"Just like in earlier years, the main risk to national security lies in the excessive dependence of Lithuania upon supplies of strategic resources and energy by a single country," reads the report that will be discussed a the government's meeting on Wednesday.
Lithuania imports all of its gas consumption from Russia, a country that also supplies the bulk of oil and electricity Lithuania needs.
Nevertheless, the chapter on the status of the national security also emphasizes that Lithuania's energy independence has been stepped up over the past year.
"Efforts were made to diversify the supplies of energy resources by way of merging energy networks of Lithuania and other European Union member-states, as well as production of electricity was stimulated to use renewable energy resources and an electricity market was launched. A strategic investor to Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant project was selected, with considerable progress made in the implementation of the liquefied gas terminal project," reads the document.
The report pays much attention to outstanding economic risk factors to national security, namely, sluggish economic growth, relatively high unemployment rate, economic emigration and smuggling.
"The risk is that the worsening global economic situation will slow down growth of the Lithuanian economy. (...) The scope of shadow economy and smuggling of excise goods is rather big due to economic recession," the government says in the report, noting "positive tendencies in the field."
