1)to establish culture as a strategic direction of the state development, giving priority to the cultural policy;

2) to reform the cultural governance and make it more democratic by expanding cultural self-regulation;

3) to improve the current financing of the cultural system by ensuring the return of the money earned by the cultural sector to culture;

4) to ensure high level protection of the copyright and related rights, increase the intellectual capital of the Lithuanian artists and competitiveness of creative industries based on that capital;

5) to develop cultural competencies and creativity during the whole human life;

6) to shape common policy of integral protection of the heritage;

7) to ensure sustainable development in Lithuania by combining heritage and environmental protection objectives with the urban development and spatial planning;

8) to increase accessibility of culture all over Lithuania;

9) to expand the cultural space of Lithuania by uniting the representatives of Lithuania in the whole world;

10) to disseminate Lithuanian culture abroad by achieving conceptually oriented long-term goals.

1. To establish culture as a strategic direction of the state development, giving priority to the cultural policy

Creative abilities of the Lithuanian society shall be the key resources of its sustainability and competitiveness. Culture and creativity shall be the prerequisite of democracy and self-expression of a free personality. Creativity safeguards society’s abilities to preserve and transmit the traditions, capacities to renew its institutions, implement innovations and adapt to new circumstances. Culture and art foster person’s initiative, self-expression, self-confidence, synthetic thinking, and emotional intelligence from the early age. Culture and art form favourable environment for creativity, fosters civic consciousness, tolerance, good social relationships, development of creativity based on intellectual property and development of knowledge economy. Art and cultural heritage provide the public with valuable examples of art work, educate to appreciate them, develop artistic taste, encourage the public to lead a meaningful way of life, develop its positive emotions and increase the sense of satisfaction.

Currently, culture and art as well as culture-related aspects of economy, social cohesion, and sustainable environment are not a priority area of the state policy. Culture financing from the state and municipal budgets, poor role of culture in implementing cross-sector linking initiatives prove this. Institutions do not adequately cooperate in developing cultural education, creative industries, designing harmonious environment, increasing social cohesion. Cultural policy is separated from other areas as well.

It is necessary to:

2. To reform the cultural governance and make it more democratic by expanding cultural self-regulation

Over the past 20 years public administration institutions have been rapidly changing in Lithuania, but this has slightly affected the administrative structure of the Ministry of Culture, cultural policy development and implementation. The current structure of the Ministry of Culture impedes evaluation of the specific characteristics of different competence areas, in particular the interdisciplinary nature of some of them, individual relationship with the public and other state policy areas. Current cultural policy development and implementation is ineffective, failing to adequately respond to the challenges and ensure continuity and renewal of cultural processes.

In Lithuania, the inherited Soviet model and its institutional type of culture realization has not been fundamentally changed and it does not ensure culture self-regulation. The increased opposition between the state culture realization policy and the public cultural interests has not created a safe and healthy competitive environment ensuring conditions for cultural initiatives, even contrary, it has weakened confidence in the State's role in fostering culture, raised many questions about efficiency and transparency of the use of state funds for implementing cultural policy. 

Cultural processes lack analysis and monitoring, impact assessment; therefore, they are not managed effectively.

It is necessary to:

3. To improve the current financing of the cultural system by ensuring the return of the money earned by the cultural sector to culture

So far, there is no detailed economic assessment of the Lithuanian creative work, however, statistic data show that Lithuanian creative sector accounts for about 5 percent of gross domestic product (hereinafter - GDP). This indicates that the current financing of culture is inadequate and unfair, because culture financing is not adequate to its created added value.

It is necessary to:

4. To ensure high level protection of the copyright and related rights, increase the intellectual capital of the Lithuanian artists and competitiveness of creative industries based on that capital

The current cultural policy is primarily aimed at maintaining the existing institutional framework. In Lithuania a person engaged in creative work is not the main addressee of the cultural policy, and therefore, no effective mechanisms have been developed yet to ensure favourable conditions for professional activities of the artists and assert their status in the society. Copyright and related rights protection system operating in Lithuania does not guarantee adequate copyright and related rights protection, does not always prevent the illegal use of intellectual property, the society does not fully understand the importance of copyright protection. Only in the State where the appropriate protection of intellectual property is guaranteed, culture can prosper, persons engaged in creative work feel appreciated and have motivation to create, and the representatives of the creative industries can safely invest in artistic work development and compete in global markets. Copyright and related rights protection must become a basis for civilized relations among the artists and the society, only then the intellectual property will become a competition guarantee of creative industries in Lithuania. Therefore, high level protection of copyright and related rights should be ensured in Lithuania in compliance with the European Union legislation and the international agreements signed by the Republic of Lithuania.

