Minister pointed out that he recognises the close links between these areas, as Latvia and European Union (EU) have common goals with respect to them. Attainment of these goals requires major investments in the foreseeable future. Quality of these investments is important and depends on how well Latvia uses EU’s funding facilities.
Digital policy was one of the major topics discussed by the President Levits and Minister Plešs. President emphasised that the availability of additional EU funding for digital transformation requires Latvia to come up with clear investment strategy: ‘Latvia needs a centralised digital policy with clear priorities. We need exact digital transformation vision for various sectors.’
Egils Levits also added that ‘the whole world is currently in the state of euphoria when it comes to digital transformation’. That is why ‘digital transformation must be based on precise assessment of possible risks, especially those of legal nature. Technologies should not rule over people. We should not let technologies take decisions instead of us. We have to be very careful with how we use artificial intelligence and algorithms’.
President of Latvia mentioned the elevated risks associated with digitalisation of the public sector, while European Union has put forward legislation providing close to full neutrality in the business sector and a lot remains to be done at the national level. Science and research are the fields associated with least risk, which does not rule out high risks in some specific areas such as biomedicine.
As Minister Plešs said, Digital Transformation Strategy was discussed by state secretaries during their yesterday’s meeting and is ready for debate in the Cabinet of Ministers.
President and Minister then turned to regional reform. Artūrs Toms Plešs explained President Levits what official VARAM position in Constitutional Court will be. Court is currently handling appeals filed by several municipalities to overturn the reform. President Levits gave his assessment of Local Government Law and reiterated his previous position regarding it. He underlined the key importance of creating democratically-elected institutions advocating for local communities in smaller towns and settlements. These representatives would act on behalf of local residents and help solve local matters, give communities stronger sense of affiliation with where they live and facilitate dialogue with local administration. Minister Plešs informed that there are studies analysing best practices of municipal outreach to local communities. President of Latvia also stressed that Heraldry Commission will now have to tackle increased workload due to new coats of arms and other official symbols being developed for new regional governments.
Egils Levits then offered to discuss the historical Latvian lands bill currently reviewed by the parliament. He said it is important for members of the Saeima to keep focusing on the purpose of the law, i.e., strengthening of cultural and historical identity of local communities, in further stages of parliamentary debate. According to President, the law must create special councils or horizontal governance bodies, which would be responsible for practical implementation of the law. He also said that the map of cultural and historical lands attached to the bill is based on extended and detailed research. It cannot be amended unilaterally. Borders of the cultural and historical lands do not have to replicate the borders of existing regional or local governments because each entity has different purpose.
President and Minister both agreed that EU Green Deal and climate neutrality goals are among the key short-term priorities to be tackled by Latvia. According to Egils Levits, ‘environment and climate policies have become a top priority globally and all countries of the world are looking for the best solutions. Latvian society is also closely engaged in the discussion. Latvia is one of those European countries that has adopted very ambitious goals. It now must prioritise its homework in sectors like energy, transport, farming and others’. Artūrs Toms Plešs pointed out that ‘Latvia has rested on laurels for a long time and we must now realign our programmes with all energy and climate plan objectives defined by the EU. Latvia will have access to EU funds necessary to make progress in these three areas’.
President Levits and Minister Plešs also concluded that it is necessary to promote the so-called ‘green procurements’. President suggested that green criteria should become a mandatory element in procurements regulated by the law. Exceptions to this rule are possible only in special cases. There should also be tax incentives for companies to promote investments in green economy, and state-owned enterprises should be allowed to make long-term investments in research and development.
