On Friday, 6 March, Jānis Bordāns, the Minister of Justice, met with the representatives of the Latvian Association of Local Governments (LPS) in order to discuss the most important directions for further cooperation. During the annual discussion between the Ministry of Justice and LPS J.Bordāns and Gints Kaminskis, the Chairman of LPS, paid the key attention to publishing of the binding regulations of municipalities, protection of rights of children, introduction of the new system for administrative liability and availability of services of the State Land Service.
During the discussion the Minister of Justice indicated that reconstruction of the system of protection of rights of children should be required, in order the focus would be made to the interests and rights of a child. In order to eliminate shortages, arising in the system for protection of rights of children, the Ministry of Justice has prepared systematic solutions - they will help to eliminate also the causes of issues rather than combat the consequences only. We propose to establish an effective institutional model with precisely determined responsibility of the parties - starting with creation of the policy on protection of the rights of children and ending with effective models for action in each particular case, when protection of the rights and interests of a child should be provided.
The Minister of Justice and representatives of LPS discussed also the impact of the Administrative Liability Law on binding regulations of municipalities, as well as the readiness of municipalities to ensure integration thereof into the legal provisions included in the law, as far as the part of the new system for administrative liability includes binding regulations of municipalities, providing for administrative liability. The Ministry of Justice will provide necessary support to municipalities for integration of their binding regulations. The law will come into force on 1 July 2020.
During the meeting also the issue about publishing of all binding regulations of municipalities in the official gazette Latvijas Vēstnesis and on the portal for systematisation of legal acts www.likumi.lv, ensuring the availability of binding regulations of municipalities for public at one place, was raised. The Minister of Justice emphasized that it would be as a long-term investment for public interest to have systematised legal acts, adopted by the state and municipalities - both, the consolidated versions as well as historical and future versions - in a uniform informative platform.
Both parties agreed on further cooperation for provision of the services of the State Land Service in regions. Taking into account the administrative territorial reform, it is important to agree on the common perspective in the future regarding the need of services of the SLS and availability in presence and in the digital environment.