The Venice Commission has urged Lithuania to review last year’s decision to freeze funding for the public broadcaster LRT for three years and recommended maintaining a qualified majority threshold for dismissing the broadcaster’s director general.
The commission said the law, which froze LRT’s funding, was adopted "without an impact assessment or significant consultations with LRT and without establishing a transitional period," in an opinion released Saturday.
At the end of November, the Seimas adopted an amendment under which LRT’s funding for 2026-2028 would be frozen at 2025 levels. In subsequent years, the budget will be composed of 0.75 percent of personal income tax and 0.8 percent of excise revenue received two years prior, less than previously projected.
The Venice Commission noted the amendment was registered just two weeks before adoption and will take effect from 2026. The body said the haste and lack of consultation "deprived the broadcaster of any opportunity to adapt its plans, creating a foreseeable risk that it would lack the resources necessary to provide public service."
"In view of this, the Venice Commission recommends a comprehensive assessment of the LRT funding model, including an analysis of the impact of recent changes on LRT's ability to effectively carry out public services," the opinion states.
"This assessment should be carried out in close consultation primarily with LRT, as well as with other stakeholders, with a view to reviewing (the currently adopted funding model – BNS)," the document states.
Under the current legal regulation, LRT's budget for 2026-2028 will be almost 80 million euros annually. Based on the previous funding methodology, the broadcaster's budget was expected to grow to almost 88.2 million euros this year.
Urges balanced conditions for director's dismissal
The Venice Commission also reviewed two draft laws from last year on the dismissal procedure for the LRT director general. Although abandoned, the conclusions may inform a February working group project in the Seimas aimed at changing the broadcaster’s governance model.
In one of last year’s projects, the ruling party Nenumas Dawn proposed that a simple majority of six out of 12 LRT Council members’ votes would be sufficient to dismiss the head. Another proposal suggested that seven out of 12 votes would be enough for dismissal. Currently, the dismissal of the LRT head requires eight out of 12 votes, which is a qualified majority.
Both of last year's projects stalled in the Seimas due to procedural obstacles initiated by the opposition, after which a working group was formed in parliament to review LRT governance. This group registered its project at the end of February.
The Venice Commission advocated for a qualified majority in the LRT Council for dismissing the LRT head before the end of their term.
"A director general who can be dismissed by a simple majority of the council’s votes would be more vulnerable to direct demands or instructions from those who can form such a majority, and in any case would be under constant pressure to avoid editorial or managerial decisions that might displease them," it said.
"In view of this, the commission recommends maintaining the existing qualified majority requirement for dismissing the director general, as an essential safeguard against politicization," the document states.
The commission acknowledged that a qualified majority for decision-making can sometimes be extremely difficult to achieve, and therefore proposes creating an effective mechanism that would avoid an institutional deadlock if the LRT director general cannot be dismissed.
"Such a mechanism would ensure that if the necessary qualified majority is not reached within a reasonable period, a structured procedure would be initiated to resolve the situation," the commission states.
The working group for reviewing LRT governance, in its latest project registered at the end of February, proposed increasing the number of LRT Council members from 12 to 15.
It also proposed sticking to the existing two-thirds majority threshold required to dismiss the institution's head.
‘Does not comply with European good legislative practice’
The Venice Commission stated that it would not object per se to proposals to classify the council's vote on the dismissal of the LRT head, but at the same time urged that legislation ensure the independence of council members from appointing institutions, so that they cannot be given instructions, and that detailed council minutes be provided to the director general with a possible secret ballot. The commission also urged the law to establish clearly defined and objective grounds for the director's dismissal.
The institution proposed that the amended dismissal procedure for the head would come into effect after the term of the current LRT head, Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė.
According to the commission, this would be an essential guarantee ensuring that "changes to dismissal procedures are understood as a systemic, universally applicable reform, and not as a measure directed against a specific official."
"Such an approach would preserve the integrity of the legislative process, protect the independence of public media executives, and align the draft law with accepted European standards," the Venice Commission states.
It also concluded that both the decision to change the LRT funding model and last year's attempts to hastily change the broadcaster's head dismissal procedure "do not comply with European good legislative practice."
According to the Venice Commission, these legislative initiatives should be evaluated in a common context, not in isolation.
"Measures that together weaken LRT's financial and institutional safeguards endanger its ability to fulfill its mission and are therefore difficult to reconcile with the state's commitment (...) to act as a guarantor of media pluralism," the opinion states.
"In summary, funding restrictions and proposed governance changes may create conditions that increase vulnerability to political pressure and self-censorship, rather than strengthening accountability," it states.
LRT appealed to the Venice Commission for an opinion on the draft laws.
The Seimas working group proposed in February that the broadcaster's council itself could decide how to vote on the dismissal of the director general – secretly or openly.
Possible grounds for dismissal of the head in the law include improper performance of functions, violation of public interest, gross violation of duties, or no longer meeting the requirement of impeccable reputation.
The working group also decided to propose to the Ministry of Culture to prepare amendments to the LRT law that would establish a new funding model for the national broadcaster. It is desired that LRT conclude public service contracts with an institution authorized by the Government, which would define tasks and goals for which the state would pay the national broadcaster.
The amendments prepared by the Seimas working group are planned to be discussed in the upcoming spring session of parliament.
