“In shaping the foreign policy of our country, the parliament’s task is to become a strategic debate forum where political goals and challenges are evaluated and discussed with particular emphasis on Latvia’s national interests,” stressed Speaker Solvita Āboltiņa during the annual foreign policy debate held at the Saeima on Thursday, 24 January.

On Friday, 18 January, when opening the Annual Summit of the Baltic Assembly and the Nordic Council, Raimonds Vējonis, President of the Baltic Assembly, said: “The priorities of Latvia’s presidency of the Baltic Assembly for this year are, on the one hand, competitive and innovative development of the Baltic economies through implementing a joint Baltic policy on external economy and investment, and, on the other hand, European Union’s development cooperation”.

On Thursday, 17 January, while meeting in the main building of the Saeima with Eero Heinäluoma, Speaker of the Finnish parliament, who is currently on an official visit to Latvia, Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, pointed out: “Latvia’s and Finland’s cooperation is characterised not only by excellent bilateral relations and active political dialogue on all the levels but also by increasingly close cooperation in the Nordic-Baltic (NB8) format”.

On Wednesday, 16 January, during the meeting of the European Affairs Committee, where MPs assessed the introduction of the single European currency, the euro, in Latvia and the campaign for raising public awareness, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Chairperson of the European Affairs Committee, emphasised that introduction of the single European currency is not a spontaneous whim of the Latvian government; it has been the strategic goal of several successive governments, and it will soon be reached.

“The coming years will be full of challenges for our countries – Lithuania will undertake the presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of this year, while Latvia will assume this task two years later. We must achieve favourable decisions regarding the new Multiannual Financial Framework of the European Union, we must make progress on energy issues, and we must continue to work on transport infrastructure development projects,” Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, noted on Thursday, 10 January, when meeting in the main building of the Saeima with Algirdas Butkevičius, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania.

Last year, the Saeima received 6,368 submissions from individuals, NGOs and other organisations. Also, more than 13,000 citizens used the opportunity to address the parliament in a collective submission for the first time.

During its autumn session of 2012, the Saeima convened for 16 plenary sittings, 1 extraordinary sitting and 1 ceremonial sitting. During this autumn session, the parliament has adopted 112 laws, including 17 new laws and amendments to 95 laws. In the process of law making, the Saeima has considered 3,176 legislative proposals either in the second or in the third reading.