Unofficial translation
With amendments to
Regulation No 834 as of 28.07.2009
Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010
Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011
|
06.09.2011 |
Regulation No 690 |
Rīga
Rules of Procedure of the Cabinet of Ministers
(Protocol No 10, §1)
Issued in accordance with
the Structure of Cabinet Law,
Sections 15(4), 22(4), 27(2), 28(6) and 29(2),
and the Development Planning System Law,
Section 11(5)
I. General Provisions
1. The present Rules of Procedure of the Cabinet of Ministers shall regulate the following matters of Cabinet’s internal order and procedure:
1.1 types of documents to be considered by the Cabinet of Ministers, procedure of their submission, endorsement, progress and consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers, and procedure for formalisation of the adopted decisions;
1.2 procedure by which the Prime Minister supervises the implementation of the Declaration of the Intended Activities of the Cabinet of Ministers (hereinafter referred to as the Declaration) and its Action Plan;
1.3 contents, amount, uniform form and submission procedure of information to be provided under the procedure by which matters of Cabinet members are assigned to the new Cabinet of Ministers (Appendix 1);
1.4 competence and organisational procedure of State Secretaries’ meeting;
1.5 organisational procedures of meetings of the Cabinet Committee and Cabinet sittings;
1.6 application procedure for participation in the Cabinet sittings and in the Cabinet Committee meetings; restrictions for such participation and participation procedure;
1.7 procedures of use, storage and archiving of audio recordings of meetings of the Cabinet Committee, Cabinet sittings and State Secretaries’ meetings;
1.8 organisational procedures of meetings of Parliamentary Secretaries;
1.9 procedure of enforcement of tasks assigned by laws, Saeima resolutions, legal acts issued by the Cabinet of Ministers, and tasks assigned by the Prime Minister;
1.10 procedures for documenting absence of members of the Cabinet of Ministers and other state officials due to a business trip, vacation or illness.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
2. In accordance with authority of the Cabinet of Ministers it shall consider:
2.1 draft development planning documents (hereinafter referred to as planning documents):
2.2 (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
2.3 the following external legal acts:
2.3.1 international agreement or its draft;
2.3.2 draft law;
2.3.3 Saeima draft resolution;
2.3.4 draft regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers;
2.4 the following internal legal acts:
2.3.4 draft instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers;
2.4.2 draft recommendation of the Cabinet of Ministers;
2.4.3 draft protocol decision of the Cabinet of Ministers;
2.5 draft orders of the Cabinet of Ministers;
2.6 informative statement;
2.7 draft official opinions of Latvia in institutions of international organisations and the European Union:
2.7.1 draft national position of the Republic of Latvia regarding EU matters (hereinafter referred to as national position);
2.7.2 draft position of the Republic of Latvia regarding cases considered by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the EFTA Court, or under the pre-trial process of the infringement procedure stipulated in Articles 258, 259 and 260 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as position);
2.7.3 draft national position of the Republic of Latvia regarding matter of international law (hereinafter referred to as national position on international law matters);
2.8 draft documents of the Cabinet of Ministers to be submitted to the court of the Republic of Latvia (hereinafter referred to as a document to be submitted to the court);
2.9 draft letter of the Cabinet of Ministers to the Saeima, ombudsman or other state institution or official (hereinafter referred to as a draft letter of the Cabinet of Ministers).
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
3. When submitting a draft law for consideration at the Cabinet of Ministers, it shall be complemented by a report on the initial impact assessment of the proposed regulation structured in separate subject-specific divisions (hereinafter referred to as annotation). Draft legal acts mentioned in Clause 2.3.3, 2.3.4, 2.4.1, 2.4.2 and 2.5 shall be complemented by an annotation where at least a section on the necessity of the draft legal act shall be filled out; other sections shall be filled out if the draft legal act is related to the specific matters mentioned in the respective division. Draft legal act mentioned in Clause 2.4.3 shall be complemented by a covering letter containing the information on the essence and necessity of the draft. If a more detailed description of the impact of this draft is required, the respective divisions of the annotation shall be filled out.
4. Instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers shall stipulate the procedure under which annotations, annotation forms, impact assessment objects (sections) are drafted and competence of the line ministries and other public administration institutions in evaluation of annotation’s sections.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
5. Procedure under which policy documents are drafted shall be stipulated by those laws and regulations which define policy documents of any level, type and term, define contents of such policy documents, procedure for their drafting, approval and updating, term of validity, reporting procedures and invalidity procedures.
6. National positions shall be drafted and endorsed under the procedure stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations for drafting, endorsement, approval and updating of national positions.
7. National positions shall be drafted and endorsed under the procedure stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations for drafting, endorsement, approval and updating of national positions.
8. National positions on international law matters shall be drafted and endorsed under the procedure stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations for drafting, endorsement and approval of national positions on international law matters.
9. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 834 as of 28.07.2009)
10. A member of the Cabinet of Ministers (hereinafter referred to as the submitter) shall be authorised to submit documents specified in Clause 2 of the present Regulations elaborated by a line ministry, Secretariat of the Minister for Special Assignments, Deputy Prime Minister’s Office or State Chancellery (hereinafter referred to as the [line] ministry) for consideration at the Cabinet Committee’s meetings or Cabinet sittings.
11. Heads of other state or municipal institutions, as well as non-governmental organisations and organisations of social partners (hereinafter referred to as other institution) shall have the right to submit a draft planning document, draft legal act or informative statement for consideration at the meeting of the respective Cabinet Committee or Cabinet sitting only via mediation of a Cabinet member who is politically responsible for the respective industry or branch.
12. If the respective member of the Cabinet of Ministers refuses to progress the draft planning document, draft legal act or informative statement of institutions mentioned in Clause 11 of the present Regulations for consideration at the Cabinet of Ministers, the head of the institution has the right to submit the above-mentioned draft together with the written refusal of the respective minister to the Prime Minister for final decision on further progress of the draft planning document, draft legal act or informative statement. If the Prime Minister decides to progress the draft in question for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers, the Prime Minister shall be considered as the submitter of this draft.
13. Draft legal acts shall be submitted to the State Secretaries’ meetings by a State Secretary of a line ministry, Head of a Secretariat of the Minister for Special Assignments, Head of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office or Director of the State Chancellery as well as by the head of a public administration institution subordinated to the Prime Minister (hereinafter referred to as the State Secretary).
14. Heads of other institutions shall have the right to submit a draft legal act for consideration by the State Secretaries’ meeting only via mediation of the State Secretary of the ministry competence of which includes matters addressed in the draft legal act. The State Secretary shall coordinate submission of this draft to the State Secretaries’ meeting with the respective Cabinet member noting this fact in a covering letter.
15. If the respective Cabinet member objects submission of a draft legal act prepared by the institutions mentioned in Clause 14 to the Cabinet of Ministers, the head of the institution shall have the right to submit the above-mentioned draft together with a written refusal of the respective Cabinet member to the Prime Minister for final decision on further progress of the legal act.
16. A draft document submitted and registered under the procedure stipulated in the present Regulations may be withdrawn by a State Secretary if the draft was submitted by this official but a Cabinet member shall have the right to withdraw a draft at any stage of draft’s consideration.
17. The ministry shall be responsible for informing the society about the draft to be considered at the Cabinet of Ministers and about any essential changes. The procedure by which the ministry prepares, formalizes and distributes information to the society about the draft to be considered at the State Secretaries’ meeting, the Cabinet Committee’s meeting or the Cabinet sitting and decisions adopted concerning this draft, is laid down in the instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers.
18. Processing of the documents mentioned in the present Regulations, progressing and consideration of these documents at the State Secretaries’ meetings, meetings of the Cabinet Committee and the Cabinet sittings shall be supervised by the State Chancellery. The procedure of electronic circulation of the documents mentioned in the present Regulations is laid down in an instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
19. If according to the present Regulations a document is to be submitted to the State Chancellery only electronically, the line ministry shall ensure storage of a paper original of this document and deposit it in a national archive under the laws and regulations which stipulate procedures for national archives.
20. Documents, which under the present Regulations are submitted to the State Chancellery, line ministry, or other institution in on-line regime by using the Electronic Processing and Assignment Control (hereinafter referred to as DAUKS system), shall possess public reliability and no electronic signature is needed. The documents between ministries and the State Chancellery shall be processed through DAUKS system.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
21. The State Chancellery shall place the signed agenda and attached documents into the e-portfolio system of the State Secretaries’ meetings, meetings of the Cabinet Committee and Cabinet sittings (hereinafter referred to as the e-portfolio system), and shall send an e-mail notices to the registered e-portfolio users concerning availability of agendas and materials. During sittings and meetings all participants shall process their documents by using the e-portfolio system. On the website of the Cabinet of Ministers the State Chancellery shall publish the agenda and minutes of the State Secretaries’ meetings, meetings of the Cabinet Committee and Cabinet sittings, as well as draft planning documents, draft legal acts and their annotations, and informative reports except for restricted-use documents included in the respective agenda.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
22. Documents containing restricted use information and marked “RESTRICTED” shall be available in the e-portfolio system only to the participants of the respective meeting or sitting, as well as to other officials according to a list approved by the Director of the State Chancellery. Documents containing restricted information and marked as ”FOR OFFICIAL USE” shall be presented to the participants only in printed format.
