The President of Latvia Egils Levits has expressed his opinion about improvements to the regulations governing the work of parliamentary investigation committees in statement No. 14 “On the improvement of the parliamentary scrutiny mechanism in the framework of the mutual collaboration between the majority and opposition in the Saeima”, which was published in the official publication “Latvijas Vēstnesis” today.
In the statement the President of Latvia responded to a letter submitted to the President by members of the Saeima with proposals on improving the Law on Parliamentary Investigation Committees and a request to initiate discussions on new regulatory solutions to raise the efficiency of parliamentary scrutiny.
In the statement the President of Latvia has expressed appreciation for the debate undertaken by members of the Saeima with the goal of strengthening the principles of democratic governance. “I have analysed the principles of parliamentary democracy in depth in my article “Democratic state system, free elections and parliamentary democracy” (Published in: Balodis, R. (scientific editor) Parlamentārā izmeklēšana Latvijas Republikā. 1. Parlaments. Parlamentārā kontrole. Riga: Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2016, p.25 - 62).
President Levits notes that the regulations governing the work of parliamentary investigation committees are laid down in the Law on Parliamentary Investigation Committees, “however, there are few good examples in practice. In this regard, it is important to take into consideration that the objectivity, trustworthiness and importance of the results of the work done by parliamentary investigation committees is to an even greater extent determined by political culture, and especially parliamentary culture, than by the procedural regulations. Without a doubt, there is still room for improvement – in terms of improving the formal regulations governing the work of parliamentary investigation committees, as well as improving the parliamentary and overall political culture”.
President Levits points out that the issues raised by the members of parliament in their letter require a broader discussion. The President of Latvia hopes to see the initiative to start a dialogue regarding the mutual collaboration between the majority and opposition in the Saeima and possible efficient mechanisms of implementing it will come from the legislature itself. However, the President of Latvia notes that he is interested in “participating in this dialogue with the legislature about these issues, should the legislature so wish. An appropriate format could be a conference or seminar hosted at the Saeima, which could be devoted to assessing the parliamentary scrutiny mechanism and its potential improvement, including examining the issue of improving the efficiency of the work done by parliamentary investigation committees in light of the special place and role they play in parliamentary democracy”.