On Tuesday, 31 July, at the main building of the Saeima, the Speaker of the Saeima met with the heads of Latvia’s diplomatic missions and noted that Latvia’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2015 will be one of the most significant challenges for the state in the near future.

On Thursday, 26 July, the Saeima in the third and final reading adopted the Law on Tax Support Measure with a view to relieve the tax debt burden incurred by taxpayers as a result of the economic crisis. The Law defines a range of taxpayers eligible to apply for the support measure, namely, companies that have incurred tax debts before 1 September 2011.

On Thursday, 26 July, in the second review the Saeima adopted amendments to the Law on National Referendums and Initiation of Legislation which were drafted by the Legal Affairs Committee.

Since the 11th Saeima convened, the Presidium has received submissions from 63 MPs renouncing the use of hard copies of documents related to plenary sittings. A symbolic green spruce is glued on their file boxes.

It is noteworthy that currently 10,000 citizens, including youths who have reached the age of 16, can introduce in the agenda of the Saeima any matter that has to be reviewed according to legislative procedure; therefore, referendums on draft laws should no longer be regarded as referendums for probing public opinion, emphasised Deputy Speaker Inese Lībiņa-Egnere on 20 July at the conference The Arithmetic of People’s Will: Elections and Referendums in Latvia.

“To reach understanding and reconciliation among Latvian soldiers would be a good sign for Latvia’s future. However, there are attempts to hinder this process,” said Ilmārs Latkovskis, Chairman of the Social Cohesion Committee of the Saeima, after meeting with President Andris Bērziņš.

On Wednesday, 18 July, members of the Citizenship Law Amendments Subcommittee of the Saeima reviewed amendments to the Citizenship Law and agreed on enabling Latvian expatriates to acquire dual citizenship, Latvians in exile and their descendants to retain their citizenship, and ethnic Latvians and Livs permanently residing outside Latvia to be granted citizenship.

The European Affairs Committee of the Saeima and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will continue close cooperation and undertake specific measures to coordinate their positions in the decisive phase of negotiations on distributing European Union’s (EU) Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020, with special emphasis on cohesion funds and direct payments both of which have been defined as Latvia’s priority matters. This was the common agreement reached between the members of the European Affairs Committee and representatives of NGOs, who met on Friday, 13 July, in the Saeima.

On the 93rd anniversary of the establishing of the Latvian army, I would like to thank each Latvian soldier who enables us to feel safe and protected today. On this day I would especially like to commemorate and pay my deepest respect to those soldiers who fought for Latvia’s independence and freedom at historic moments crucial for our country. The security of our country is unimaginable without the Latvian National Armed Forces.