23. When under the present Regulations a document is to be submitted or delivered electronically, it shall be submitted or delivered to the official e-mail of the State Chancellery or the relevant line ministry, or other institution if not otherwise provided in the present Regulations, by including the e-mail message as an attachment (as an attachment, it is not necessary to attach an application on persons to be additionally invited to State Secretaries’ meeting, meeting of the Cabinet Committee or Cabinet sitting).
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
24. The ministry or institution in charge shall ensure:
24.1 cross-compliance of the submitted documents, accuracy and urgency of facts and data presented in these documents;
24.2 cross-compliance of a document submitted both in printed form and electronically;
24.3 assessment of the submitted documents in conformity with the requirements set out in the Freedom of Information Law and other normative acts regulating the availability of information. The State Chancellery shall not change the availability status of the submitted document.
24.4 compliance of the submitted drafts with legal norms of the same or higher level of legal status as well as with Latvia’s international commitments;
24.5 compliance of the submitted drafts with requirements for drafting, formatting and legal technicality of documents.
(Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010, which has been amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
25. When during registration of a submitted document the State Chancellery establishes non-compliance with regard to the requirements for drafting, formalisation and electronic processing of documents as stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations and with the endorsement and submission procedure stipulated in the present Regulations, as well as when document’s contents do not comply with document’s type, the State Chancellery shall not register this draft and shall deliver to the line ministry or other institution in charge information concerning the necessary amendments. If the line ministry or other institution in charge fails to elaborate the draft within three working days following the date of information on the necessary elaboration, the State Chancellery shall return the submitted document together with its attachments to the line ministry or other institution in charge.
26. If amendments to a draft legal act result in a necessity to amend other legal acts of the same hierarchical level, the draft, which is submitted for consideration at the Cabinet of Ministers, shall be accompanied by other legal acts on the necessary amendments under the procedure stipulated in the present Regulations.
27. The procedure by which draft planning documents, informative statements or legal acts which are objects of national secret under the Law “On State Secrets”, are endorsed with the line ministries and other institutions, as well as submitted to and considered by the Cabinet of Ministers, shall be stipulated in an instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers.
28. The procedure by which draft planning documents, informative statements or legal acts which contain restricted information for official use under the Law on Freedom of Information, are endorsed with the line ministries and other institutions, as well as submitted to and considered by the Cabinet of Ministers, shall be stipulated in an instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers.
29. A uniform implementation control procedure in the line ministries and the State Chancellery for tasks assigned to the Cabinet of Ministers stipulated in laws and Saeima decisions, tasks stipulated in legal acts of the Cabinet of Ministers, protocol decisions of the Cabinet Committee and protocol decisions of State Secretaries’ meetings, and tasks stipulated in orders and resolutions of the Prime Minister shall be set forth in an instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers.
II. Assignment of Matters of a Cabinet Member
30. Within three days’ time following the day when the State Chancellery places information about the person nominated by the President for the Prime Minister’s post on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers every line ministry shall provide information signed by the respective State Secretary and prepared according to Clauses 1 and 2 of Appendix 1 (up to three pages), and submit it to the State Chancellery through DAUKS system.
31. On the next working day following the receipt of the information mentioned in Clause 30 of the present Regulations, the State Chancellery shall present a summary to the nominated Prime Minister.
32. Within three days’ time after a confidence vote by the Saeima to a new Cabinet member, the State Secretary of the respective line ministry shall present to the new Cabinet member information about draft planning documents, informative statements and draft legal acts which are submitted by the previous Cabinet member or which are in the process of drafting or endorsement, as well as any other information in line with Clauses 3, 4 and 5 of Appendix 1.
33. Within three days’ time after a confidence vote by the Saeima to a new Cabinet member, the State Secretary of the respective line ministry shall present to the new Cabinet member information about draft planning documents, informative statements and draft legal acts which are submitted by the previous Cabinet member or which are in the process of drafting or endorsement, as well as any other information in line with Clauses 3, 4 and 5 of Appendix 1. The ministry shall indicate the date of filing the draft in the State Chancellery, its title and registration number assigned by the State Chancellery (if available) or SSM registration number of the draft (Clause 77 of the present Regulations).
34. If the line ministry has not provided the information within the above term and under the above procedure, the State Chancellery shall further progress draft planning documents, informative statements and draft legal acts in the Cabinet of Ministers.
III. Action Plan
35. Within a month’s time after a confidence vote by the Saeima to the new Cabinet of Ministers, every line ministry shall draft an action plan (Appendix 2) and submit it to the State Chancellery by using DAUKS system.
36. Tasks specified in the Declaration shall be listed in the action plan of the respective line ministry according to a priority order determined by the Minister. The action plan shall list up to five implementation measures for each task indicated in the Declaration, and provide the implementation terms of these measures, and ministries or other institutions being in charge of the implementation.
37. When the action plan divisions are submitted to the State Chancellery, it shall prepare a consolidated draft action plan according to the tasks assigned by the Declaration and submits it to the Prime Minister, as well as sends it to the ministerial official in charge.
38. If the consolidated draft action plan does not provide any measures for the implementation of a task included in the Declaration, the Prime Minister shall determine the line ministry in charge of the implementation of this task. The respective line ministries shall within five working days’ time after the receipt of a Prime Minister’s resolution submit to the State Chancellery an action plan for the implementation these tasks by using DAUKS system and indicating the implementation deadlines.
39. If necessary, the Prime Minister shall organise meetings in order to discuss the draft action plan or changes in the approved action plan. The State Chancellery shall keep minutes of such meetings and integrate any amendments in the draft action plan or ensure drafting of a document on changes in the action plan. If necessary, the State Chancellery shall require additional information on behalf of the Prime Minister.
40. When all information is collected from the line ministries, the State Chancellery shall submit to the Prime Minister a consolidated draft action plan. The Cabinet of Ministers shall approve the action plan by an order of the Cabinet of Ministers.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
41. Each year by February 1 every line ministry shall prepare information about the progress of implementation of the tasks included in the action plan in the previous year by describing the tasks already fulfilled and those tasks which are being implemented. This information shall be provided by filling out the respective column of the action plan and submitting it to the State Chancellery by using DAUKS system. If necessary, the covering letter may indicate a necessity to update the action plan by providing adequate justification and wording of the updated action plan.
42. When the State Chancellery receives the respective information from the line ministries, it shall consolidate this information and submits it to the Prime Minister.
43. The changes in the action plan as proposed by the ministries in charge are approved by the Cabinet of Ministers which adopts a respective order.
44. When the action plan or changes are approved, the State Chancellery shall prepare an updated action plan according to the order of the Cabinet of Ministers and place it on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers.
45. Every ministry shall place its own action plan division on the ministry’s website.
IV. Ranks of Cabinet Members
46. Members of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be ranked in following way:
46.1 Prime Minister;
46.2 Deputy Prime Minister;
46.3 Minister, Minister for Special Assignments.
47. Within one rank a higher rank is assigned to a Cabinet member who has worked in the respective post for a longer period of time. In case of similar terms of office a higher rank shall be assigned to the official who has been working in public administration for a longer period of time.
48. Working places of the Cabinet members during the Cabinet sittings and Cabinet Committee’s meetings shall be determined according to ranks. The ranks of the Cabinet members shall be applied by the Chair of the Cabinet sittings or Cabinet Committee’s meetings when according to the right to speak during debates and when determining the co-signatories (the right of second signature) of a draft legal act adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers.
V. International Agreements or their Drafts to be Considered by the Cabinet of Ministers
49. When an international agreement or its draft is submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval in accordance with Section 31(1) (2) of the Structure of Cabinet Law and when the agreement or its draft is to be signed, the respective ministry shall also attach a draft protocol decision of the Cabinet of Ministers indicating the official authorised to sign the agreement or its draft, and draft letter of authorisation except in cases when the authorisation is provided by the law.
50. If the international agreement is to be adopted by the Saeima without signing it, the Cabinet of Ministers adopts a draft law on approval of the above-mentioned agreement.
51. If the international agreement is to be approved by the Saeima upon signing it, the respective ministry shall attach to the above-mentioned agreement a draft protocol decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, which stipulates Cabinet’s support to the signature of the international agreement or its draft by also indicating the official authorised to sign the draft agreement and the draft letter of authorisation except in cases when the authorisation is provided by the law.