The above described mechanisms and society's cultural competencies as well as development of creative skills through the whole life encourage continuous cultivation and renewal of public creativity.

Creativity is one of the most valuable personal skills. Art creation in many ways enriches life of an individual and the society; it is the essential part of the general cultural grounds of the whole of humanity. Creative freedom is one of the fundamental personal rights, and the dissemination of artistic works is the basis of culture diversity and openness. Creativity and innovation is a factor of modern society and national progress, the most important resource in the cultural economy.

Globalization is directly related to the ability of the Lithuanian creative industries to compete in the world markets, to win this competition, to wait for new investments to come into different areas of creative industries. Therefore, cultural policy should not ignore the international economic relations.

It is necessary to:

5. To develop cultural competencies and creativity during the whole human life

When understanding culture and creativity as resources, the importance of the person actively creating and involved in cultural life becomes more evident. Therefore, it is necessary not only to satisfy the cultural needs of society, but also from an early age to develop the person’s capacity to take part in cultural life, critically evaluate, perceive information and use it creatively. On the other hand, when creating favourable conditions, it is necessary not only to develop these skills, but also to ensure the widest possible access to culture and the dissemination of it in public information space.

Knowledge society, as well as creation society, needs people with great imagination, developed critical thinking, intuition, logic and sense of aesthetics. In addition, young people not feeling the links with their cultural traditions are at risk of losing their identity with the community, environment, nation, and even their own identity.

Public libraries allow people to develop meaningful and happier life perspectives, which are to renew knowledge, enjoy literature, follow history and innovations, seek a better career, get integrated into the community, make independent decisions and participate in public life. The library is the fundamental institution of an educated and creative society that provides members of the society free access to the diversity of scientific and artistic works, and new information technologies and acting as a counterweight to commercial supply and propaganda of consumer society values. Libraries expand and complement the activities of schools and education system.

Schools, libraries, museums and other life-long educational environment that surrounds every person in Lithuania should provide opportunities to disclose and take part in cultural life, to deepen their cultural knowledge, develop their creativity and apply it to everyday life. Culture and education, complementing one another, create favourable conditions for life-long education and development of a versatile, creative personality capable of successful adapting to ongoing changes.

One of the major functions of cultural and art institutions is to spread the culture, create an attractive, providing joy of knowledge environment, culturally educate the society, develop self-confidence of the Lithuanian population, promote pride in their country's cultural heritage and living tradition of ethnic culture and creation.

It is necessary to:

6. To shape common policy of integral protection of the heritage

Cultural heritage - is an integral part of the identity of the country and its citizens, one of the most important guarantors of the state national security. Cultural heritage in the broad sense is understood as material one, which consists of movable and immovable property, and intangible one, the essence of which is traditions, knowledge and abilities conveyed from one generation to another, and cultural historical landscape that reflects human coexistence with the environment. Heritage preservation and use for modern society needs, academic research, revelation and appreciation of the heritage, its availability, identification of important Lithuanian heritage abroad - all of these make an integral part of the national cultural policy. Such policy ensures the national culture vitality, safety, mobilizes the society, grants it common values, common identity authentication features, defines the conditions of modern life, and encourages creativity. Heritage is an important, added-value generating part of the economy, which must be handled and used preserving all heritage values and leaving the rights of future generations intact.

State heritage protection, based on holistic, environmental protection, social integration and preventative heritage protection principles, must help to preserve the tangible heritage and properly convey to future generations the traditions, ways of self-expression, values, and become the guarantor of a harmonious environment and gradual development.

It is necessary to:

7. To ensure sustainable development by combining heritage and environment protection objectives with the urban development and spatial planning

Sustainable development of Lithuania is understood in a too narrow way and does not create proper conditions for urban development and spatial planning coordinated with heritage and environment protection objectives. Sustainable development in Lithuania requires a rational and well-grounded dialogue between professionals of heritage, environment protection, and urban design. It is therefore necessary to increase the importance of culture and education in the policy of Lithuania's sustainable development.

