Speakers of the parliaments of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland, and France call on Georgia to withdraw the recently adopted “foreign agent” law. The parliament speakers sent a joint letter to Shalva Papuashvili, Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, underlining that the spirit and the content of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, adopted by the Georgian Parliament, are incompatible with European norms and values. The idea to call on Georgia to repeal the controversial law arose last week in Riga during the meeting of Daiga Mieriņa, Speaker of the Saeima, and Markéta Pekarová Adamová, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament.

In the presence of the delegation from Latvia’s Parliament, a special carpet made in the museum's master workshop was ceremoniously cut from the loom at the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum in Baku. The work is a replica of a unique carpet that decorated the study of Latvian writer Jānis Akuraters during the inter-war period.

For Latvia, Azerbaijan is an important partner country in the South Caucasus, and while we have a successful political dialogue, this is not yet reflected in the volume of our mutual trade. We see promising opportunities to expand economic cooperation, as well as to develop contacts between municipalities and cooperation between universities, said Daiga Mieriņa, Speaker of the Saeima, when meeting with Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, and Sahiba Gafarova, Speaker of the Parliament (Milli Majlis), in Baku on Monday, 20 May.

“Moldova is successfully continuing its reform path. Tangible progress has already been made in a number of areas, including reforming the judiciary and fighting corruption. The result is also illustrated by the fact that last December the leaders of the European Union decided to start accession negotiations with Moldova,” said Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Deputy Speaker of the Saeima head of the Latvian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, on Friday, 17 May, in the meeting of the PACE Monitoring Committee in held in Paris, France.

We share a common view on the security situation in Europe and appreciate Czech initiatives and contribution to strengthening our security, said the Speaker of the Saeima Daiga Mieriņa on Wednesday 15 May, meeting with Markéta Pekarová Adamová, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic.

In order to learn from Latvia’s experience, inter alia in regard to European integration issues, staff members of the Research Service of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) will visit the Saeima on 16 and 17 May. 

“The development target of doubling the GDP is ambitious, yet attainable. Only by setting bold objectives can we motivate ourselves to be among the most developed countries,” the Speaker of the Saeima said on Thursday, 16 May, in her address to the Saeima at the economic policy debate about Latvia’s Stability Programme for 2024-2028. 

“From our own history, the occupation we survived, we know how important it is to maintain your national culture and identity, and also to educate the international community. A nation with its own unique identity is a hallmark of statehood,” Daiga Mieriņa, Speaker of the Saeima, emphasised on Thursday, 16 May, at the opening of the photo exhibition “Symbol of a Nation. The Ukrainian Vyshyvanka” at the Saeima building. The exhibition is dedicated to the day celebrating the national treasure of Ukraine – the embroidered shirt called the vyshyvanka. 

“I thank all the people who feel this strength within, who appreciate the opportunity to be citizens of the European Union, and who protect our common home together,” said Daiga Mieriņa, Speaker of the Saeima, on Thursday, 9 May, launching the Europe Day Picnic next to the main building of the Saeima. The event was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Latvia’s accession to the EU.

On Thursday, 9 May the Saeima adopted in the third reading amendments to the Criminal Law in order to criminalise attempts to influence the results of elections with the help of the so called “deep fake” technology and to ensure voters’ right to participate in fair and free elections.