On Wednesday, 5 November, during its extraordinary plenary sitting, the Saeima, with 61 votes for and 39 votes against, approved Laimdota Straujuma as the Prime Minister and gave a vote of confidence to her Cabinet of Ministers.
Press releases
Ināra Mūrniece elected as the Speaker of the Saeima (04.11.2014.)
On Tuesday, 4 November, Ināra Mūrniece was elected as the Speaker of the 12th Saeima.
Presidium of the 12th Saeima is elected (04.11.2014.)
On Tuesday, 4 November, the new convocation of the Saeima elected its Presidium.
Mandates of MPs of the 12th Saeima approved (04.11.2014.)
On Tuesday, 4 November, during its first sitting, the new convocation of the Saeima approved the mandates for all 100 MPs. Sixty-nine of the new MPs have previous parliamentary experience, while 31 are first-time MPs. After each member gave a solemn oath of office, mandates were approved for 24 MPs elected from the Social Democratic Party Concord, of which there are three new MPs – Regīna Ločmele-Luņova, Jūlija Stepaņenko and Zenta Tretjaka. The remaining 21 MPs - namely, Valērijs Agešins, Jānis Ādamsons, Boriss Cilevičs, Sergejs Dolgopolovs, Andrejs Elksniņš, Marjana Ivanova-Jevsejeva, Andrejs Klementjevs, Ivans Klementjevs, Sergejs Mirskis, Vladimirs Nikonovs, Ņikita Ņikiforovs, Vitālijs Orlovs, Igors Pimenovs, Sergejs Potapkins, Ivans Ribakovs, Artūrs Rubiks, Raimonds Rubiks, Jānis Tutins, Jānis Urbanovičs, Ivars Zariņš and Mihails Zemļinskis - served in the previous convocation of the Saeima.
This year the Baltic Assembly Prize for the Arts has been awarded to Alvis Hermanis, director of the New Riga Theatre, for creative achievement in staging several plays, especially Oblomov. The award ceremony of the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science, as well the Baltic Assembly medals for upholding the unity and cooperation of the Baltic States, took place during the 33rd Session of the Baltic Assembly on Thursday, 23 October in Tallinn, Estonia.
Speaker of the Saeima invites her Baltic counterparts to the inauguration of the Latvian Presidency (24.10.2014.)
On Friday, 24 October, Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, invited Eiki Nestor, Speaker of the Estonian Parliament, and Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament, to Riga for the inauguration of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The invitation was extended during a meeting of speakers of the Baltic parliaments as part of the 33rd Session of the Baltic Assembly hosted in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn.
A secure and growing Baltic region defined as the main priority of the Baltic parliamentary cooperation in 2015 (24.10.2014.)
On Friday, 24 October, the Baltic Assembly during its 33rd Session defined the following main priorities for 2015: developing a growing, credible and secure Baltic region; sustainable and competitive society in the region; and development of regional networks.
Baltic parliamentarians appeal to the European Commission to support Baltic milk producers (24.10.2014.)
Considering the embargo imposed by Russia on foodstuffs from the European Union, on Friday, 24 October, the Baltic Assembly adopted an appeal to the European Commission to promptly take a positive decision on granting of direct compensatory aid to milk producers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in order to avoid irreversible consequences in the milk sector of the Baltic States
Speaker of the Saeima meets with the President of Turkey (23.10.2014.)
“Turkey is one of the countries that have consistently refused to recognise the occupation of Latvia. Now, after ten years in the European Union and NATO, we know how important it is to have the support and understanding of other member states. Therefore, Latvia fully supports further enlargement of the EU and Turkey’s candidacy for membership”, declared Solvita Āboltiņa, Speaker of the Saeima, after her meeting on 23 October with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the newly elected President of the Republic of Turkey. Latvia is the first EU member state he has officially visited since being elected.
Content of trans fats in foodstuffs to be regulated (23.10.2014.)
On Thursday, 23 October, the Saeima in the final reading adopted amendments to the Law on the Supervision of the Handling of Food, which set the limits of permissible content of trans fats in foodstuffs to promote the availability of healthier food options.