On Sunday, 10 November, Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, while on a working visit to the United States of America, attended a church service at the Yonkers Church of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of New York, as well as met with the New York Latvian community and greeted it on Lāčplēsis Day.
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“November is a special month for Latvia because that is when we celebrate the birthday of our state. This month has another important date, namely, 11 November, or Lāčplēsis Day. Our country was only one year old when it had to undergo a dreadful ordeal because our recently established state of Latvia was close to being taken away from us. It took great heroism to protect our country. Although we were hopelessly outnumbered, people still had faith and were ready to sacrifice the most precious thing they have, namely, their lives.” This was said by Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, on Thursday, 7 November, as she opened the schoolchildren’s photo exhibition My Lāčplēsis Day in the main building of the Saeima. The exhibition shows Lāčplēsis Day through the eyes of a schoolchild and reveals what this commemorative day means to young people.
The Saeima adopts the state budget for 2014 (08.11.2013.)
On Thursday, 7 November, the Saeima adopted in the final reading the Law on the State Budget for 2014, the Law on Medium-Term Budget Framework for 2014–2016 and amendments to 37 budget-related laws.
Āboltiņa: Latvia and Georgia’s good relations stem from intensive political dialogue and active people-to-people contacts (06.11.2013.)
“Latvia and Georgia’s good relations stem from intensive political dialogue and active contacts between the people of both countries. As a member state of the European Union and NATO, Latvia has always encouraged Georgia to carry out reforms, and Georgia can continue to rely on our support,” this was stressed by Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, on Monday, 4 November, as she met in the main building of the Saeima with David Usupashvili, Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia.
Saeima restricts issuance of residence permits (01.11.2013.)
On Thursday, 31 October, the Saeima adopted in the final reading urgent amendments to the Immigration Law in order to introduce quotas for issuing residence permits to real estate buyers and prevent foreigners from obtaining residence permits in exchange for purchase of real estate containing agricultural land or forest.
On Thursday, 31 October, the Saeima adopted in the final reading amendments to the Elections to the European Parliament Law, thus simplifying the voting procedure for soldiers and national guards serving on international missions.
Kalniņa-Lukaševica at COSAC meeting: The EU has high expectations from Eastern Partnership Summit (30.10.2013.)
During the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Monday, 28 October, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Chairperson of the European Affairs Committee of the Saeima, emphasised that the European Union (EU) member states, including Latvia, have high expectations from the forthcoming Eastern Partnership Summit, and they hope it will be a turning point in the relations between the EU and its eastern neighbours.
“Although it is not an easy task to guess the legal beliefs and views of the people and to put them down in the form of legal provisions contained in the supreme law, the founding fathers of our Constitution managed to do that successfully. However, the drafters of the Constitution failed to agree upon an expanded and more detailed introduction – or the preamble as we now call it – to this law.” This was pointed out by Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, at the opening of the conference on Reflection of the Foundation of the Latvian State in the Expanded Preamble of the Constitution – Concept and Tentative Content held on 25 October in the University of Latvia.
Saeima delegation meets Armenian MPs in Erevan (23.10.2013.)
Latvia and Armenia have active parliamentary cooperation. This is confirmed by the fact that the parliaments of both countries have established groups for interparliamentary relations with the other country, by successful exchange of high-level visits, including the official visit of Hovik Abrahamyan, President of the National Assembly, in June of this year, as well as by study visits of Armenian MPs and parliamentary staff members to the Saeima. This was stated by Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, on Wednesday, 23 October, when she met with representatives of the Armenia–Latvia friendship group of the National Assembly of Armenia during her working visit to Armenia.
On Tuesday, 22 October, during their meeting in Erevan with Edward Nalbandian, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, the members of the delegation of the Saeima noted that Latvia and Armenia have a sound and constructive political dialogue, as well as active cooperation in several areas; however, there is a great untapped cooperation potential in economics, culture and education.