Members of the 11th Saeima established 40 groups for interparliamentary relations last year.
The Saeima has so far established groups for interparliamentary relations with Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Uzbekistan.
The largest among these groups so far are those for interparliamentary relations with France and Azerbaijan, which have 43 and 42 members respectively.
Following the tradition of the previous convocations, MPs have also established a group for parliamentary support for Tibet. Besides, there is a group of independent members of parliament composed of six unaffiliated MPs.
According to the Rules of Procedure, at least three MPs are needed to form a Saeima group for promoting cooperation with parliaments of other countries or for expressing some other interests related to their work. Groups are not funded, and MPs are not remunerated for their work in groups.
The 10th Saeima had 56 groups for promoting cooperation with parliaments of other countries and other interests. The 9th Saeima had 65 groups, the 8th Saeima - 61, the 7th Saeima - 44, the 6th Saeima – 37, and the 5th Saeima had nine groups.
Saeima Press Service