Information about the Democracy Development Fund

The Democracy Development Fund was established in 2006. The main goals of this non-profit organization were to strengthen the institutions of democracy, to implement solutions that establish democracy in the most transparent systems, to promote technological progress, and increase the energy independence of Lithuania and other Baltic states. According to the founders of the foundation, it is necessary to free democracies from the extremely dangerous shadow influences drowning in corruption.

To achieve these goals, the Foundation publishes an economic and political magazine and organizes forums. In February 2007, the Foundation started publishing the monthly magazine Valstybė. This magazine aimed to educate the Lithuanian elite, to encourage it to strive for technological progress, a transparent media business environment, and energy independence.

In the same year, the first Lithuanian energy conference was held (it was later renamed the GreenTech Vilnius Forum). The main goal of this event is to encourage Lithuanian politicians, businesses, and society to implement a decisive transformation of the energy sector to minimize the consumption of fossil fuels, especially gas, in the heat sector, and to replace gas with local biofuels.

At the beginning of 2008, the first Lithuanian Economic Conference organized by the Foundation took place. Its main goal is to promote the technological and value progress of the Lithuanian economy and business. Technological progress should create conditions for the strengthening of the Lithuanian economy and the well-being of society, and orientation towards the most advanced countries, including Scandinavia, would allow transforming the economic and social system to combine progress with social solidarity. According to the founders of the foundation, this is crucial to prevent external forces from confronting and fragmenting, and taking over our democracy.

The founders of the Fund consider it a success that although the Lithuanian district heating was one of the most dependent on gas supplied by Gazprom, due to the consistent activities of the Fund and its founders, the Lithuanian district heating today is mainly based on biofuels. We also consider it a partial success that after ten years of continuous efforts, we can state today that a layer of leaders has finally formed in Lithuanian politics, who can understand that solidarity, including in tax matters, is crucial for building a strong and progressive civic democracy.

The biggest defeat of the Foundation is the complete failure of 15 years of consistent efforts to unite democratic forces in Lithuania and neighboring countries to implement systemic solutions that would clarify the media market, reduce the influence of oligarchic and Russia-related structures on information space, society, and elite values. Another failure is the lack of progress in fostering business leadership that is empowered to ensure the transparency of democracy, independent media, and the consolidation of state independence, including energy. This can be explained by the fact that it is the media business environment and the values ​​of business leaders that are at the constant target of destructive and corrupt forces seeking to conquer states from within.

Today, the main goal is to prevent fossil and nuclear fuel companies and their countries, often dictatorships, from turning the fight against climate change into an instrument of energy invasion of the European Union’s democracies. Efforts must be made to mobilize democratic forces to create an energy system geared to renewable energy and technological progress and to prevent this green and secure future from being replaced by the future of Gazprom’s gas and Rosatom’s nuclear reactors trying to furnish the European Union and its borders.

The start-up of the Foundation has been funded by the personal resources of the founders, and in recent years the Fund has sought to survive by mobilizing responsible businesses and institutions to support its projects, the objectives of which are best defined by progress, independence, and unity.