“Without question, the main challenges at present are security, energy independence, neighbourhood policy, and EU enlargement,” said Andris Sprūds, Chair of the European Affairs Committee of the Saeima, on Monday, 24 April, at the opening of the meeting of the chairs of the European affairs committees of the parliaments of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine.

On Friday, 21 April, Edvards Smiltēns, Speaker of the Saeima addressed the members of the 10th Youth Parliament saying: “Politics is a process that impacts society with the intention of improving its life. In this sense, politics is often all around us, because it starts with the small things in school, in our neighbourhood, non-governmental organisations, municipalities. It is starts with an open heart and a seeing mind, the ability to identify a problem, see the opportunity to do things better, find solutions and be committed to implementing them.”

On Monday, 24 April, the Saeima will host a meeting of the chairpersons of the European Affairs Committees of the parliaments of the Baltic States and Poland.

On Thursday, 20 April, the Saeima discussed the participation of troops of the National Armed Forces of Latvia in the United Nations international peacekeeping operation in Lebanon for the term specified in the resolution of the UN Security Council.

“Parliamentary democracy is complex—it requires the ability to coordinate a wide variety of views and opinions, as well as to listen and hear them. At the same time, it is also the best system of governance,” said Edvards Smiltēns, Speaker of the Saeima, on 5 April, the Job Shadow Day, in his address to the event participants at the Parliament.

On Wednesday, 5 April, the Saeima adopted in the third reading the State Defence Service Law and related amendments to other laws, introducing the State Defence Service. The first draft will commence their service on 1 July.

On Wednesday, 5 April, the Saeima supported in the second and final reading urgent amendments to the Immigration Law that provide for extending the term of residence permits and the term of examining residence permit applications for persons who have successfully passed the examination of the proficiency in the official language according to the requirements laid down in the law or who have attempted to pass the official language examination at least once before and are set to retake it.

On Wednesday, 5 April, members of the Saeima supported the government’s decision to declare the state of emergency in order to prevent the threats posed by the rapid spread of the spruce bark beetle and to protect the valuable spruce forest stands.

On Thursday, 30 March, the original Saeima Presidium chair from the interwar period was returned to the Parliament in a ceremonial event. Zbigņevs Stankevičs, Metropolitan Archbishop of Riga of the Roman Catholic Church, handed over the chair to Edvards Smiltēns, Speaker of the Saeima.

At the NATO Summit in Madrid, the Allies acknowledged Russia as the most significant and direct threat to the Alliance. Latvia and Romania are among the countries who are most directly affected by this threat. As like-minded countries, we must work together to implement the decisions of the Madrid Summit, strengthening the defence and deterrence capabilities of the eastern flank of NATO, underlined Edvards Smiltēns, Speaker of the Saeima, on Monday, 20 March, at a meeting with Parliament and government officials in Bucharest, capital of Romania.