| Abstract [eng] |
"Animal Welfare and Animal Protection Policy in Lithuania: Implementation of European Union‘s Political Obligations and Formation of National Policy": The master thesis analyses the mechanisms of Lithuanian animal welfare and protection - Implementation of the EU’s Political Obligations and Formation of National Policy. The aim of the thesis is to examine the implementation of the EU’s animal protection and welfare policy and the specificities of making the relevant policy in Lithuania; the opportunities to form a particular policy including the interfering factors. The answer to this situational problem would be this: the animal welfare and protection issues in Lithuania’s political agenda appeared partly due to the state’s sought to join the EU, but this was not the only reason but rather one of them. Lithuania, preparing for entrance to the EU and after that, tried hard to Europeanize and adjust the requirement of the EU – it was influenced by the adaptation pressure of the EU. Next to the adaptation pressure, the influence in this sphere was made by other factors – in the analysed case it was the representatives of animal welfare and protection of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) that initiated the very first animal welfare legislation in 1997. They were active in preparation of Animal welfare and protection Act in 2012 and in many other activities related to this sphere. Particularly the validation of ritual slaughter (which possibly is contrary to the law of the EU) shows that some groups of interests and lobbyists could have done an influence on politicians. This suspicion was especially reinforced after the unity of the votes of particular parties. It turned out that participation in the formation of policy by both the adaptation pressure of the EU as well as animal welfare and protection NGO were sufficient conditions to raise this policy. Although various and different participants were more or less active in different periods, the factor of the EU remained active as well. It is very important that both essential political breakthroughs in the sphere of animal welfare and protection (in 2012 and 2014) and the formation of national policy were influenced not only by positive factors (adaptation pressure of the EU, initiatives by NGO) but by negative ones (political incompetence, harmful public habits in the sphere of animal welfare and protection, pure financial basis, incapacity of the legal basis, impracticability of the policy of the EU, “dead letters”, etc.) as well. Despite the problems related to animal welfare and protection (both similar to those in other EU countries, as well as specifically Lithuanian ones), since 2012 the implementation of the EU’s animal welfare and protection policy has acquired features which reflects the formation of the national policy of animal welfare and protection and positive tendencies in this particular process. |
