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This article examines the decision-making process in the energetics sector. In the work, multicriteria decision-making support tools, their application domains and usability possibilities are analysed and structured. The article presents the support tools selected for environmental policy integration in energetics and determines the possibilities of their application for Lithuania's energetics policy. It gives the methodology of multicriteria decision-making in the energetics sector, based on the assessment of the impact of energy and environmental policy priority goals. The definition of 'harmonious development' is extended, regarding philosophies of various generations about the basic aspects of Human, Nature and System's capacity harmonization. According to this expanded definition, there is presented an improved energetics policy development system: Propulsion - State - Response (PSR). The main contribution is the design of the State phase, combining the Human, Nature and System parts, aiming to create overall and relevant strategies. A consecutive energetics policy development system is set out and the method of its use is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At this moment, in the world as well as in Lithuania, politics of environmental protection is one of the most important policy directions. After the 2008 Parliament election, a new environmental programme of the Government was compiled, which should satisfy society's expectations, solve the most relevant environmental problems and ensure quality realization of environmental policy in Lithuania during 2008-2012. The aim of the work was to analyze and evaluate environmental aspects in the election campain of political parties during the 2008 election to the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania and in Government programmes. The analysis has shown that: 1. The environmental protection management system of Lithuania ensures quite a reliable administration and implementation of environmental politics in the Republic of Lithuania. However, it still causes some problems, so this system should be improved. 2. Environmental protection is regulated by various legal documents which should ensure an appropriate implementation of environmental protection. However, often the main problems remain unsolved due to abundance and imperfection of these documents. 3. Analysis of environmental protection programmes of political parties of Lithuania shows that the Lithuanian environmental protection politics are mostly oriented to protection of natural environment. Less attention is paid to the protection of landscape, cultural and recreation resources. 4. The programmes of environmental protection, prepared by political parties, are made according to environmental preferences of certain social groups, and therefore the lack of complex approach in these programmes is indicative of the limited social ecological consciousness. 5. The main environmental preferences of coalition parties of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, mentioned in the programmes of the parties, also reflect society's expectations and are involved into the ambitious governmental programme which should be implemented during 2008-2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essence of sustainable development is to attain mutual harmony and compromise of three equal values: environment, economy and social society. In order to achieve this goal none of the values should not be made primary over the others and their coexistence should be ensured by proper conditions. Due to the significance of implementation of sustainable development goals various environmental measures are needed which are based not on state enforcement, but on enabling to avoid environmental law violations and encouraging voluntary compliance with the requirements of environmental law. As a consequence, the balance between the environmental, economic and social society goals can be ensured more effectively. The potentially effective measure to ensure compliance with the requirements of environmental law is public disclosure of environmental information and violators of environmental law. The article considers the importance of the concept of public disclosure of environmental information, Lithuanian practice on this issue, and its importance for the purposes of sustainable development. The author also reveals the concept of public disclosure of environmental law violations, analyzes this topic in the context of Lithuania, and its importance for the achievement of sustainable development goals. The mechanism of public disclosure of environmental information enables the society to control legal entities, so that they do not unduly focus solely on their economic goals, thus denying other values to the society. Public disclosure of information on legal entities which have committed environmental law violations and state enforcement measures applied to them encourages legal entities to voluntarily comply with the requirements of environmental law and not to commit environmental law violations. The author concludes that both public disclosure of environmental information and public disclosure of legal entities which have committed environmental law violations and enforcement measures applied to them by the state encourages legal entities to voluntarily abstain from committing environmental law violations and enables to reduce costs of enforcement. If legal entities voluntarily comply with environmental law requirements, the need for control and supervising bureaucracy apparatus decreases and the aims of sustainable development can be achieved more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal regulation of environmental legal relationships seeks to to protect and restore natural resources, protect the environment from any harmful impact and improve the quality of life health protection. These aims may be successfully achieved in case a common and harmonious system of legal regulation is created and implemented. However, such a system of legal regulation of environmental relationships in Lithuania has not yet been created. The article introduces and analyses the environmental relationships, their peculiarities and social importance. It further considers a question of which environmental relationships should be the object of environmental law. In the light of the goal of legal regulation to integrate EU and Lithuanian environmental policy principles into the other fields of social life, the article also characterizes the methods, principles and functional relations with legal norms of other legal branches and legal acts. The current situation of legal regulation of environmental relationships is criticised as too complicated and ineffective. The ambiguity, uncertainty and other shortcomings of the legal regulation are caused by huge vicissitude, frequent amendments, duplication between the EU and Lithuanian laws and other legal acts. As a consequence, preconditions for corruption, law abuses, breach of subjective rights, possibility of public and private interests conflicts are created, which its causes passiveness and legal nihilism of the society. The article suggests to create, enforce and improve the system of legal regulation of environmental relationships, systematize and codify environmental legal norms, raise activity of the society and improve the level of its legal knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]