On 1 December, President of Latvia Egils Levits welcomed Minister for Interior Marija Golubeva at the Riga Castle for a discussion on strengthening of the interior system and protection of Latvia–Belarus border.
President of Latvia enquired about current situation on Latvia-Belarus border. Minister Golubeva explained to the President Levits that a temporary border fence is being erected and other equipment deployed. Both officials underlined that border is and will remain protected to a full extent.
Marija Golubeva told President that she and several other European Union (EU) home ministers have initiated changes in the Schengen Borders Code. President expressed his support for the initiative and underlined that medium term goal right now is to ensure that EU’s asylum framework meets the new reality.
President of Latvia was pleased that interior system is finally getting proper attention as 2022 budget allocates funding for addressing the most pressing priorities, such as higher compensation of interior system workers. Egils Levits also mentioned that he would like to visit several interior system facilities next year.
Both officials discussed current criminal law priorities, paying special focus on online harassment. President of Latvia believes that experts and policy makers can work together on finding the most appropriate public safety arrangements in near future and will come up with relevant legal changes to achieve that.
President of Latvia also asked about the progress of Ministry of Interior plans regarding further education and high standards in interior staff education. Minister told President about plans to create permanent education consortium ‘Internal security academy’, a collaborative platform between Ministry of Interior, State Police College, Riga Stradiņš University and University of Latvia. It will start working with students in 2023 if everything goes as planned. President expressed his support for the plan and stressed that such education platform would be beneficial for boosting interior sector’s capacity in medium term.