52. Upon signing the international agreement the submitter shall submit to the State Chancellery a copy of the signed agreement (in cases provided by the present Regulations – also a translation) or a copy of approval of joining the international agreement, an elaborated draft law on approval of the agreement in the Saeima and an updated annotation of the draft law.
53. If the international agreement or its draft is to be signed in several languages one of which is Latvian, and in case of disputes, no language has a priority, the agreement or its draft shall be submitted only in the Latvian language. The information system DAUKS shall also include the international agreement or its draft in a foreign language (preferably – in English or Russian).
54. If the international agreement or its draft is to be signed in several languages one of which is Latvian, and in case of disputes one language has a priority, the agreement or its draft shall be submitted only in the Latvian language and in the language which would have a priority in case of disputes.
55. If the international agreement or its draft is to be signed in a foreign language, it shall be submitted in the denoted language together with a translation into Latvian.
56. The original copy and translation (if the agreement is not signed in Latvian) of the international agreement shall be submitted for storage at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within ten business days after signing it, by sending the text of the agreement and translation also in electronic form.
57. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall via the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis provide information about the fact that the agreement has entered into effect and shall publish texts of the international agreements identified in Clause 49 of these Regulations (in compliance with Clauses 53, 54 and 55 of the present Regulations).
VI. Informative Statement to be Considered by the Cabinet of Ministers
58. An informative statement is information or a report on progress in solving a problem under Cabinet’s competence, on implementation of a planning document accepted by the Cabinet of Ministers or enforcement of a legal act, or on problems in a specific field. Such an informative statement is prepared upon ministry’s own initiative or on the assignment of the Prime Minister, as well as in cases when it is a task assigned in the protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting or the Cabinet Committee’s meeting, in a planning document or a legal act.
59. The informative statement shall be considered at a Cabinet sitting if the attached draft protocol decision of the Cabinet of Ministers stipulates further activities of the respective institutions with regard to the above-mentioned statement. The conceptual issues shall not be included in the informative statement.
59.1 The draft informative statement which provides further action of the institutions may be submitted for consideration at the Cabinet of Ministers without promulgation at the State Secretaries’ meeting, if it refers to:
59.1 1 membership of Latvia in process of initiation, preparation and adoption of the European Union decisions;
59.1 2 introduction of legal acts of the European Union;
59.1 3 infringements of the European Union law;
59.1 4 court proceedings in the Court of Justice of the European Union or the EFTA court;
59.1 5 implementation of international treaties of the European Council and the United Nations Organization in the area of human rights and mechanisms for handling related complaints.
60. If no further activities are planned in relation to the matters covered by the informative statement, further progress of the informative statement in the Cabinet of Ministers shall be determined by the Prime Minister.
61. The respective ministry shall draft an informative statement before informal meetings of the Council of Ministers of the European Union by including the guidelines on agenda issues of the respective Council meeting (these guidelines are binding for the representative of the Republic of Latvia). The informative statement shall be attached to the draft protocol decision of the Cabinet of Ministers by indicating authorisation of the official to represent the Republic of Latvia at the respective meeting of the Council of Ministers.
VII. Competence, Organisation and Procedure of the State Secretaries’ Meetings
62. The State Secretaries’ meetings are usually organised at the State Chancellery and take place once a week (on Thursdays). The Director of the State Chancellery (or an official substituting the Director of the State Chancellery) (hereinafter referred to as the chairperson of the meeting) shall convene the State Secretaries’ meetings, approve their agendas and chair the meetings.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
63. The following persons may participate in the State Secretaries’ meetings:
63.1 with the right of vote – Director of the State Chancellery, State Secretaries, Heads of the Secretariats of Ministers for Special Assignments (hereinafter referred to as voting participants);
63.2 in the advisory capacity – Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Head of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, officials of the State Chancellery, representative of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau, representative of the State Audit Office, representative of the General Prosecutor’s Office, Parliamentary Secretaries, representative of the Latvian Association of Local Governments, representative of the Public Services Regulatory Committee, representative of the National Trilateral Cooperation Council, representative of the Competition Council, Ombudsman or a person authorised by the Ombudsman, representative of the Development Council of a Planning Region, and a representative of the Council for Implementation of the Cooperation Memorandum between Non-governmental Organizations and the Cabinet of Ministers.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
64. Participants of the State Secretaries’ meetings shall electronically submit to the State Chancellery applications on persons to be additionally invited in relation to specific agenda issues at least one working day before the respective State Secretaries’ meeting providing person’s name, surname, position and the issue concerning invitation. The respective ministry shall inform the person invited to the meeting for consideration of a specific issue about the timing (agenda) of the respective issue and provide the relevant documentation.
65. State Secretaries’ meeting shall:
65.1 consider the notified draft planning documents, draft informative statements (Clause 59 of these Regulations) and announcement of draft legal acts regarding to notified draft legal acts mentioned in Clause 731 of these Regulations concerning application of simplified promulgation and endorsement procedure;
65.2 decide on revocation or prolongation of the deadline of the announced draft planning documents, draft informative statements and draft legal acts, considering justification of the request for prolongation;
65.3 decide on the necessity to fill out additional sections of an annotation to a draft legal act if such is requested by a participant;
65.4 decides on the necessity of public discussion if such is requested by a participant;
65.5 prior to consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers shall consider those draft legal acts that cannot be regarded as endorsed;
65.61 prior to consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers shall consider draft official positions of the Republic of Latvia with a view to advocate the national development objectives in international organizations or matters related to their drafting if it is impossible to agree on distribution of ministries’ or other institutions’ responsibilities and competences;
65.7 upon suggestion of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics decide on necessity to submit a draft legal act to the Ministry of Economics in order to provide information to the European Commission in line with the laws on regulations stipulating the relevant procedures for provision of information on draft technical regulations (hereinafter referred to as the endorsement procedure for technical regulations);
65.8 upon suggestion of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance decide on the necessity to submit a draft legal act to the Ministry of Finance in order to send it to the European Central Bank in line with the laws on regulations stipulating the relevant procedure by which public authorities endorse draft legal acts with the European Central Bank (hereinafter referred to as the endorsement procedure for financial regulations);
65.9 consider matters related to the implementation of assignments stipulated in laws, by Saeima resolutions, in legal acts issued by the Cabinet of Ministers, and in orders (resolutions) of the Prime Minister;
65.10 consider other matters being important in public administration.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010; Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.201)
66. The State Chancellery shall place the approved agenda of the State Secretaries’ meeting together with other documentation (including letters of natural persons and institutions concerning the drafts in question) in the e-portfolio system at least three working days before the meeting.
67. The State Secretaries’ meetings shall pass their decisions on issues under their competence by agreement or voting, if such is requested by a voting participant.
68. In cases of voting, the State Secretaries’ meetings shall pass decisions by simple majority vote of voting participants. In case the votes are equal, the chairman’s opinion decides the outcome.
69. A person appointed by the Director of the State Chancellery shall make minutes of the State Secretaries’ meeting. The minutes shall include names of persons participating and speaking about the relevant question, decisions and presentation of different opinions. Protocol decisions of the State Secretaries’ meetings shall enter into legal force since the moment of adopting a decision if not otherwise provided in the decision.
69.1 The State Chancellery shall make audio recording of the State Secretaries’ meeting. The audio recordings are performed, stored and used in conformity with Chapter XIV1 of the present Regulations.
70. The chairman shall sign the minutes of the State Secretaries’ meeting not later than next working day after the meeting, and the State Chancellery shall promptly place it in the e-portfolio system.
71. The participants of the State Secretaries’ meeting entitled to vote shall have the right within two working days upon meeting’s protocol is placed in the e-portfolio system to submit a written objection to the Director of the State Chancellery concerning the contents of the protocol by providing an amended wording for the protocol decision. These amendments shall be considered at the next State Secretaries’ meeting.
VIII. Registration, Announcement and Cancellation of Draft Planning Documents, Draft Informative Statements and Draft Legal Acts
72. The ministry shall register draft planning documents, draft informative statements (Clause 59 of these Regulations) and draft legal acts, except for draft legal acts indicated in Clause 73 of these Regulations) for announcement at the State Secretaries’ meeting two working days prior to the State Secretaries’ meeting (on Tuesdays, by 12:00) by filling out the draft’s application form in DAUKS system (hereinafter referred to as the application).
73. It is not required to announce at the State Secretaries’ meeting the following draft legal acts (the ministry in charge shall endorse such draft legal acts according with Clause 111 of these Regulations):
73.1 draft protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting on implementation of a task to a line ministry or other institution;
73.2 draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers regarding orders of the Cabinet of Ministers to prolong ministry’s or institution’s deadline for the implementation of the assigned task;
73.3 draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on approval of candidates, appointment, transfer and dismissal, attribution of a special rank or combining the positions of officials;
73.4 draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on granting citizenship under the naturalisation procedure or renewal of citizenship;
73.5 draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on conferring Certificates of Recognition, awards and prize-money for exceptional achievements in sports;
73.6 draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on the development of consultative councils, committees or working groups;
73.7 draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on extradition of a person to a foreign country;
73.8 draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on participation in international operations and missions;
73.9. draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on granting financial resources from the national budget program “Emergency Financial Resources”.
