Secretary General,
Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is always an honour to address colleagues from the parliaments of so many countries represented in the IPU.
I am also pleased to have the opportunity to participate in such a forum and exchange views on various issues of common interest.
I hope that during our open discussions at the end of the day we will be able to enrich our experience by sharing our knowledge and expertise on matters of mutual concern.
Distinguished colleagues,
I must admit that the theme of this year’s General Debate – namely, Parliamentary Accountability: Living Up to People’s Expectations – is becoming increasingly topical not only in my country but also around the world.
The tensions and social unrest that are erupting in different parts of today’s world, are closely related to this issue.
Individual situations may vary, but what they all have in common is the fact that in the 21st century more and more people are expressing their desire to be heard. They want to have better living environment, better jobs or better public services.
People want to have fundamental rights and freedoms, security and a safe environment.
And last but not least - everybody wants to have better quality of life.
So now politicians face several challenges:
- How to adapt to people’s growing expectations?
- How can our governments make well-balanced decisions?
- How can we make this process more open and transparent?
- And how can we better engage our citizens, civil society, NGOs and others in this decision making?
Ladies and gentlemen,
I will take this opportunity to share Latvia’s experience in facilitating greater responsibility and accountability of our parliament.
Responsibility and accountability are issues on which we should focus not merely before elections.
Over the course of time, we have realised that it is not enough to hold parliamentary sittings that are open to the public and to inform our people about the work of the parliament on a regular basis.
We have concluded that in order to reach the general public, we have to be more inventive, more open and more transparent.
We have also understood that we have to involve younger generation by means of public participation.
As the Speaker of the previous convocation of our parliament, I devoted a great deal of attention to developing such initiatives.
For example, two years ago, our parliament established the Information and Visitor Centre.
Since then, the Centre has been visited by nearly 6,000 individuals, and received approximately 11,000 submissions on diverse subjects.
In 2006, the parliament of Latvia adopted a declaration on cooperation with NGOs and started to hold regular forums for consulting with NGOs that provide an opportunity to develop a closer link between the parliament and the non-governmental sector; to ensure that opinions of both parties are taken into account in the decision-making process, to search for new and more effective forms of cooperation, and to become strategic partners which are focused on Latvia’s long-term development.
The number of NGOs involved in this forum increases year-on-year and has reached nearly 100 in 2011.
We have also established a tradition to hold Open Door Day when the parliament can be visited by any individual without prior arrangement.
Last year this opportunity was used by more than 2,000 individuals.
Job Shadow Day is another good tradition of our parliament, because it is a day when schoolchildren are invited to shadow MPs and staff members of our parliament in order to observe firsthand the routine work of the parliament.
Every year each MP has 4 to 5 shadows who afterwards always recognise that after this day they come to realise the complexity of daily work of MPs.
This year a new initiative to hold a Youths’ Parliament will be launched to increase the awareness about the legislative process among young people.
Dear colleagues,
In conclusion, let me say that Latvia is a full-fledged member of several democratic organisations, and we have gained a very positive experience from membership in these organisations.
At the same time, we have assumed certain responsibilities and obligations as a state.
But here it should be noted that responsibilities and obligations can be considered as a two-way street, bearing in mind the notion of individual and collective responsibility of the nation.
Latvia is gradually overcoming the consequences of the global economic and financial crisis.
At this point it is important to learn from experience and to draw the right conclusions.
We cannot afford to slacken the pace of development; we have to think strategically and in the long-term perspective; we have to adapt to the growing expectations of society.
The crisis has also played a very mobilising role in our country. We have realised that for the benefit of our people, it is of utmost importance to switch to long-term thinking – we cannot afford to be populistic and self-satisfied, because we, as politicians, have to ensure the development of our countries and assume responsibility for the sake of the future of our children and grandchildren!
Thank you for your attention!
