On Thursday, 16 October, the Saeima adopted amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Saeima and thus introduced several changes in the law that regulates the work of the parliament.

The amendments envisage stricter sanctions against MPs who violate the Code of Ethics for Members of the Saeima, namely, it will now be possible to forbid such MPs from taking the rostrum at plenary sittings or to exclude them from plenary sittings, accordingly imposing a fine in the amount of 20% of the MP’s monthly salary for each missed plenary sitting. However, after the fine has been deducted, the MP’s monthly salary must not be below the minimum monthly salary guaranteed by the state.

The amendments to the Rules of Procedure were drafted on the grounds of a collective submission, signed by 13,854 citizens, on liability for breaking a Saeima member’s oath. Ilma Čepāne, Chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee, which is responsible for processing the amendments, indicated that the collective submission envisaged granting the Saeima the right to expel MPs from the Saeima if they grossly violate the oath of office.

The amendments were adopted in response to public indignation regarding cases in which the punishment is incommensurate to the violation committed by MPs; therefore, as of now, it will be possible to exclude individual MPs for up to six plenary sittings, along with resultant significant cuts in their salaries.

Previously, when MPs violated the Code of Ethics, they received an oral warning, a written warning, or a written warning followed by a relevant announcement at a plenary sitting and publication of the decision of the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee in the official publication Latvijas Vēstnesis.

Furthermore, the amendments envisage establishing the Sustainable Development Committee of the Saeima, which will be tasked with monitoring implementation of the National Development Plan and the Sustainable Development Strategy of Latvia until 2030, as well as supervising revision of these two planning documents. It is expected that the new standing committee will also take part in elaboration of other strategic and cross-sectoral planning documents by offering its opinions and proposals, as well as in addressing conceptual matters.

The new provisions of the Rules of Procedure also oblige the State Audit Office to submit to the Saeima an annual written report on its activity and to present the report at a plenary sitting.

The wording of the Rules of Procedure is supplemented with provisions regarding the procedure for reviewing the medium-term budget framework because until now it has not been defined.

Furthermore, the amendments envisage that the Social Cohesion Committee will be renamed as the Citizenship, Migration and Social Cohesion Committee in order to reflect more precisely the scope of its activity.

The new wording of the Rules of Procedure also sets forth that each parliamentary group will be represented at the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee by two MPs instead of one.

The amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Saeima will come into force on the day following their proclamation.

Saeima Press Service