73.10 draft regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers concerning the procedure of implementation of the activities of the European Union funds mentioned in the planning documents of the European Union funds.
73.1 A simplified promulgation and endorsement procedure (default endorsement; Clause 90 of the present Regulations) can be applied to those draft legal acts which have no impact on the state budget, local government budgets, administration process, delegation of public administration tasks and on the issues concerning human rights as well as which implementation do not create additional expenses, administrative burden for the society or a particular group, and which are prepared with a view to:
73.11 ensure that requirements of the European Union are introduced or the international treaties binding for the Republic of Latvia are implemented and contain specific technical and security requirements, technical specifications, sample documents, classified lists of objects or nomenclature codes for statistical needs;
73.1 2 replace or delete a title of a state institution in normative acts, if a decision on respective institution (for example, its reorganization) has already been adopted as well as to amend the title of a law;
73.1 3 to acknowledge legal act to be void.
74. The application shall indicate the justification of submission (attach indication to the corresponding assignment or note that the draft has been submitted according to ministry’s initiative) type of the draft, policy area (Appendix 3), title of the draft, information about the institution which drafted the document, information concerning the necessity of a public discussion, information whether a report on this draft will be provided, which institution and official will submit this report, as well as line ministries and other institution whose endorsement is required, and deadline for submission of opinions if the deadline differs from the term indicated in Clause 88 of these Regulations by taking into account the provision that it may not be shorter than three working days or longer than four weeks.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
74.1 With regard to draft legal acts mentioned in Clause 73.1 of the present Regulations the following information shall be provided in the application: justification of submission (attach indication to the corresponding assignment or note that the draft has been submitted according with ministry’s initiative), project type, policy area (Appendix 3), title and information about the developer of the draft.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
75. The ministry shall attach to the application in DAUKS system the draft planning document in question and the respective draft legal act, the draft informative statement and the respective draft legal act, the draft legal act and its annotation, but the international agreement (or its draft) shall also be complemented by a draft letter of authorisation and text of this agreement (its draft) pursuant to the provisions of Chapter V of these Regulations.
76. Upon announcement of the draft according to a respective note in the minutes of the State Secretaries’ meeting, draft’s author shall electronically, or, if not possible, in printed form present documents that prove legality of the legal relations prescribed by the respective draft legal act to the persons who have presented opinions.
77. The State Chancellery shall place the draft planning document in question and the respective draft legal act, the draft informative statement and the respective draft legal act, the draft legal act and its annotation on the Internet homepage of the Cabinet of Ministers (on Wednesdays, until 9 a.m.). The draft shall be regarded as registered when it is placed on the Internet homepage of the Cabinet of Ministers and when a registration number (SSM number) is assigned to the draft.
78. If a line ministry or another institution, which is not mentioned in the application wishes to give an opinion on the notified draft or if the respective ministry or other institution is mentioned in the application, yet it is not willing to give an opinion, then a day before the State Secretaries’ meeting (on Wednesdays, until 3 p.m.) it shall submit to DAUKS system information about application in order to give an opinion or about its refusal to give an opinion. Other institutions which do not have access to DAUKS system shall electronically submit to the State Chancellery their applications on provision of an opinion by indicating the draft’s title and registration number (SSM number) of the notified draft (Clause 77 of these Regulations).
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
78.1 Ministries and other institutions usually do not apply to give an opinion on provisions concerning notified drafts mentioned in Clause 73.1. Application for opinion shall be regarded as opposition to the application of default endorsement. If ministry has announced to give an opinion, the State Secretaries’ meeting hears out information provided by the ministry, and decides on procedure of application of default endorsement, notified drafts endorsement in regular order or cancellation of its promulgation. If other institution applies to give an opinion, the State Secretaries’ meeting decides that line ministry shall provide assessment of opinion or resolution as well as promulgate notified drafts and stipulate procedure of application of simplified promulgation and endorsement (Clause 73.1 of these Regulations).
79. A line ministry or other institution shall not have the right of refusal to give its opinion if the draft in question is directly related to matters under competence of this ministry or institution.
80. A day before the State Secretaries’ meeting (on Wednesdays, until 3 p.m.):
80.1 the ministry or other institution may electronically, by sending it to the official e-mail address of the State Chancellery, submit information about the request to fill out an additional section of the annotation of the notified draft legal act by indicating the draft’s title and registration number (SSM number) of the notified draft (Clause 77 of these Regulations);
80.2 the ministry shall submit to DAUKS system proposal concerning the necessity for public discussion. Other institutions may electronically submit to the State Chancellery the above information by indicating the draft’s title and registration number (SSM number) of the notified draft (Clause 77 of these Regulations).
81. If the State Secretaries’ meeting decides that additional annotation sections should be filled out for the notified draft legal act, the ministry in charge shall submit to DAUKS system an elaborated annotation within two working days after the State Secretaries’ meeting (on Mondays, 9:00 a.m.). If the ministry in charge fails to submit an elaborated annotation within the above term, the State Chancellery shall include the draft in next week’s list of notified drafts if the elaborated annotation is submitted to the State Chancellery at least one working day before the State Secretaries’ meeting (on Tuesdays, until 5:00 p.m.).
82. If the State Secretaries’ meeting decides that the notified draft requires public discussion, the ministry in charge of the draft shall organise such public discussion in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations on public involvement in the development planning process.
83. The notified draft planning document, draft informative statement or draft legal act shall be regarded as announced and term for submission of the opinion shall start two working days after the State Secretaries’ meeting (on Mondays, at 9:00 a.m.) at which the notified draft was considered and approved, if not otherwise decided at the State Secretaries’ meeting.
84. If the ministry fails to submit the promulgated draft to the State Chancellery within six months with a view to forward it for consideration at the Cabinet of Ministers (the State Secretaries’ meeting, the Cabinet Committee’s meeting or the Cabinet sitting), the State Chancellery shall include the promulgated draft in a list of drafts to be withdrawn at the State Secretaries’ meeting.
85. The draft legal act, which shall be submitted to the Ministry of Economics in order to provide information under the procedure for endorsement of technical regulations, shall be submitted to the State Chancellery within two weeks upon endorsement of the draft legal act with the European Commission and EU Member States.
86. The draft legal act, which shall be submitted to the Ministry of Finance in order to send it to the European Central Bank in accordance with procedure for endorsement of draft financial regulations, shall be submitted to the State Chancellery not later than within six months’ time since the expiry of the suspension period for progressing the draft legal act in question.
87. The ministry may cancel the announced draft in DAUKS system. The State Chancellery shall include the draft to be cancelled in the agenda of the next State Secretaries’ meeting.
IX. Endorsement of Announced Drafts
88. The promulgated draft of the ministry in charge (which is placed on the Internet homepage of the Cabinet of Ministers) except for drafts mentioned in Clause 73.1 of the present Regulations shall be endorsed with the line ministries and other institutions indicated in the minutes of the State Secretaries’ meeting. The announced draft shall be endorsed within two weeks’ time upon its announcement (if the State Secretaries’ meeting has not defined another term).
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
89. The promulgated draft (Clause 74 and 88 of the present Regulations) shall be endorsed in one of the following ways:
89.1 by providing opinion which includes the assessment of the draft and grounded objections and proposals;
89.2 by providing a signature of the State Secretary of respective line ministry or head of other institution or a duly authorised official approving that there are no proposals or objections on the draft and annotation;
89.3 by electronically notifying the ministry in charge that there are no objections and proposals (the ministry shall make a note on the endorsement in system DAUKS, but other institution shall send a notification to official e-mail address of the ministry in charge).
90. If the ministry or other institution (including ministries and other institutions mentioned in Clause 91 of the present Regulations) fails to present the opinion or other information on the failure to endorse the draft (Clause 89 of the present Regulations)mentioned in Clause 73.1 of the present Regulations within a week after promulgation (unless other deadline is set at the State Secretaries’ meeting which may not be shorter than three business days), the promulgated draft shall be regarded as endorsed (default endorsement) and the ministry in charge shall submit it according to the established procedure for consideration at the Cabinet of Ministers.
90.1 If the ministry or other institution provides the opinion with objections or electronically notifies the ministry in charge, that it shall give an opinion, in terms mentioned in Clause 90 of the present Regulations on the objections on application of default endorsement, the deadline for provision of opinions on this draft shall be prolonged for a week and the endorsement with ministry or other institution, which shall provide the opinion, shall be organized according to a regular procedure provided in these Regulations.
