President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis urged to hold such a discussion among experts in response to the parliamentary debate on amendments to the “Law on Change of a Record of Name, Surname, and Nationality”. When promulgating the Law “Amendments to the Law on Change of a Record of Name, Surname, and Nationality” adopted by the Saeima on September 15, the President of Latvia pointed out that it was necessary to look carefully at the issues affecting the identity of Latvian nation, social cohesion in Latvia, and basics of the statehood of Latvia.
“The Latvian society requires a qualitative discussion of whether the affiliation to the Latvian nation can be determined based only on origin/birth of a person or a different solution can be possible, which makes affiliation to the Latvian nation open for those persons, who wish to confirm communion of their fate with Latvians,” considered the President of Latvia.
Well-known experts on social integration, legal and humanities like Ivars Ījabs, Janīna Kursīte-Pakule, Evika Siliņa, Brigita Zepa, and Ineta Ziemele will participate in the discussion on November 22.
On Wednesday, November 9, the President of Latvia met with the members of the Expert Group on Social Cohesion Policy established by himself, who notified him on the process of drafting a report on social cohesion policy. The report, which will include the analysis of existing social cohesion policy and its results, as well as will outline proposals for follow-up, will be published on November 22.