‘Considering the common good, my presidency will focus on three concepts that I want everyone to share. I am looking forward to your support and involvement in this regard. These concepts are: SOLIDARITY, SENSE OF BELONGING and MODERN, SUSTAINABLE LATVIA.’ (President’s inaugural address to Saeima, 08.07.2019)
Sense of belonging
Value, uniqueness and significance (equality) of all places in Latvia
In his first year in office, President of Latvia has actively worked to emphasise the inherent value, uniqueness and significance of all places in Latvia. No place in Latvia is either more or less significant than others.
In July, August and September of 2019, President of Latvia Egils Levits travelled to Indra in Krāslava region, Mazirbe in Dundaga region, Skaistkalne in Vecumnieki region and Ipiķi in Rūjiena region during his first regional visits. All of these places were mentioned by President of Latvia in his inaugural address. By visiting almost the easternmost, westernmost, northernmost and southernmost points in Latvia, President highlighted the unique heritage of these places, met with locals and accentuated critical challenges, such as common information space, access to Latvian television and radio in border areas, and cross-border relations.
President of Latvia emphasised the principle of equality during these and other visits to different Latvian regions: ‘No matter where your home is in Latvia, you should have the same opportunities as elsewhere in Latvia, especially compared to Riga. Principle of equal opportunities must apply to all areas of life.’ (Ipiķi, 30.09.2019)
Democratic representation
President of Latvia had numerous meetings and discussions about the Administrative-Territorial Reform in regions and Riga Castle over the last twelve months.
Regional reform was one of the main topics discussed by President and local communities, local leaders, ministers, MPs, NGOs, farmers and business owners during various meetings. During these discussions, President of Latvia has consistently emphasised the importance of democratic representation and civic engagement. He has also supported the rights of electoral alliances to take part in local elections and proposed to adopt a law on elected local representatives for small towns and settlements.
‘What is important, I believe, is that this local community continues to exist after the regional reform. In other words, regional reform should not wipe this community off the map of Latvia. Ipiķi have always been and will remain here. It is a question of the amount of functions district and region has to deal with right now. It is more of a technical question. However, from the identity point of view, these historic communities, and Ipiķi and Rūjiena region is definitely among such communities, have national significance – both from the perspective of Latvian nation and its national identity.’ (Ipiķi, 30.09.2019)
Historic lands
While recognising the importance of administrative-territorial reform in promoting a more balanced and sustainable regional development, economic growth and efficiency of municipal services, President of Latvia has raised concerns about the way this crucial reform was forged.
Reform proposal prepared by the government did not mention cultural and historical identity, unique cultural spaces and preservation of identity of local communities, hence the President of Latvia has decided to prepare a draft law on historic Latvian lands for near future consideration in the Saeima: ‘Each local community must be given a chance to preserve its identity and its unique characteristics. It is vital for our long-term national interests, for Latvian nation and our national identity.’ (Press statement by the President of Latvia Egils Levits on the Administrative-Territorial Reform, 19.06.2020)
Official language
President of Latvia has submitted a legislative proposal to Saeima, asking to declare the 15th October the Official Language Day, and thus acknowledge the special role of Latvian in continuity of Latvian state and development of a cohesive society. Various discussions, including a meeting with the board of Association of Latvian Language and Literature Teachers, focused on how well Latvian is reflected in the new School 2030 curriculum and ways of strengthening Latvian at the national level.
National Resistance Movement and historical memory
In his legislative proposal, President of Latvia urges to designate the 17 March as National Resistance Movement Day: ‘Members of the national resistance movement showed serious and fierce opposition to occupation throughout all five decades. Resistance took many forms: armed resistance right after the war until mid-1950s, different kinds of non-violent resistance that eventually grew and encompassed almost all society of Latvia. Our national memory, just like national memory of other countries, is important for us, and resistance movement is a big part of it. Eventually it led to restoration of independent Latvia. Without it, our national aspirations would wane and there would be no one to restore national independence.’ (Renda, 08.06.2020) ‘Collective memory of Latvian national resistance movement’, a forum scheduled for 17 March in the Riga Castle, has been moved to 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
President has also returned the amendments to the Law on Safety of Public Entertainment and Festivity Events to the Saeima for reconsideration: ‘Preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia clearly states that government and people should condemn totalitarian ideologies and crimes committed by Communist and Nazi regimes. One of the ways to condemn these regimes, their symbols and totalitarian and criminal nature, is to ban public use of any attributes of such regimes’ (02.05.2020)
Democracy Week
A new tradition proposed by the President to celebrate Democracy Week from 1-9 May has been well received by the general public. Democracy Week will raise public awareness about democracy, statehood and European values. Although some of the events had to be moved virtual platforms due to lockdown restrictions, various NGOs and local governments have expressed their active support for such tradition. Initiative was also very well received by younger people, which is very positive.