8. To increase accessibility of culture all over Lithuania

Still growing cultural gap between the urban and rural areas diminishes value of the Lithuanian culture, does not ensure quality of life, increases social exclusion. Different levels of culture access and population cultural activity is directly related to the lack of social cohesion and quality of life differences, and therefore, even dissemination of culture and its availability throughout the country, network type development of culture is an important precondition for quality of life in the whole country.

Modern human well-being depends on its ability to understand the processes and adapt to the changes of modern life. One of the essential purposes of culture is creation, nurturing, interpretation, and preservation of symbols giving sense to life. Education and culture develop the human sense of life, the field of meanings, stories, images, and sounds, without which the human life would be miserable, meaningless, and gloomy. Culture shapes and enriches the human personality. Purposefully designed and implemented cultural policy increases welfare and stimulates the sense of joie de vivre of the Lithuanian people.

By improving quality of life and changing a set of values of the Lithuanian people, culture makes the country more attractive, develops cultural awareness in people.

It is necessary to:

9. To expand the cultural space of Lithuania by uniting the representatives of Lithuania in the whole world

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania embodies the innate right of the human being and the Nation to live and create freely in the land of their fathers and forefathers - in the independent State of Lithuania. Twenty years ago, seeking freedom for a person and the nation to live independently, the people of Lithuania peacefully re-established the Lithuanian State. The need to reform the cultural policy that became evident during the initial congress meetings of the Lithuanian culture was inseparable from the spiritual rebirth of Lithuania based on the ethnic identity of the nation relieved from many years of oppression, its long-lived cultural traditions of Lithuania, the core of cultural, spiritual and moral national identity.

However, a large wave of emigration accompanying successful integration into the European Union shows weakened cultural affinity of the Lithuanian people, weakened belonging to the Lithuanian cultural space, the growing desire to exercise their freedom of movement and seek personal material advantage, new experiences. Emigration also indirectly indicates the reduced prestige of the Lithuanian culture and decreased motivation to identify oneself with the culture of Lithuania. Human mobility which became the global phenomenon poses new challenges for the Lithuanian cultural policy, encourages to change attitude towards the identities of society, communities and individuals representing them, and to interpret the concept of the Lithuanian character differently by changing the understanding of the identity related to specific area to the dynamic, network identity open to modern society processes. Accordingly, the cultural policy should be linked not only with the current territory of Lithuania, but also cover the entire network of emigration by creating and maintaining the Lithuanian culture space integrating them all.

It is necessary to:

10. To disseminate Lithuanian culture abroad by achieving conceptually oriented long-term goals.

The current dissemination of Lithuanian culture abroad is fragmentary; it does not have clear directions and objectives to ensure a coordinated, priority-based, result-oriented dissemination of Lithuanian culture.

Intercultural dialogue shows the country's political, economic stability, allows to get to know its residents’ values, lifestyle, creativity and literacy, promotes the exchange of ideas and information, and develops understanding of the uniqueness of other cultures. Direct cultural exchange and cooperation strengthen mutual understanding, openness, confidence in the country and its people.

Targeted dissemination of Lithuanian culture abroad is meant to achieve the desired long-term outcomes: increase the openness of culture, strengthen political and economic relations, and improve the image of Lithuania.

It is necessary to:

11. Key Principles

While developing Lithuanian culture, it is necessary to:

12. Implementation of the Guidelines on the Lithuanian Cultural Policy Development

1. The Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the basis of these Guidelines and in cooperation with public interest groups, prepares the implementation measures plan of the Guidelines on the Lithuanian Cultural Policy Development based on the financial obligations of the State, i.e. long-term financing of culture, a plan of investments into culture, a project on private capital and European Structural Funds raising and allocation to Lithuania culture.

2. The Government of the Republic of Lithuania, on the grounds of the Lithuanian Cultural Policy Guidelines and the objectives of cultural development, coordinates the implementation and monitoring of the action plan and, where appropriate, provides suggestions for improvement.

3. The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania performs general monitoring of the action plan on the implementation of the Guidelines on the Lithuanian Cultural Policy Development. The Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania submits by 1 March every year to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania a report on the implementation of the action plan of the Guidelines on the Lithuanian Cultural Policy Development.