91. Opinion (endorsement) on the promulgated draft is required from:
91.1 the Ministry of Finance;
91.2 the Ministry of Justice;
91.3 the State Chancellery – on any draft planning document and informative statement, as well as on draft legal act dealing with institutional structure and principles of activity of public administration;
91.4 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – on an international agreement or its draft, or any other draft relating to international obligations of Latvia;
91.5 the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments if according to the Law "On Municipalities" the draft has to be endorsed with municipalities;
91.6 the Public Services Regulatory Committee if a draft legal act is related to a regulation of public services;
91.7 the National Regional Development Council if the draft is related to regional development, territorial planning and land policy;
91.8 the National Trilateral Cooperation Council if the draft is related to the interests of employers and employees;
91.9 the Competition Council if the draft is related to matters of competition protection and development;
91.91 the Latvian National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO), if the draft relates to international commitments of the Republic of Latvia in the area of UNESCO activities (education, science, culture, environment, information or communication, the mass media);
91.10 other ministries the competence of which is directly related to the draft, as well as other institutions stipulated in the external laws and regulations for implementing endorsement of draft laws and regulations, or if the necessity for an opinion derives from the provisions of external laws and regulations stipulating their competence.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010; Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
91.1 If the State Chancellery considers announced draft to be incompliant with the Declaration or the action plan or approved draft planning documents, which undermine progressing of the draft, it shall present to the Prime Minister an opinion and proposal on further progressing of the announced draft. If the Prime Minister cancels such draft with a resolution, further progressing of the draft is acceptable only after an agreement between the Prime Minister and the minister in charge and after the elaborated draft’s re-announcement in the State Secretaries’ meeting.
92. If other institution which is not mentioned in the minutes of the State Secretaries' meeting as a provider of opinion has presented its opinion on the announced draft, meeting the deadline specified in Clause 88 of the present Regulations, the ministry in charge shall also assess the mentioned opinion and shall invite the representative of a respective institution to participate in the endorsement process. If an agreement with a mentioned institution is not reached within the endorsement process, the ministry in charge shall consider necessity to progress the announced draft for its consideration at the State Secretaries' meeting or shall prepare the draft for its submission to the Cabinet of Ministers in line with the stipulated procedure, including information about objections from the other institution.
93. Opinion shall be provided on each type of drafts (draft planning document, draft informative statement, draft legal act) separately. The opinion shall be signed by the State Secretary or his/her authorised official or the head of an institution which provides the opinion. The opinion shall include the surname, phone number and e-mail address of the drafter.
94. The ministry or other institution in its opinion shall:
94.1 present grounded and explained objections on which the agreement should be reached during the endorsement process;
94.2 present proposals of recommendatory nature;
94.3 specify the supported option if the draft provides for several solution options.
95. If a ministry or other institution has failed to structure the opinion, in overall it has a recommendatory nature. If the opinion indicates that a ministry or other institution does not support progressing of the draft, the whole draft is deemed as objected.
96. If opinions on the announced draft include objections and proposals, the ministry in charge shall consider them, elaborate the draft and prepare a statement on the objections expressed in the opinions (see Appendix 4) (hereinafter referred to as statement). The statement shall summarize all the objections included in opinions by ministries and other institutions on the particular clause (section, paragraph).
97. If ministries and other institutions have supported the draft with no objections or have expressed only proposals, the draft shall be considered as endorsed, and the ministry in charge in line with procedure set forth by present Regulations prepares the draft for its submission to the Cabinet sitting.
98. If a ministry or other institution (including the other institution mentioned in Clause 92 of the present Regulations) has expressed objections on the announced draft, the ministry in charge, after the consideration of objections, shall electronically send the statement and the elaborated draft (its annotation) to ministries and other institutions which have presented the opinion or have, in line with the stipulated procedure, acknowledged the absence of objections, as well as those ministries and other institutions which are affected by substantial changes made to the draft (hereinafter in this Chapter – endorsement participants).
99. If the ministry in charge, elaborating the announced draft, has taken into account the objections by the endorsement participants, and if, within five days upon the delivery of statement and elaborated draft, no objections on the elaborated draft are received from the endorsement participants, the draft is considered as endorsed and the ministry in charge shall prepare, according to the procedure stipulated in present Regulations, the draft for its submission to the Cabinet sitting.
100. In order to reach agreement on the disregarded or partly applied objections, the ministry in charge convenes a joint inter-ministerial (inter-institutional) meeting. Upon convening the inter-ministerial (inter-institutional) meeting, the ministry in charge, no later than five days before the meeting, shall send electronically to the participants (to the official e-mail address of the institution and the producer of the opinion) information about the meeting, specifying the ministries and other institutions, for purposes of which objections the meeting is organised, as well as shall enclose the statement and the elaborated draft (its annotation).
101. If the essence and amount of the objection does not require the presence in order to reach an agreement, the ministry in charge may organise the endorsement through electronic means. The ministry in charge shall send electronically to the endorsement participants (to an official e-mail address of the institution and the producer of the opinion) a statement (which includes the grounding or explanation of the ministry in charge on disregarded or partly applied objections) and the elaborated project (its annotation), specifying ministries and other institutions for purposes of which objections the meeting is organised, and the deadline (not shorter than five working days) by which the endorsement participants have to express their view.
102. By organizing the endorsement in electronic form, the information on the endorsement or objections shall be sent simultaneously to the ministry in charge and other endorsement participants within fixed period. The information shall be sent from an e-mail of the opinion provider to e-mail of the responsible official of the ministry in charge and e-mails of other endorsement participants – opinion providers.
103. If a representative of the respective endorsement participant does not arrive to the inter-ministerial (inter-institutional) meeting or, in case of electronic endorsement, does not respond by the specified deadline, its disregarded or partly applied objections shall be deemed as cancelled and they take a recommendatory nature.
104. The ministry in charge following the inter-ministerial (inter-institutional) meeting or electronic endorsement shall respectively update the statement by including information about the dates of meeting or electronic endorsement, as well as about the expressed views and the endorsement progress. The statement shall also include objections expressed during the endorsement, as well as indicate those endorsement participants which were invited to express their opinion but whose representatives were absent from the meeting or did not respond electronically.
105. The ministry in charge from its official e-mail address shall send specified statement which shall be signed by an official of the ministry in charge (also the chairman of the inter-ministerial (inter-institutional) meeting, as well as present the specified draft (its annotation) to all endorsement participants.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
106. If during the inter-ministerial (inter-institutional) meeting or electronic endorsement the agreement on all expressed objections is reached, and if no objections have been received within five days after the delivery of elaborated statement and draft (its annotation), the draft shall be considered as endorsed and submitted for its consideration in the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.
107. If the objections are received and they are taken into account, and if following the recurrent delivery of elaborated statement and draft (its annotation) no objections on those objections taken into account have been received within five working days, the draft shall be considered as endorsed and the ministry in charge shall prepare it for its submission in the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.
108. If during the inter-ministerial (inter-institutional) meeting or electronic endorsement on disregarded or partly applied objections the agreement is not reached, or if any objections have been received within the deadline specified in Clause 106 of the present Regulations, the ministry in charge shall submit the draft for its consideration in the State Secretaries' meeting. The ministry in charge shall be authorised to conduct another endorsement process in line with procedure set forth in this Chapter.
109. If the deadline, by which the opinions should be provided on the promulgated draft, specified in the minutes of the State Secretaries’ meeting is less than set term provided in Clauses 88 and 90 of the present Regulations, the deadline of five working days specified in this Chapter for endorsement process shall be replaced by three working days.
110. If a draft legal act, which has been endorsed in compliance with Clauses 90, 97, 106 and 107 of the present Regulations, is to be submitted to:
110.1 the Ministry of Economics, in order to inform the European Commission about the preparation of a legal act, the ministry in charge shall, in accordance with endorsement procedure for technical provisions, postpone for a certain period of time its submission to the Cabinet sitting;
110.2 the Ministry of Finance, in order to send it to the European Central Bank, the ministry in charge shall, in line with endorsement procedure for finance provisions, postpone its submission to the Cabinet sitting for a certain period of time.
X. Endorsement of Draft Documents to be Considered in the Cabinet of Ministers without their Announcement in the State Secretaries’ Meeting and of Drafts to be Submitted in Line with the Procedure for the Cabinet of Ministers' Matters
111. The following opinions (endorsements) should be presented on draft legal acts mentioned in Clause 73 of the present Regulations unless otherwise stated in normative acts:
111.1 from the Ministry of Finance - on draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on granting an award of the Cabinet of Ministers, on granting the money prize for exceptional achievements in sports, on extradition of a person to a foreign country, on participation of officials in international missions and operations and granting of funding from the state budget program “Emergency Financial Resources” as well as on draft regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers on the procedure for implementation of activities of the European Union funds set forth in the planning documents of the European Union funds;
111.2 from the Ministry of Justice – on draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on participation of officials in international missions and operations as well as on draft regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers on the procedure for implementation of activities of the European Union funds set forth in the planning documents of the European Union funds;
111.3 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - on draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on extradition of a person to a foreign country, participation of officials in international missions and operations;
111.4. from the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau – on draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers for permission for combining of positions;
111.5 from ministries and other institutions, which representatives are to be included in a particular council, committee, or working group – on draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers concerning development of consultative councils, committees or working groups;
111.6 from those ministries and other institutions which have a task – on draft protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting on the fulfilment of a task assigned to the ministry or other institution by the protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting and on draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on prolongation of the deadline for the fulfilment of the tasks assigned to a ministry or other institution.
