Municipalities are established to perform certain functions provided by
law. According to the abovementioned Republic of Lithuania Law on Local Self-Government, the functions of
municipalities are "
functions related to local government, public administration and provision of public services defined by the Constitution and attributed to municipalities by this and other laws". The processes of integration into
international organizations - like the
EU and NATO - are considered to be important external factors influencing the development of municipal
powers in the country.
Lithuania, which has become a member of these organizations, has been assigned completely new responsibilities, some of which, naturally, also belonged to municipalities. In the case of EU integration, municipalities have been assigned the necessary information supply to the
European Commission, and in the case of integration into
NATO,
municipalities have had new functions related to
security issues. == Municipalities ==