Articles

2025 became another year of war, resilience, and adaptation for Ukraine. Russia\'s full-scale war against Ukraine continued and resulted in territorial losses, destruction of energy facilities, and other critical infrastructure, including railways and seaports. Therefore, according to IER estimates, real GDP grew by approximately 2%.

Ukraine\'s European integration process is often discussed in terms of legislative directives and macroeconomic indicators. However, at the heart of this process lies the most vital and sensitive resource – people. For many years, labor migration from Ukraine to Poland was quite high, but often temporary in nature.

The use of participatory budgeting (PB) has appeared in more and more democratically governed municipalities in recent years. According to the 2021 book “World Atlas of Participatory Budgeting,” this method is widespread primarily in Europe and secondarily in South America, in which the residents of the city can propose the use of a certain amount from the municipality’s budget.”

One of our authors, Martin Vlachynsky, participated in an episode of In Conversation With, where he spoke with Adam Bartha, Director of Epicenter Network.

Next year, participants in Lithuania’s second-pillar funded pension system will face a personal financial referendum: to stay and save, to withdraw and leave, to transfer savings to the third pillar of the pension system, or to invest independently. Estonia tried the same approach in 2021, and economists at its central bank assessed the consequences. Estonia’s experience is highly relevant for Lithuania – similar outcomes are plausible here as well. 

“When I was a child, the monarch of Liechtenstein told me: our duty is to protect people from power. If you have power, your first task is to limit the powers of the government, not to expand them.” Prince Michael of Liechtenstein said these words during a short visit to Lithuania. The guest, who was invited as a guest speaker to the 35th anniversary of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, came as a surprise to many.

On December 18, 2025, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) invited Lithuania’s education community to discuss why ethical judgment matters in a fast-changing, digital world—and why ethics and civic responsibility are essential. The conversation took place during the awards ceremony for Lithuania’s national ethics competition for 7th–8th graders, “Beside Me: Another Person”, hosted by Vytautas Magnus University (VDU).

The December issue of the 4liberty.eu Newsletter provides an overview of the articles published on the 4liberty.eu website, serving as a starting point for further exploration.

In recent years, the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has repeatedly claimed that money is a public good. This formulation has become one of the central rhetorical pillars of the digital euro project. When the ECB announced in October 2025 that it was moving into the next phase of this initiative, Lagarde once again emphasized: “Money is a public good. Full stop.”

Tomio Okamura, the Czech Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, made a New Year\'s speech which is a prime example of economic populism that pretends to be \"common sense\" but is actually based on systematic simplification, confusion of terms, and false dilemmas. Underneath the appealing language of optimism and concern for \"ordinary people\" lies a set of claims that deny known facts, ignore the government\'s policy statement, and distort reality.