111.1 Deadline for the presentation of endorsements stipulated in Clause 111 of these Regulations is two weeks, but in case of urgent matters a ministry in charge can request a shortened deadline which may not be shorter than three working days. Endorsements shall be presented in compliance with one of types mentioned in Clause 89 of these Regulations.
112. The ministry shall endorse the prepared informative statement (see Clause 61 of the present Regulations) and the annexed draft protocol decision of the Cabinet of Ministers with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and involved ministries and other institutions in line with a procedure for coordination of national position laid down in laws and regulations dealing with preparation, endorsement, approval and updating of national positions.
113. The ministry shall electronically send the draft document (except for a draft document to be submitted to the Constitutional Court; Clause 113 of the present Regulations) that shall be submitted to the court to the ministries or other competent institutions for endorsement not later than five working days before the end of the deadline specified in the Prime Minister’s resolution.
113.1 Upon receipt of the document of the Constitutional Court addressed to the Cabinet of Ministers, the State Chancellery shall electronically (to the official e-mail address of the ministry):
113.1 1 inform the ministry (ministry in charge) which has drafted the objected draft legal act on the received document by the Constitutional Court;
113.1 2 endorse with the ministry in charge and other ministries competent in respective matters, those officials of the institutions who are responsible for preparation of the draft document that shall be submitted to the Constitutional Court;
113.1 3 in view of the deadline mentioned in the document by the Constitutional Court, shall agree with the ministry in charge and other involved ministries on the deadline when the ministry in charge will send to the State Chancellery a working version of a draft document that shall be submitted to the Constitutional Court including real conditions and counterarguments on the respective matter.
113.2 Upon receipt of the working version of the document drafted by the ministry in charge and the supplements by the ministries involved that shall be submitted to the Constitutional Court, the State Chancellery shall make legal assessment, supplement with legal argumentation and endorse electronically the consolidated working version of the draft document that shall be submitted to the Constitutional Court with the ministry in charge and other ministries involved. The ministry in charge shall submit the endorsed draft document that shall be submitted to the Constitutional Court for consideration at the Cabinet of Ministers in line with the resolution of the Prime Minister.
113.3 The representation of the Cabinet of Ministers at the Constitutional Court shall be ensured by the ministry in charge, but, if the State Chancellery has had substantial conceptual objections in the process of drafting of the objected legal act and they had not been considered during endorsement and adoption of the draft, the ministry in charge shall ensure drafting of the draft document to be submitted at the Constitutional Court, submission to the Cabinet of Ministers and representation of national interests at the Constitutional Court.
114. The draft letter of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be endorsed with ministries and other institutions, the competence of which is directly related to a matter, by sending electronically the draft letter for its endorsement to the mentioned institutions not later than five working days before the end of the deadline specified in the resolution of the Prime Minister.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
115. The Ministry of Finance shall not endorse with other ministries and central public administration institutions the draft legal acts related to draft budget and its preparation, and acts on ensuring the budget implementation process, as well as information about Law “On Budget and Finance Management”, and also according to cases mentioned in an annual budgetary law; instead it shall consult with the Ministry of Justice in order to ensure the principle of rule of law.
116. In exceptional cases, if the issue, relating to unfavourable consequences to the country, has to be considered immediately, the Prime Minister upon his own initiative or upon a request by a member of the Cabinet of Ministers may announce the issue as a matter of the Cabinet of Minister's, defining the procedure for draft’s endorsement. The draft planning document cannot be announced as a matter of the Cabinet of Ministers.
117. If a member of the Cabinet of Ministers requests the Prime Minister to announce the draft planning document, informative statement (see Clause 59 of the present Regulations) a matter of the Cabinet of Ministers, the draft shall be endorsed according to the procedure laid down in Clause 89 of the present Regulations with competent ministries and other institutions, but at least with:
117.1 the Ministry of Justice;
117.2 the Ministry of Finance;
117.3 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (regarding international treaties and their drafts).
118. By asking the Prime Minister to announce an issue as a matter of the Cabinet of Ministers, the submitter shall indicate in the covering letter the justification for urgency (Appendix 5).
119. The ministry shall send electronically the prepared draft opinion to respective ministries mentioned in Clause 117 of the present Regulations, and indicate in the covering letter the justification for such urgency and the deadline by which the opinion shall be presented. The mentioned deadline shall not be less than three working days counting from the day when the draft was sent. If the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Foreign Affairs (regarding international treaties and their drafts) finds that the justification for urgency of the draft is not presented or if the justification is not presented in its terms it shall immediately electronically inform (by sending the concerning information to the official e-mail address) the ministry in charge and the State Chancellery. The ministry in charge shall present such draft during State Secretaries’ meeting under the procedure stipulated in the present Regulations.
120. If the objections have been made to the opinions mentioned in Clause 117 of the present Regulations, the ministry upon receiving the objections shall prepare a statement and electronically send with an updated draft (its annotation) to the opinion provider prior to submitting the draft at the Cabinet sitting.
XI. Submission, Progressing Specification and Assessment of Planning Documents, Informative Statements, Draft Legal Acts and Other Draft Documents
121. By submitting to the State Chancellery a draft document mentioned in present Regulations for its consideration at the State Secretaries’ meeting, the Cabinet Committee’s meeting or the Cabinet sitting, a covering letter and documents shall be annexed in accordance to Appendix 5 of the present Regulations.
122. The draft planning documents, draft legal acts, informative reports and other documents and the annexed documents (in line with Part II, Annex 5 of the present Regulations), except for documents with status “FOR SERVICE USE” or containing the object of the state secret, which shall be considered at the State Secretaries’ meeting, the Cabinet Committee’s meeting and the Cabinet sitting shall be submitted to the State Chancellery only through DAUKS system.
122.1 By submitting to the State Chancellery a request signed by a submitter regarding change of the status of the document (e.g. declassification, prolonging of the current status), the submitter shall indicate in its covering letter the number of the document, date, title, registration number (if available) assigned by the State Chancellery and the justification for the change of status.
122.2 If the ministry requests inclusion of the issue in the State Secretaries’ meetings, the meetings of the Cabinet Committee or in additional agenda of the Cabinet sittings, it ensures that the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments, non-governmental organizations and social partners if they have collaborated in the draft legal act or have provided an opinion on the issue, shall be informed of the urgent progressing of the draft. The ministry in charge shall send the above information electronically to the official e-mail address or ensure provision of information by sending the specified draft and statement.
123. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
124. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
125. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
126. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 834 as of 28.07.2009)
127. Upon submission to the State Chancellery of updated draft or additional materials related to a previously submitted draft document which is mentioned in present Regulations, the submitter shall indicate in its covering letter the date, protocol and paragraph number of the State Secretaries' meeting, the meeting of the Cabinet Committee or the Cabinet sitting during which a respective document was considered, as well as include the registration number (if such is applied) given by the State Chancellery and a reference if any of the mentioned additional materials contains restricted access information.
128. The State Chancellery within seven working days following the date of submission to the State Chancellery of draft planning document or informative statement (or its draft) for its consideration in the State Secretaries' meeting, the Cabinet Committee’s meeting or the Cabinet shall present an opinion to the Prime Minister or the Director of the State Chancellery. The opinion shall concern:
128.1 compliance with the procedure laid down in present Regulations with regard to preparation, endorsement and approval of drafts;
128.2 compliance of a draft legal act to requirements laid down in laws and regulations with regard to preparation of legal acts;
128.3 where needed, the compliance of draft to laws, other legal acts, as well as the effective planning documents.
129. The State Chancellery, by taking into consideration the opinions of ministries and other institutions and the opinion mentioned in Clause 128 of the present Regulations, shall present to the Prime Minister or the Director of the State Chancellery proposals on further progressing of the draft.
129.1 If according to the Prime Minister’s resolution on further progress of the informative statement it should be sent to the Cabinet member for information without consideration at the Cabinet sitting, the State Chancellery shall place the informative statement in the e-portfolio system - subdivision “Informative Statements” and the system shall send a notification to its users.
130. The State Chancellery, in accordance to the endorsement procedure of technical provisions, upon a receipt of information from the Ministry of Economics about suspension period for progress of the draft legal act, shall prepare draft resolution of the Prime Minister on suspending the progressing of respective legal act till the end of the specified period.
