following shall evaluated:
1) application of the legal regulation – whether, how and why the legal regulation has been applied;
2) functioning of the legal regulation – what effect (positive effect or negative consequences) the legal regulation has had on a particular area of the legal regulation under the evaluation, on certain persons or groups of persons, the manner in which that effect has been made and the reasons for it, the additional circumstances and the impact they have had on the area of the legal regulation under the evaluation, on certain persons or groups of persons, the manner in which that impact has been made and the reasons for it.
2. When conducting an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation, the legal regulation established in laws and, where necessary, accompanying legal acts of the laws shall be included in the evaluation. There may be an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation established in a single legal act, part of a legal act or several legal acts.
Article 24. Cases in which an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation is conducted
1. A provision on the need for an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation shall be included in a law:
1) where public relations which have not previously been regulated are regulated or where there is a substantial change in the legal regulation;
2) where there is a significant effect of the legal regulation on a particular area of legal regulation, persons or groups of persons;
Article 241. Entities of an ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation
1. An ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation shall be conducted by the ministries in accordance with the sphere of management assigned to the minister concerned.
2. State and municipal institutions and agencies shall, within the remit designated in legal acts, provide the institutions referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article with the information necessary to conduct an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation.
3. The Government shall appoint an institution coordinating an ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation. This institution:
1) shall draw up, regularly revise and publish an up-to-date list of legal acts in which the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation is being conducted or planned to be conducted;
2) shall provide methodological advice on the procedure for conducting the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation;
3) shall deliver opinions regarding draft reports on the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation;
4) shall collect, compile information and analyse practices of the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation, positive and negative trends and, by 1 February each year, provide the Government with information on trends in the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation, their reasons as well as proposals for improving the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation;
5) may propose to the institutions referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article to conduct an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation or to include provisions on the need to conduct an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation in draft laws which are being drawn up.
Article 242. Procedure of an ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation
1. An ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation shall be conducted on the basis of the methodology for the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal evaluation. This methodology shall be approved by the Government or an institution authorised by it.
2. After conducting the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation, the ministry concerned shall draw up a draft report on the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation and shall obtain the opinion of the institution referred to in Article 241(3) of this Law on the said evaluation.
3. After assessing the opinion of the institution referred to in Article 241(3) of this Law, the ministry concerned shall, having conducted the ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation, draw up a final report on the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation. The form of this report shall be determined by the Government or an institution authorised by it.
Article 243. Making public the procedure of an ex post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation
1. Information on an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation shall be published in the Register of Legal Acts.
2. A list of legal acts in which an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation is being conducted or is planned to be conducted shall be published in the Legislative Information System and on the website of the institution referred to in Article 241(3) of this Law.
3. The ministry concerned which conducts an ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation shall publish information related to the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation in the Legislative Information System. A report on the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation shall, within five working days of its preparation, be published in the said information system and on the website of the ministry which has conducted the ex-post evaluation of the effect of the existing legal regulation.
SECTION 41
PECULIARITIES OF LEGISLATION IN THE EVENT OF MOBILISATION,
A STATE OF EMERGENCY OR OF MARTIAL LAW
Article 244. Drawing-up of draft legal acts, publication and entry into force of legal acts in the event of a state of emergency or martial law
1. In the event of a state of emergency or martial law, where it is not possible to use the Legislative Information System for legislation, drafts of laws and other legal acts shall be drawn up, information and documents referred to in Article 5(2) of this Law shall be processed and published by other accessible means and manners.
2. In the event of a state of emergency or martial law, where it is not possible to publish legal acts in the Register of Legal Acts, legal acts other than those referred to in Articles 245 and 246 of this Law shall be officially published in the media not later than three calendar days following that of its signing and shall enter into force mutatis mutandis in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 20 of this Law.
3. Tax laws of the Republic of Lithuania imposing new taxes, new tax rates, tax incentives, sanctions for infringements of the tax laws or substantially amending the procedure of specific taxation or the principles of legal regulation of taxation and their application as well as legal acts amending or introducing a new legal regulation of activities of economic entities or supervision thereof, where that legal regulation or its amendments are necessary for the achievement of the objectives of the introduction of an emergency situation or for the performance of state defence or other vital state functions in the event of mobilisation or martial law shall not be subject to the requirements laid down in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 20 of this Law as regards the entry into force of legal acts.
Article 245. Publication and entry into force of Seimas resolutions on declaration of mobilisation or demobilisation, imposition or withdrawal of martial law or declaration or revocation of a state of emergency, use of armed forces, decrees of the President of the Republic on imposition or withdrawal of martial law, declaration of a state of emergency, defence against armed aggression
1. A Seimas resolution on the declaration of mobilisation or demobilisation, imposition or withdrawal of martial law or declaration or revocation of a state of emergency, use of armed forces, a decree of the President of the Republic on the imposition or withdrawal of martial law, declaration of a state of emergency, defence against armed aggression shall be immediately registered and officially published in the Register of Legal Acts (except where it is impossible to publish them in the Register of Legal Acts) and in the media.
