Europos Sąjungos regioninės politikos padarinių Lietuvos viešajai administracijai įvertinimas

Straipsnyje vertinami Europos Sąjungos (ES) regioninės politikos įgyvendinimo Lietuvoje padariniai šalies viešajai administracijai tiek stojimo į ES laikotarpiu, tiek jau įstojus. Šio straipsnio tikslas - remiantis ES teisės aktais, ES valstybių narių patirtimi ir Lietuvos pasirengimo valdyti ES struktūrinius fondus įstojus į ES padėtimi įvertinti ES regioninės politikos įgyvendinimo padarinius Lietuvos viešajai administracijai ir nustatyti ES fondų valdymo alternatyvas. Tyrimas atliktas vadovaujantis politikos analizės metodika. Straipsnio išvadose pateikiama 15 rekomendacijų, kaip įdiegti efektyviausią ES fondų valdymo alternatyvą - centralizuotą-integraotą ES struktūrinių fondų valdymo sistemą.As a member of the EU, Lithuania is bound to implement the regional policy of the European Union that is aimed at reducing regional development disparities. The main purpose of this policy analysis paper is to assess the effects the EU regional policy will assert on Lithuania's public administration. The underlying ground for the assessment is, namely, to help decision-makers develop an optimal system for the implementation of the EU regional policy that would be ready to absorb the EU support and, in turn, ready to achieve the established policy objectives. The article starts with an overview of the EU regional policy and its requirements in such areas as the programming and implementation of the EU funds. The third part of the article discusses the effects of the EU regional policy on the EU member states' administrations. The effects the former exerts on the latter were divided into the four main categories: structures, human resources, systems and instruments. This allowed the authors carry out a more structured evaluation. The fourth part of the article describes the effects of the EU regional policy on Lithuania's public administration in the pre-accession period. Likewise, the following part assesses the effects of the EU regional policy on Lithuania's public administration once Lithuania accedes to the EU. This policy analysis paper defines two main alternative systems for the management of EU funds after Lithuania's accession to the EU - a centralized-integrated system and a decentralised-unintegrated system. These alternative systems for the management of EU funds were formulated on the basis of two main principles: • integrated/unintegrated management of the structural funds defining the extent to which the structural funds are managed through existing national administrative, economic and financial systems or administrative, economic and financial systems set up specifically for the structural funds; • centralised/decentralised management of the structural funds defining the extent to which the management of the structural funds is centralized or decentralized in the territorial-administrative sense. Having assessed the advantages and disadvantages of the two extreme systems, the article concludes that the centralized-integrated system is the most appropriate one for the management of the EU structural support in 2004-2006. The final outcome of this policy analysis paper is a set of 15 recommendations on how to design the most effective alternative - the centralized-integrated system of managing the EU structural funds in Lithuania