On Friday, 1 March, the Minister of Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere at the conference "The Role of Constitutional Courts in the Concretisation of Common Values Uniting Europe" emphasised the role of the Latvian language as the only state language in regard to building a unified society, which is a guarantor of national security in times of war and hybrid threats. The Minister of Justice also pointed out that the Constitutional Court had set a high bar when evaluating the circumstances, taking into consideration the current situation and context in Latvia in the case concerning the testing of Latvian language skills of Russian citizens who had been issued residence permits in Latvia.
The Minister of Justice explains that "The Constitutional Court recognized that the fundamental duty of the state is to guarantee national security. The judgment placed particular emphasis on the current geopolitical situation, as well as the historical context of Latvia. Latvia's border state, the Russian Federation, which has been recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism, continues to carry out aggressive military and hybrid activities against independent states. Therefore, individuals who maintain loyal ties with such a state also pose security risks to us, even though we are not directly victims of a military conflict."
Inese Lībiņa-Egnere stressed that at a time when the foundation of European values is being directly threatened by the Kremlin's bloody war near our borders, we need to remind ourselves what our common European values are.
"Together, standing firm for freedom, democracy, including a resilient democracy, human rights and the rule of law as our common values, we can be united in Europe. It is the task of the constitutional courts to be the watchdog of the rule of law, to embed this international consciousness in the national legal system," explains the Justice Minister.