131. The submitter of the draft legal act within a month after the end of progressing suspension period mentioned in Clause 130 of the present Regulations, shall submit to the Cabinet of Ministers an amended draft and updated annotation, which also includes information about objections and comments received from the European Commission and the European Union Member States, as well as about amendments to a respective draft legal act, taking into consideration the objections and comments by the European Commission and the European Union Member States.
132. If an extension of the suspension period for progressing draft legal act (see Clause 130 of the present Regulations) is required, the submitter of the draft legal act within a month from the expiry date of the suspension period shall submit to the State Chancellery a letter on extension of the suspension period for progressing the respective draft legal act.
133. If an extension of the suspension period for progressing a draft legal act that is coordinated with the European Central Bank is necessary, the submitter of the draft legal act within one month from the expiry of the suspension period shall submit to the State Chancellery a letter on extension of the suspension period for progressing the respective draft legal act.
XII. Procedure for Considering Draft Legal Acts and Draft National Positions and Any Related Issues in the State Secretaries' Meeting
134. In the State Secretaries’ meeting, reports on the submitted draft legal acts or draft national positions or related issues (hereinafter in this Chapter – a draft) shall be delivered by the State Secretary or his/her authorised official.
135. Decisions on the draft legal acts submitted for their consideration shall be adopted unanimously by members of the State Secretaries' meeting who have voting rights. If no agreement is reached, the submitter presents the draft legal act for its consideration at the Cabinet Committee’s meeting. If no agreement is reached with regard to draft national position or related matter, it shall be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers in line with laws and regulations on preparation, endorsement, approval and updating of national positions.
136. Decision of the State Secretaries’ meeting (including differing views) also on those drafts, agreement on which was not reached during the State Secretaries’ meeting, shall be included in the protocol of the State Secretaries' meeting.
137. If consideration of the draft or matter included in the agenda of the State Secretaries’ meeting is postponed during the meeting, the chairman of the meeting sets the term for repeated consideration of the matter.
138. If the State Secretaries' meeting rejects the draft legal act, the State Chancellery, if necessary, resumes control over the fulfilment of task setting the deadline for its implementation – a month counting from the date when the State Secretaries' meeting took place, unless other date has been set during the State Secretaries' meeting, and informs about this the State Secretary of the ministry in charge.
139. Draft legal act is progressed for its consideration to the Cabinet sitting only if the legal act has been supported in the State Secretaries' meeting without any amendments or which require amendments, on which a decision has been adopted in the State Secretaries' meeting or which definition shall be submitted in a written form for consideration during the meeting and which have been included in the minutes of the State Secretaries' meeting.
140. Submitter of draft legal act which has been supported in the meeting of the State Secretaries’ shall submit it for consideration at the Cabinet sitting within a month upon an approval. On the next day following the deadline, the State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS a reminder on non-fulfilment of the task. The draft national position or its related matter, supported in the State Secretaries’ meeting, shall be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers in line with laws and regulations on preparation, endorsement, approval and updating of national positions.
141. The deadline mentioned in Clause 140 of the present Regulations does not concern the draft legal act if, according to Clause 139 of the present Regulations, the draft legal act, which has been supported by the State Secretaries’ meeting, shall be submitted to:
141.1 the Ministry of Economics in order to inform the European Commission about the preparation of legal act. The ministry in charge shall postpone its submission to the Cabinet sitting for undefined period, according to the endorsement procedure of technical regulations;
141.2 the Ministry of Finance for forwarding it to the European Central Bank. The ministry in charge shall postpone its submission to the Cabinet sitting for undefined period, according to the endorsement procedure of technical regulations;
142. If any amendments, which have not been precisely defined or included in the minutes of the State Secretaries' meeting, are necessary to the draft legal act, or if the draft requires endorsement with ministries and other institutions, the draft shall not be approved. In such case, the draft shall be elaborated within two months following the State Secretaries’ meeting, and submitted for its repeated consideration in the State Secretaries' meeting. On the next day following the deadline, the State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS a reminder on non-fulfilment of the task.
143. If the State Chancellery removes the control over the legal act and, if needed, resumes the control over the fulfilment of task, specifying a deadline for its implementation - a month counting from the date when the State Secretaries' meeting took place, and shall inform the State Secretary about that, if:
143.1 the elaborated draft legal act has not been submitted to the State Chancellery within a week after the deadline set in Clauses 140 and 142;
143.2 further progressing of the draft legal act according to the decisions adopted in the State Secretaries’ meeting is only possible after the adoption of a definite planning document or entering into force of a legal act.
XIII. Procedure for Considering Draft Planning Documents, Informative Statements and Legal Acts in Cabinet Committee’s Meeting and its Preparation and Process
144. The Cabinet Committee (hereinafter – the Committee) shall consider:
144.1 prior to its consideration at the Cabinet sitting – the draft planning document, the agreement on which was not reached in the endorsement process;
144.2 prior to its consideration at the Cabinet sitting – the draft informative statement (see Clause 59 of the present Regulations), the agreement on which was not reached in the endorsement process;
144.3 the draft legal act, the agreement on which was not reached in the State Secretaries’ meeting;
144.4 the draft legal act which is not updated in accordance with decisions adopted during the State Secretaries' meeting;
144.5 the draft planning document, informative statement or legal act, on which the objections or significant corrections to a text were proposed during the Cabinet sitting;
144.6 the draft legal act, on which the State Chancellery, during its processing for consideration at the Cabinet sitting, has significant legal or editorial objections;
144.7 repeatedly:
144.7.1 the draft planning document, informative statement or legal act which was approved in the Committee’s meeting and which was not updated in line with decisions adopted by the Committee’s meeting;
144.7.2 the draft which was not approved in the Committee’s meeting;
144.7.3 the draft legal act which was approved in the Committee’s meeting and which contains technical regulations, on which the European Commission has expressed objections, and which has then been accordingly updated.
145. The number of Committees, their composition and date, time and place of their sittings shall be indicated by the Prime Minister.
146. For purposes of coordinating the positions of the Cabinet of Ministers and local governments, extended Committee’s meetings shall be organised and chaired by the Prime Minister with participation of members of the Cabinet of Ministers and representatives of local governments in accordance to a concluded agreement. The representatives of local governments for the Committee’s meeting shall be appointed by the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments.
147. The confirmed agenda of the Committee and its items together with respective materials (including letters on drafts from natural persons and other institutions) shall be made available to the State Chancellery in e-portfolio system not later than three working days before the actual date of the meeting.
148. If submitter for an exceptional case asks to include in the agenda of the Committee's meeting a draft policy document, draft legal act or informative statement, it has to be submitted to the State Chancellery not later than by 10:00 a.m. of the previous working day. The updated agenda of the Committee and its additional items shall be entered into e-portfolio system by the State Chancellery not later than by 5:00 p.m. of the mentioned working day.
149. The following persons may participate in the Committee’s meetings in the advisory capacity:
149.1 officials and their authorised representatives as set in laws;
149.2 representative of the Office of the Prosecutor General;
149.3 persons invited by the Prime Minister;
149.4 persons invited by a member of the Cabinet of Ministers;
149.5 assistant or advisor of a member of the Cabinet of Ministers;
149.6 Parliamentary Secretary of the respective ministry;
149.7 State Secretary and his/her deputies;
149.8 Head of the Prime Minister's Office, Head of the Deputy Prime Minister's Office, and Director of the State Chancellery and his/her authorised officials;
149.9 ombudsman and his/her authorised persons;
149.10 Chief of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau or his/her authorised officials;
149.11 representative of the Republic of Latvia to the Court of Justice of the European Union and the EFTA Court;
149.12 authorised representative of the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments;
149.13 representative of the planning region development council;
149.14 authorised representative of the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia and of the Employers' Confederation of Latvia;
149.15 representative of non-governmental organizations authorized by the Council for Implementation of the Cooperation Memorandum between Non-governmental Organizations and the Cabinet of Ministers.
150. The ministry in charge shall provide details of the agenda to the official, who according to the covering letter is invited to participate in the Committee’s meeting for consideration of a specific matter, as well as provide the official with the respective materials.
151. Not later than one working day before the Committee’s meeting, the ministry in charge or other institution shall electronically submit to the State Chancellery a statement providing person’s name, surname and position on persons to be additionally invited for consideration of specific matters, except for the case mentioned in Clause 148 of the present Regulations, where the provision of information may be allowed before the Committee's meeting. The respective ministry shall provide details of the agenda to the person, who is additionally invited to participate in consideration of a specific matter, as well as provide the person with the respective materials.
152. In the Committee’s meeting, the submitter or his/her authorised person reports about the submitted draft.
153. The decision on progressing the draft for its consideration at the Cabinet sitting shall be unanimously adopted by the Committee.
154. In case of postponing the consideration of draft included in the agenda of the Committee’s meeting upon an initiative by chairman of the sitting, submitter or any other member of the Cabinet of Ministers, the chairman of the sitting shall specify the term for consideration of the matter.