On the eve of 4 May, President invited upper secondary school pupils to watch his virtual lecture about restoration of national independence and democracy in Latvia three decades ago, and its significance in the history of Europe and the world.
Culture
President of Latvia has emphasised the importance of culture in the continuity of Latvia as a nation state in both his public speeches and discussions with politicians: ‘We see that culture codes are the building blocks of Latvian nation. Nation that demanded, created and fought for independent state, and restored it after occupation. This causality is recognised in our constitutional law. It reflects our evolution from a culture to a nation, from a nation to a state. Latvia has this purpose and also the reason why it exists: to guarantee the existence of the Latvian nation, its language and culture throughout the centuries, or in other words forever.’ (President Levits’ lecture ‘Why culture?’ at the ceremonial sitting on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Latvian Academy of Culture, 15.05.2020)
Egils Levits has highlighted issues linked to culture and socioeconomic status of Livs who are the indigenous people of Latvia. President has engaged in dialogue on culture policy with culture industry and Ministry of Culture. Egils Levits has also advocated for emergency government funding to culture, emphasising that it is a strategic sector that has been hit hard by lockdown restrictions.
President of Latvia has urged people to travel around Latvia and support crisis-hit cultural sector by going to diverse Latvian museums. In May and June of 2020, Egils Levits visited several Latvian regional museums: ‘Our nation has a unique culture, and museums are an integral element of our national culture. Museums have always depended on visitors, and now, when social life has almost stopped, they need them more than ever. I invite everyone to visit different museums of Latvia to spend a little more time than usual away from everyday rush admiring the cultural diversity offered by Latvian museums. Please do not forget about restrictions and safety of museum premises and areas.’ (Rundāle, 27.05.2020)
Solidarity
On 29 November 2019, President of Latvia hosted a meeting of Solidarity think-tank Latvian nation and cohesive Latvian state in the Riga Castle.
Different generation members of the public, such as researchers, advocacy group members, policymakers, journalists, teachers, musicians, military persons, pupils and students, professional association and NGOs representatives, discussed how to strengthen the Latvian identity and sense of belonging to Latvia and European cultural space, how to instil a culture of civic engagement and patriotism in youth, ways of reinvigorating population’s collective memory and ways of promoting public participation in decision-making processes and tackling of socially important issues. To promote understanding and critical thinking, as well as provoking thoughts on value of solidarity in everyday life and building of strong and united Latvian nation, discussion with pupils particularly focused on various dimensions of solidarity and democracy.
Participants offered various suggestions on how to make Latvia a modern, sustainable Northern European country with population that has strong sense of belonging. It was also proposed to use the term ‘fellow countrymen’ more widely.
The first think-tank meeting launched the series of solidarity public conversations aimed at expanding the interpretation and understanding of the meaning, definition and scope of principle of solidarity provided in the Preamble of Satversme. Discussions also focused on how to promote the principle solidarity through legislation, policies and in society. Due to restrictions imposed after lockdown, in 2020 discussion on solidarity and necessary changes in national policies was structured around and more focused on particular areas.
To underline the need to improve health management, financing and access, Egils Levits hosted discussions on health system challenges with heads of largest hospitals in Latvia, healthcare NGOs and experts of the Ministry of Health.
During lockdown President of Latvia was in regular dialogue with local government leaders on how well they are coping with pandemic and what kind of support government bodies should provide.
On 10 January, President of Latvia Egils Levits and First Lady Andra Levite visited the State Social Care Centre ‘Riga’ at 31 Kapseļu Street to discuss the current social care priorities with social workers and families raising children with disabilities. Main topics of discussion included adoption procedures, infrastructure development and environmental accessibility, public attitude and role of government in improving the system. After listening to various views and experiences, President Levits underlined that ‘Latvia lacks coherent institutional response and all issues are addressed at a sectoral level instead of horizontal and cross-institutional level’. (10.01.2020)
President of Latvia urged responsible authorities to create a new level of understanding, approach and cooperation framework to ensure that people who need social assistance are not forgotten due to institutional framework: ‘We need to change the governance model to be able to offer better social care. We need to link all sectors together. Education, economy, finance, welfare and others. Issues should not be tackled by single authorities. We need integrated, long-term solutions to problems. We need a clear vision of where we want to be and what steps we need to take. We do not have that vision. That is why system cannot change,’ (10.01.2020)
While meeting with representatives of the Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia, President Levits expressed his support to further development of social entrepreneurship and emphasised the special role of such companies: ‘‘Humane societies absolutely need to promote social entrepreneurship. There is no doubt we need to support social entrepreneurship because of political, humanitarian significance and values it represents.’ (06.03.2020) Other topics of the meeting included Social Enterprise Law and its implementation, availability of funding and investment, diversity of social enterprises, cooperation between large companies and social enterprises and everyday work and challenges of social enterprises.
