LFMI

The catastrophe cannot be explained by the embargo alone; Cuba’s deeper tragedy is the system itself — one that promises dignity to the worker while making ordinary work meaningless, underpaid and morally absurd. That is why today, according to media reports, Cubans lack even the most basic foods: rice, chicken and other everyday products, available only through ration cards after long hours in queues.

The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) warns that, after the recent tax reform, Lithuanian businesses are facing another major regulatory challenge — the implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

Taxpayer’s Respect Day is marked in Lithuania on May 11. Since 2018, at LFMI’s initiative, it has been included in Lithuania’s official list of commemorative days — a reminder that the state is built by those who work, invest, create jobs, take risks, and generate the resources on which public life depends.

Anthropologist Clifford Geertz famously described culture as a web of narratives. The way societies understand the labor market is one such narrative — and it matters, because the story we choose shapes how we regulate and manage economic life.

According to the explanatory note of the draft law, strike activity in Lithuania remains consistently low, while in countries such as France, Italy, and Belgium, strikes are a common and effective tool for defending workers’ interests. But do collective labor conflicts actually improve workers’ well-being in the long run?

“I want more!” – the refrain of Lion Ceccah’s song, chosen to represent Lithuania at the Eurovision Song Contest, seems to have touched something deeper than pop taste alone. Eurovision is Europe’s great annual song contest: a glittering spectacle, a national showcase and a shared cultural ritual watched by millions. For a few minutes on that stage, a country’s song becomes its voice to the world. And Lithuania’s voice this year says: I want more.

At the end of 2025, Lithuania’s Parliament adopted amendments to the unemployment insurance system intended to strengthen incentives for a faster return to the labor market. However, according to the LFM, the fundamental problem remains unresolved: for the fourth consecutive year, Lithuania records the highest unemployment trap rate in the European Union, and remains the only EU country where this indicator exceeds 100 percent.

From tax reform to the launch of a major defence manufacturing project, 2025 has been a year of consequential economic decisions in Lithuania. Yet the underlying themes – competitiveness, fiscal discipline and personal responsibility – are not uniquely Lithuanian. They resonate across Europe and beyond.

The year 2025 was decisive for Lithuania – not only geopolitically, but economically. Defence spending increased significantly, while tax and pension reforms reshaped the policy landscape. Yet beneath these headline decisions lies a deeper question, one that extends far beyond Lithuania: are we strengthening the foundations of long-term prosperity, or shifting responsibility ever further towards the state?

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.