On Friday, 6 November, parliamentarians from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania took part in the digital 39th session of the Baltic Assembly (BA) and agreed on the cooperation priorities for 2021, emphasising the promotion of economic and social stability in the Baltic States as a matter of first concern.

Next year's budget is that of kept promises, and it is vital that the budget will honour the promises given to the public about increasing the salaries of medical and teaching staff. It is also important that the government has been able to find funding to raise the guaranteed minimum income, as well as to boost other valuable areas, which includes funds to continue the housing program, stressed Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, on Wednesday, October 14, upon receiving the traditional portfolio containing next year's draft state budget and the accompanying package of draft laws from Jānis Reirs, Minister of Finance.

“Transatlantic cooperation is vital for European and global security. Latvia highly appreciates the contribution of NATO to the strengthening of security and defence in the Baltic states and Poland, including the participation of the Visegrád Group countries in the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence and regular air policing missions in the Baltic states,” emphasised Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, on Tuesday, 6 October, in her opening address at the remote meeting of the chairs of the foreign affairs committees of the parliaments of the Baltic and Visegrád Group countries.

“Regardless of the aid we have hitherto provided to the Eastern Partnership countries, it needs to be continued in a better targeted way. Whenever we are discussing the future of Europe, the Eastern Partnership must always be on the agenda,” said Jānis Vucāns, Vice President of the Baltic Assembly (BA), during his remote address at the autumn session of the Benelux Parliament, in which parliamentarians from the Baltic, Benelux, and Nordic countries talked about the future of Europe.

On Friday, 2 October, an international jury held a partially remote meeting to evaluate nominees for the Baltic Assembly (BA) Prize, and decided that this year, the BA Prize in Science will be awarded to physicist Roberts Eglītis. Eglītis, Member of the Latvian Academy of Science, will receive the award for the research cycle, entitled “Theoretical predictions of new materials for energy storage and harvesting”.

On Thursday, 1 October, the Saeima adopted a statement on the legitimacy of the mandate claimed by the president of Belarus, in which it does not recognise Alexander Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus.The Statement reiterates that the Belarusian presidential election held on 9 August 2020 was neither free nor fair, that Latvia does not recognise the election results published by the Belarusian authorities and that the mandate based on these results cannot be considered to be obtained in a democratic way and thus legitimate.

On Thursday, 1 October, the Saeima adopted in the second and final reading urgent amendments to the Law on the Management of the Spread of COVID-19 Infection. The Law provides for the use of a new information system to reduce the threat of COVID-19 spreading and to ensure the monitoring of persons in home quarantine or isolation.

Latvia and France have close relations, and a strong and united Europe is important for both countries. Latvia supports France’s efforts towards a better integrated European Union (EU), and it is important that we protect European values together, emphasised members of the Saeima on Wednesday, 30 September, in a meeting with the delegation of the Parliament of France.

The Baltic States need to be more active in insisting on a common regulation at the European Union level to fight disinformation more efficiently, said Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, on Wednesday, 30 September, at the Latvian Parliament during the meeting with Urmas Reinsalu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, who is on an official visit to Latvia.The Speaker of the Saeima and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia agreed on the threats posed by disinformation and praised the work of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. Both sides expressed their satisfaction over the close cooperation of the Baltic States in the field of defence and stressed the importance of NATO’s military presence and its contribution to reinforcing the security of the Baltic region.

On Thursday, 24 September, the Saeima approved the new State Defence Concept. It is a document prepared on the basis of military threat analysis outlining the strategic core principles, priorities and general measures taken for military defence of the state in time of peace, threats, and war.