On the 15th December, discussion ‘Lithuania, Quo Vadis? Communities Creating Lithuania’ was organised by the team of the international network of professionals Global Lithuanian Leaders and law firm TRINITI. Politicians, scientists and businessmen were discussing about the importance of communities and their significance in creation of a strong state. They also raised a question whether communities that are being established in Lithuania could already be seen as strong enough.

‘Despite the constant growth in the number of organisations and valuable initiatives, the number of people participating in community activities has not changed significantly over the last five years. It means that we have 34 – 33 – 37 per cent of population involved in the activities of local communities. It could be questioned whether that is enough for us?’ – argued Ieva Petronyte, the Director of the Civil Society Institute.

‘Communities are still in the stage of development’, – the Minister of Social Security and Labour Algimanta Pabedinskiene agreed with I. Petronyte, – ‘There are some strong communities as well as some really weak ones. There are also some communities that have not been created yet. With regards to rural areas, there are 1800 communities at the moment. However, in terms of the major cities, there are very few communities, just around 200 of them. Therefore, there is definitely room for growth.’

Andrius Ciplijauskas, representing one of the communities of Vilnius, Pilaite Community, said he has a dream that even residential neighbourhoods of the city will have their own identities: ‘Live is going in the residential areas as well. They may be unique, interesting and distinctive, they may have their own face and it could be really cool to live there’. Therefore, it is necessary to find advantages of one‘s own neighbourhood and try to improve it even more.

In the discussion, moderated by Linas Sabaliauskas, the Managing Partner of the law firm TRINITI, the ideas were also shared by the President of Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists Robertas Dargis, Council Member of Antakalnis Community Mindaugas Danys, businessman, politician and leader of Naisiai Community Ramūnas Karbauskis.