President of Latvia urged the MPs to take a careful look at the current tax system in Latvia, especially weaknesses amplified by Covid-19 crisis: ‘It has unmasked the factors contributing to social inequality and segregation: large share of shadow economy, tax arrangements that have left a large part of our society without social protection during the crisis. Taxes are the price that we all pay for welfare we expect. We must build on lessons learned during the crisis to raise the profile of our country and create an efficient and simple tax system. One that works. We also need to declare zero tolerance towards any tax fraud. That is how Latvia can become more modern and solidary.’ (President Levits’ address to members of the Saeima at the closing sitting of spring session, 18.06.2020)
Modern state
Upon assuming his presidency, Egils Levits promised to facilitate the transformation of Latvia into a modern and sustainable Nordic country by the end of the decade.
This objective requires strengthening of the rule of law, more active international role at the European and global level through international organisations and forums to build a more stable rules-based international order and promote global security and development. It also includes social responsibility towards vulnerable groups of society, environmental awareness, modern urban planning and other features characteristic to Nordic countries. These goals most often require a change of mindset and political will rather than huge resources.
President has also stressed that ‘we are an integral part of the West and Europe, and not some kind of bridge between the West and the East’ and ‘the direction of modern country and sustainability I have outlined also includes active engagement in solving European and significant global issues’. (Address by Egils Levits Assuming the Office at the Saeima, 08.07.2019)
Modern technologies and digital transformation
According to the President, modern state is a state built on modern and innovative solutions where government operates using new technologies that boost efficiency, quality of public services and analytics.
In his speeches to audiences in Latvia and abroad, including Egils Levits’ first address at the UN General Assembly in September of 2019 and meetings with politicians and experts, President of Latvia has also called for responsible use of technologies, making sure technology serves us and the other way around: ‘Digital transformation should not be naively narrowed down to blind digitisation of all areas of life. It involves thorough and honest, and let me emphasise, honest assessment of digital opportunities and associated risks. All risks: technical and social. Digital transformation requires careful consideration of appropriate privacy policy response. Policy that recognises that integration of big data and artificial intelligence may lead to unwarranted surveillance and manipulation. Risks that may eventually tarnish freedom and democracy.’ (President Levits’ address to members of the Saeima at the closing sitting of spring session, 18.06.2020)
President has focused on these two areas in his speeches at a number of global forums: UN, Paris Peace Forum, Meeting of the Arraiolos Group in Athens, Davos, Munich Security Conference. During his foreign visits, President has met with leaders of global tech giants like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to emphasise and have in-depth discussions on these aspects. President of Latvia met with Atlantic Council think tank and academic sector representatives (Columbia University, Princeton University) during visit to the UN to have a deeper discussion on current and future challenges associated with modern technologies.
Right after inauguration President went to neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania to discuss digital policies and cooperation opportunities. Pandemic forced politicians and diplomats around the world to rethink the way they communicate and exchange information to keep their foreign policies going. Baltic countries were very successful in employing virtual platforms to coordinate regional cooperation despite the crisis, including regular dialogue between presidents of all three Baltic countries and opening of the ‘Baltic bubble’ in Schengen area, the first area in Europe to restart free mobility after the lockdown. President Levits has also supported the implementation of Covid tracker app ‘Stop Covid’.
After state of emergency was declared on 23 March, President of Latvia moved meeting with constitutional institutions to virtual platform to discuss how to ensure uninterrupted work of parliament according to constitution and through modern virtual platforms, create and implement e-Saeima. President underlined the need to use opportunities that have arisen in these challenging times to push national digital policy and instruments forward more successfully. Discussion also focused on possible modernising of Section 81 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia (Satversme) to meet the modern democratic standards.
Legislation and rule of law
Considering the need to improve quality of legislation, President Levits has created a new instrument, President’s opinion prior to adoption of the law, which gives President chance to give parliament recommendations on possible weaknesses and potential risks before the announcement of the law.
