Lithuania

Lithuania is a country in Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and its capital is Vilnius. It has a total area of 65 300 sq km out of which 62 680 sq km is land and 2620 sq km is water. In comparison, Lithuania is a little bigger than West Virginia. Surrounding countries include Belarus, Latvia, Poland and Russia. Climate wise, Lithuania can be described as having warm, wet summers and harsh winters. Its climate is usually transitional between maritime and continental. July is usually the warmest month of the year with temperatures around twenty degrees Celsius while January is the coldest with temperatures around minus five degrees Celsius and colder. Major Biomes that exist in such temperatures include Aquatic, Wetlands and Forests. Lithuania consists of about 3,525,761 people, its official language is Lithuanian and majority of the people are Roman Catholics. As for government, Lithuania has three different branches. First is the Executive branch, which includes the chief of state, prime minister and the cabinet. Second is the Legislative branch or unicameral parliament meaning one parliamentary chamber. Unlike Canada which consists of two chambers, the elected lower house and upper house or senate, Lithuania only has one chamber made up of 141 seats and therefore it is known as unicameral parliament. Finally, there is the judicial branch, which consists of the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. As for political parties, currently nine are major and have a spot in the parliament out of a total thirty-seven. Economy wise, Lithuania is a member of the World Trade Organization as well as the European Union. Recently its economy has been growing rapidly making it one of the highest in the EU. The industrial sector plays a key role in the growth as it makes up majority of Lithuania’s GDP. Important industrial sectors include energy, chemicals, machine building, electronics, forestry products, construction material, food processing and