This was the second annual meeting of the GIE, wherein VU Faculty of Law Assoc. Prof. Vaidotas A. Vaičaitis participated as an independent expert representing Lithuania as member state of Council of Europe and member to the European Charter of Local Self-Government (1985), which Lithuania ratified twenty years ago (in 1999).
The Group of Independent Experts (GIE) helps the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to carry out their responsibilities in local democracy, according to the European Charter. The experts are recruited from universities and other research centres based on their expertise in law, economics, or political science and have a renewable term of four years. The GIE is mandated to assist the Congress in preparing reports on the condition of local and regional democracy within the member states (monitoring reports). The GIE also takes part in monitoring local elections in member states. The last local elections in Lithuania have been held on March, 2019. The recent report (2018) of the Monitoring committee on state of local democracy in Lithuania is to be found here
