On Thursday, 4 April, the Saeima adopted in the final reading amendments to the Law on Application of Taxes in Free Ports and Special Economic Zones. Amendments stipulate that licenced capital companies and free port administrations are entitled to direct tax relief until 31 December 2035.

On Wednesday, 3 April, the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee agreed to support and forward for plenary review the draft decision which would task the Ministry of Justice with elaborating and submitting to the Saeima the Draft Law on Responsibility for Breaking the Oath of a Member of the Saeima.

“Latvia and Turkey have developed versatile bilateral relations, which are reflected by a frequent exchange of high-level visits, growing mutual trade, as well as good cooperation in education and culture. I am sure that this visit will significantly contribute to our bilateral political dialogue and encourage a more dynamic cooperation between our entrepreneurs,” Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, stressed on Tuesday, 2 April, when meeting in the main building of the Saeima with the President of the Republic of Turkey Abdullah Gül.

For the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima, the winter session’s central event was the annual foreign policy debate held in the Saeima. The Committee also devoted a lot of time to preparing the draft law on the ratification of the Revised European Social Charter. This was emphasised by Ojārs Kalniņš, Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee, when evaluating the Committee’s work during the winter session.    

Cooperation in research requires strategic agreement on priority research areas to be developed in each of the Baltic States. That was the shared opinion of the Baltic Assembly delegates and representatives of research and innovation on Friday, 22 March, when during a parliamentary seminar held by the Education, Science and Culture Committee of the Baltic Assembly they discussed strengthening cooperation among the Baltic States in research and innovation as part of the BIRTI (Baltic Innovative Research and Technology Infrastructure) project.

On the day when the restored state of Latvia has become a day older then the first independent state of Latvia, Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, addressed the parliament from the rostrum of the Saeima and urged everybody to think about the basis for the existence of our state and to take responsibility for a free and independent Latvia in the future.

On Thursday, 14 March, the Saeima appointed Jānis Maizītis as Director of the Constitution Protection Bureau (CPB).

On Thursday, 14 March, the Saeima adopted amendments to the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law in order to improve the provisions on applying coercive measures to legal entities. The draft laws containing amendments proposed by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Saeima were deemed urgent and adopted in the plenary in two readings.

On Wednesday, 13 March, Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, met with Jean Asselborn, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, and thanked him for Luxembourg’s support regarding Latvia’s membership in the OECD.