2. A resolution of the Seimas on the declaration of mobilisation or demobilisation, imposition or withdrawal of martial law or declaration or revocation of a state of emergency, use of armed forces, a decree of the President of the Republic on the withdrawal of martial law, declaration of a state of emergency shall enter into force on its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts and/or in the media, whichever is earlier.
Article 246. Publication and entry into force of acts of the Constitutional Court and announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court, publication of decisions of other courts in the event of a state of emergency or martial law
1. In the event of a state of emergency or martial law, where it is not possible to publish in the Register of Legal Acts the rulings of the Constitutional Court and its decisions on the interpretation of the rulings of the Constitutional Court, as well as announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court on the suspension of the validity of the contested act and on the renewal of the suspended act, these acts of the Constitutional Court and announcements of the President of the Constitutional Court shall be officially published in the media no later than three calendar days following that of its signing and shall enter into force on the date of formal publication.
2. In the event of a state of emergency or martial law, where it is not possible to publish in the Register of Legal Acts the decisions, judgments, rulings of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, as well as all effective decisions of administrative courts on the legality of regulatory administrative acts, these decisions, judgments and rulings shall be published in the media.
Article 25. Reorganisation of the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania
1. The Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania shall be reorganised into the Register of Legal Acts the controller and processor whereof shall be the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
2. The Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania shall be reorganised in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Law on Management of State Information Resources.
3. The State Enterprise Centre of Registers shall, by 31 August 2013, transfer the data and documents of the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania and the hardware and software used to manage the Register to the Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. This transfer shall be formalised by a property transfer and acceptance act.
Article 26. Entry into force and implementation of the Law
2. Legal acts accumulated in the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts of the Republic of Lithuania before the entry into force of this Law shall also be processed in the Register of Legal Acts.
3. Legal acts which were submitted to the editorial office of the official gazette Valstybės žinios but not published before the entry into force of this Law shall, not later than on the working day following that of the entry into force of this Law, be registered and published in the Register of Legal Acts.
4. An obligation laid down in the legal acts in force to publish information in the supplement Informaciniai pranešimai to the official gazette Valstybės žinios shall mean an obligation to publish such information on the website of the respective entity, unless the legal acts provide otherwise.
5. Municipal administrations shall, by 31 July 2014, provide to the Register of Legal Acts electronic versions of regulatory acts of municipal institutions in force on 1 January 2014; consolidated versions of these legal acts shall be published in the Register of Legal Acts by 30 April 2016.
6. All consolidated versions of legal acts must be published in the Register of Legal Acts by 30 April 2016.
7. The National Courts Administration shall draw up an electronic version of decisions, judgments and rulings of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania adopted before 1 January 2014, as well as effective decisions of administrative courts regarding the legitimacy of regulatory administrative acts and shall submit them to the Register of Legal Acts by 30 June 2015.
Article 27. Repealed legal acts
Upon the entry into force of this Law, the following legal acts shall be repealed:
1) the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Act (Official Gazette) No 12-296, 1993);
2) the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 41-991, 1995);
3) the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Register of Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 41-992, 1995);
4) the Law Supplementing Article 3 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 67-1604, 1996);
5) the Law Amending Articles 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 68-1632, 1996);
6) the Law Amending Article 14 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 125-2894, 1996);
7) the Law Amending Article 11 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 111-2796, 1997);
8) the Law Supplementing Article 4 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 6-114, 1998);
9) the Law Amending Articles 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts, Supplementing It with Article 101 and Repealing Article 7 (Official Gazette) No 48-1524, 1999);
10) the Law Amending Article 7 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 48-1527, 1999);
11) the Law Amending Articles 2 and 17 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 60-1949, 1999);
12) the Law Supplementing Articles 4 and 6 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 52-1483, 2000);
13) the Law Supplementing Articles 2, 15 and 17 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 82-2831, 2001);
14) the Law Amending Articles 4 and 5 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments and Supplementing It with Article 121 (Official Gazette) No 66-2705, 2002);
15) the Law Amending the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 124-5626, 2002);
16) the Law Amending Articles 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 17, 18, 19 and 23 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 108-4814, 2003);
17) the Law Amending Articles 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 12 and 13 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts (Official Gazette) No 88-3294, 2005);
18) the Law Amending Article 4 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 127-4823, 2006);
19) the Law Amending Article 11 of the Law on Procedure of Drafting of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Regulatory Enactments (Official Gazette) No 141-5400, 2006);
20) the Law Amending Articles 3 and 12 of the Law on Procedure of Publication and Coming into Force of Republic of Lithuania Laws and Other Legal Acts and Supplementing It with Article 31 (Official Gazette) No 12-493, 2007);
Article 28. Proposals to the Government and other state and municipal institutions and agencies
1. The Government shall, by 1 September 2012, submit to the Seimas draft laws which it is necessary to amend upon the adoption of the Law on Legislative Framework.