On 9 January, ‘The New Unity’, ‘The United List’ and ‘National Alliance’ members of the 14th Saeima (parliament of Latvia) came to Riga Castle for the meeting with the President of Latvia Egils Levits. Meeting focused on President Levits’ and new Saeima political groups’ views regarding legislative priorities.
President opened by praising the early results of the new convocation of Saeima. ‘You have made notable progress together. This is only the begging and I hope coalition will keep up the good work this year and the next years.’
Egils Levits spoke favourably about legal instruments adopted to foster horizontal cooperation on various priorities, but also reminded that their implementation must be efficient as well. For example, by creating the position of ‘deputy minister’ in strategic areas for the Latvian State such as digital transformation, demographics, family and children’s rights, higher education, research and innovations, and information space. ‘Policies in these areas are either weak or non-existent. National security also requires Latvia as a modern state to ensure consolidated policies and clear lines of responsibility,’ Egils Levits underlined.
President of Latvia and members of Saeima political groups also spent a great deal discussing current national priorities like strengthening of internal and external security, economic transformation and social guarantees.
Everyone agreed that Latvia should pursue its interests by designing a smart investment strategy for spending European Green Deal funding. ‘We must use the European Green Deal to support technological development and better education in Latvia. Transformations go easier and smoother in small countries like ours. We must use our advantages with vision and mission,’ President Levits underlined.
President of Latvia urged to promote ‘open Latvianness’, collective memory and democratic awareness. A scholarship for future teachers of Latvian languages, official languages of the European Union and STEM subjects would be of great benefit, said President Levits. This could help fill the respective vacancies.
National or state council is another initiative that Latvia should continue to consider to improve the quality of law-making at the national level.
President of Latvia also shared his intention to present changes in Law on Financing of Political Organisations to the Saeima. ‘These amendments will help political organisations design more policies more professionally. The funding will not change but political parties will have to use some of the state funding to raise their expert capacity,’ Egils Levits explained.