On 7 February 2020, President met with Constitutional Court and MPs to discuss the establishing of National Council. National Council would be an appropriate response of a mature parliamentary democracy to a constantly growing complexity of government work. President of Latvia has stressed the need to improve legislative process on a number of occasions. That would lead to good laws and high standards of legislation that has been properly debated and assessed in a systematic way.
President has urged Judicial Council to create a committee that would review and assess the biggest cases of delays in serving justice in Latvia on a number of occasions. Committee would also have to prepare recommendations on how to deal with existing inefficiencies. Judicial Council has agreed to create the committee and its report will be available in autumn: “…reputation of courts is largely shaped by those protracted proceedings and I have a proposal on how to deal with this challenge. Judicial Council could create a working group tasked with analysing, let us say, 10 longest cases in Latvia. In other words, this working group would identify and analyse the 10 longest proceedings and establish the reasons for delays. Maybe delays have occurred due to legislation or the system. Maybe it is due to insufficient control on the part of judges, a case management problem. Be it as it may, all colleagues and not only colleagues, but also the society, should know what the causes of such delayed proceedings are.’ (01.11.2019)
In his first year in office, President Levits has reviewed and announced the total of 284 laws, of which 66 were fast-tracked. In the last twelve months President has hosted 6 oath giving ceremonies swearing in two new Supreme Court and seven new district court judges.
From 18 September 2019 to 20 May 2020, President of Latvia has reviewed 89 clemency appeals and four convicts have been granted full or partial pardon.
Higher education
President of Latvia has actively used his privileges and engaged in discussion of strategic report ‘Change of university governance model’ organised by Ministry of Education and Science prior to its presentation to the Cabinet of Ministers. The final fifth round of discussions organised by Ministry of Education and Science and Chancery of the President of Latvia took place in the Riga Castle.
At the end of discussions President of Latvia expressed his support for change of university governance models and urged stakeholders to find the most suitable model for Latvia. He also called for broad public discussion. President Levits has also indicated that new governance model is one of the elements of a broader and much longer reform that should boost the quality and competitiveness of higher education in Latvia.
Information space
President of Latvia has stressed the democratic significance of quality media on several occasions. He has also urged government to support the strategic sector. President has specifically underlined the special place of public service broadcasters in Latvia’s information space.
Proposals submitted by the President of Latvia before the second reading of Public Service Media Law focused on greater independence and quality of public service media.
President has underlined the importance of secure national information space during his visit to Latgale (Indra and Viļaka) where he launched transmission towers that improved the broadcasting quality in border regions and in his proposal to the parliament regarding changes in the Electronic Mass Media Law, i.e. the 80/20 language ratio in TV packages.
‘I am happy to take part in today’s launching of technology, the Aizpurve transmission tower, crucial for information space. We have reached the 100% coverage of national information space with this tower. Information space is the basic element of social processes in any democracy, and it is very important to finally have all people of Latvia included,’ (Viļaka, 09.01.2020)
Science and economy
President Levits has constantly emphasised the importance of education, science and innovations in adding value to products and services developed by different sectors of national economy for growth.
This should be one of the considerations underlying the Latvian government’s and European Commission’s national Covid-19 crisis recovery investment plans: ‘These investments should not be like a match that burns ‘for a few seconds’ and then goes out. Investments into science and education should ‘fuel’ sustainable growth over an extended period of time. That is the kind of support all ruling parties should consolidate around. That is what their election manifestos envisaged.’ (28.05.2020)
In his speeches to audiences in Latvia and World Economic Forum in Davos, President of Latvia has stressed the need to foster economic transformation: ‘To a large extent we are where we are because of the basic principles underlying capitalist economies. It is not about minor adjustments. We need to change the principles that determine how economies work. There are two ways to look at it, I think. One way is to look at what it is going to cost us. The other is to consider these changes as a chance to grow and develop our economies. I support the latter. We need to ensure that we, too, build on the global trend of greening the economy and boost our national economic potential. The rest of the world, of course, is looking and working in the same direction too.” (Egils Levits’ interview for portal DELFI, 04.02.2020)
During the meeting with Biological Farming Association of Latvia, President Levits has stressed that Latvia is a nation that successfully brands itself as green, therefore we need actual policies that encourage local farmers to make gradual transition to biological farming, which is one of the future goals of European Commission’s so-called European Green Deal: ‘The brand of Latvia is a brand of a green country and we need to make our policies greener, as well. We are making the right steps, change is already happening, but we need to set a clear timescale, so that we know when ‘our ship’ will reach the destination we call biological farming’. (09.06.2020) Moreover, to support move towards environmental sustainability in Latvia, Egils Levits has agreed to become the Patron of the Big Cleanup Day.
