During the meeting with the Minister of Economics, the President of Latvia drew attention to the fact that the current energy planning policy implemented by the Ministry of Economics was not sufficient. The President of Latvia pointed out that strategic vision for the future development of the sector was lacking and called on the Minister of Economics to elaborate such a vision. “Energy policy is not just related to the significant international commitments undertaken by Latvia, but it is a matter of national security,” emphasised Raimonds Vējonis.
In his turn, the Minister of Economics informed that he had prioritised the work on the elimination of the mandatory procurement component, support for the promotion of export capacity of Latvian companies and start-ups.
During the meeting with Minister of Agriculture Kaspars Gerhards, both officials agreed that priority should be given to advocacy of the interests of Latvia on the European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2020. “It is crucial to achieve the levelling of direct payments among the Member States by ensuring Latvia with the average level of single area payments in the next programming period,” stressed Raimonds Vējonis during the meeting.
In addition to working on the CAP, the Minister for Agriculture has prioritised the provision of balanced development of the rural economy, sustainable forest regeneration, work on reducing the value-added tax rate on fresh food (such as fresh meat and fish), and support for implementing and meeting the requirements of green public procurement in state authorities and municipal authorities.
It has already been reported that President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis has started a round of meetings with all the ministers of the government led by Krišjānis Kariņš to hear the vision of the Ministers on the assignments to be fulfilled and priorities to be pursued in their supervised sectors in 2019 and later on. The President of Latvia has envisaged meetings with all the ministers of the government led by Mr Kariņš.