155. If the Committee rejects the draft, the State Chancellery removes the control over the draft, and, if needed, resumes the control over fulfilment of task, also setting a deadline for task – a month counting from the date of the Committee's meeting, and notifies the ministry in charge.
156. The minutes of the Committee’s meeting shall be prepared by an official appointed by the Director of the State Chancellery. The minutes of the Committee’s meeting shall include the meeting’s participants, who reported on respective matter, as well as the decisions.
156.1 The State Chancellery shall make audio recording of the Committee’s meeting. The audio recordings are performed, stored and used in conformity with Chapter XIV of the present Regulations.
157. If the matter is urgent and the draft which was considered or approved in the Committee’s meeting has to be considered exceptionally at the next Cabinet sitting, the submitter, during the Committee's meeting, shall inform the chairman of the Committee's meeting and ask to additionally include the respective draft in agenda of the Cabinet sitting, which takes place on the next day.
158. The minutes of the Committee’s meeting shall be signed by the chairman of the meeting and the Director of the State Chancellery or authorised official of the State Chancellery. If the meeting had several chairmen, the minutes shall be signed by each of them. The State Chancellery shall immediately include the signed minutes in e-portfolio system.
159. Within two working days after the submission of the minutes of the Committee's meeting in e-portfolio system, members of the Cabinet of Ministers are allowed to submit to the Director of the State Chancellery written objections on the content of the minutes, and include precise wording of the amendment to the protocol decision. The mentioned objections shall be considered in the next Cabinet sitting.
160. The following documents shall be progressed to the Cabinet sitting:
160.1 draft legal act which has been approved in the Committee's meeting without amendments or to which, within a month after the meeting (if not otherwise agreed), its submitter should make amendments, decision on which was adopted in the Committee, or which wording shall be submitted in a written form for its consideration in the Committee's meeting and which are included in the minutes of the Committee's meeting. On the next day following the deadline, the State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS a reminder on non-fulfilment of the task.
160.2 draft planning document and draft informative statement which has been approved in the Committee's meeting without amendments or to which, within two months after the meeting (if not otherwise agreed), its submitter should make amendments, decision on which was adopted by the Committee, or which wording shall be submitted in a written form for its consideration in the Committee's meeting and which are included in the minutes of the Committee's meeting. On the next day following the deadline, the State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS a reminder on non-fulfilment of the task.
161. If the draft legal act which was approved in the Committee's meeting has to be submitted to:
161.1 the Ministry of Economics, in order to inform the European Commission about the preparation of a legal act, the ministry in charge shall, in accordance with endorsement procedure for technical provisions, postpone for a certain period of time its submission to the Cabinet sitting;
161.2 the Ministry of Finance, in order to send it to the European Central Bank, the ministry in charge shall, in line with endorsement procedure for finance provisions, postpone its submission to the Cabinet sitting for a certain period of time.
162. If any amendments, which have not been precisely defined or included in the minutes of the Committee’s meeting, need to be made to the draft planning document, informative statement or legal act, or if the draft requires endorsement with respective ministries and other institutions and officials, the draft shall not be approved. The draft shall be updated and submitted for repeated consideration in the Committee’s meeting within two months, if not otherwise decided during the Committee's meeting. On the next day following the deadline, the State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS a reminder on non-fulfilment of the task.
163. The State Chancellery shall remove the control over the draft, and, if needed, resume the control over fulfilment of task, also setting a deadline for task – a month counting from the date of the Committee's meeting, and shall notify the ministry in charge:
163.1 if the ministry in charge within a week after the deadline set forth in Clauses 160 and 162 of the present Regulations has not submitted the specified draft to the Cabinet of Ministers;
163.2 if within six months after the Committee’s meeting, the fulfilment of provisions set forth in the Committee’s minutes and required for further progressing of a draft has not been ensured.
XIV. Procedure for Consideration of Draft Documents in the Cabinet Sitting, its Organisation and Progress
164. Without consideration in the State Secretaries’ meeting and the Committee’s meeting, the following documents are considered at the Cabinet sitting:
164.1 matter of the Cabinet of Ministers;
164.2 draft planning document, which is considered as already endorsed (Clauses 97, 99, 106 or 107 of the present Regulations);
164.3 draft legal act:
164.3.1 which is considered as already endorsed (Clauses 90, 97, 99, 106 or 107 of the present Regulations);
164.3.2 which is mentioned in Clause 73 of the present Regulations;
164.4 draft annual state budget (portfolio of draft budget law) and draft legal acts related to its drafting, as well as draft legal acts related to ensuring the budget implementation and information in cases set forth in the annual state budget law and in the Law “On Budget and Finance Management”;
164.5 informative statement:
164.5.1 which according to Clause 59 of the present Regulations is considered as already endorsed (Clauses 97, 99, 106 or 107 of the present Regulations);
164.5.2 in accordance to Clause 60 of the present Regulations if it has been progressed for consideration at the Cabinet sitting;
164.5.3 in accordance to Clauses 591 and 61 of the present Regulations;
164.6 draft planning document, an informative statement or draft legal act which under the law "On State Secrets" is considered as a state secret object or contains the object of state secret;
164.7 draft planning document, an informative statement or draft legal act which according to the Freedom of Information Law contains restricted information "FOR OFFICAL USE”;
164.8 draft national position, except for cases set forth in legal acts, if the meeting of Senior Officials has decided on a prior consideration of a draft national position in the State Secretaries’ meeting;
164.9 draft position;
164.10 draft national position with regard to international law issues;
164.11 draft document to be submitted to the court;
164.12 (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
164.13 (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
164.14 draft letter of the Cabinet of Ministers.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010; Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
165. The State Chancellery shall include a draft national position and a draft position in the agenda of the next Cabinet sitting or the Cabinet sitting specified in a covering letter from a submitter.
166. The State Chancellery shall make legal and editorial adjustments to the draft legal act progressed to the Cabinet sitting. Following the processing of final formulation of draft legal act, it shall be endorsed with the ministry in charge, and a draft planning document, an informative statement or draft legal act shall be progressed for its consideration at the Cabinet sitting.
167. Draft legal act approved in the State Secretaries' meeting shall usually be included in the agenda of the Cabinet sitting within two weeks following the submission of draft legal act for its consideration in the Cabinet of Ministers.
168. Draft planning documents, the informative statements and draft legal acts considered and approved in the Committee’s meeting shall usually be included in the agenda of the Cabinet sitting within two weeks following the Committee’s meeting or the submission of an updated draft for its consideration in the Cabinet of Ministers.
169. Date, time and place of Cabinet sittings shall be specified by the Prime Minister. Upon assignment of the Prime Minister, the Director of the State Chancellery shall announce the Cabinet sitting.
170. Approved agenda of the Cabinet sitting and enclosed draft documents together with respective materials (including letters from natural persons and other institutions on the draft) shall be submitted by the State Chancellery to the e-portfolio system two working days before respective sitting.
171. Officials mentioned in Paragraph four of Cause 28 of the Law "On the Structure of the Cabinet of Ministers", members of the State Secretaries’ meetings having the right to vote (Clause 63.1 of the present Regulations) and officials invited by the Prime Minister shall participate in the Cabinet sittings in the advisory capacity, when regarding concrete agenda matters.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
172. Not later than one working day before the sitting, a ministry or other institution shall electronically submit to the State Chancellery an application on persons to be additionally invited for consideration of specific agenda matters in the open part of the Cabinet sitting, by specifying name, surname, position of a person and the matter to be considered, except for the case mentioned in Clause 178 of the present Regulations, when the information may be provided right before the sitting.
173. Persons to be invited to the closed part of the Cabinet sitting shall be specified in a covering letter of submitter or in a letter of State Secretary of a respective ministry. Representatives of social partner organisations are authorised to participate in the closed part of the Cabinet sitting, where a draft national position is considered, and before the sitting they shall electronically submit to the State Chancellery information about the representative to be invited to the sitting.
174. Upon submitting information to State Chancellery about persons to be additionally invited for consideration of concrete matter at the Cabinet sitting, the suitableness of their participation shall be evaluated taking into consideration provisions of Paragraph five of Clause 28 of the Law "On the Structure of the Cabinet of Ministers."
175. The submitter shall ensure that persons, on which decision is to be adopted when the Cabinet sitting considers a draft legal act on approval of candidates for official positions, their appointment or dismissal, shall be invited to the Cabinet sitting.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
176. The ministry in charge shall announce the date and time (agenda) and present respective documents to a person invited to participate in the Cabinet sitting.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
177. Invitation to additionally invited persons to participate in consideration of a specific matter of agenda of the Cabinet sitting shall be included in agenda of a respective sitting by 10:00 a.m. on the day of the sitting. The registration of invited persons shall be conducted at the room of the Cabinet sittings by an official of the State Chancellery. Persons invited to the closed part of the Cabinet sitting only participate in consideration of a concrete agenda matter of the Cabinet sitting. After finalising consideration of a respective matter, the invited persons shall immediately leave the room of the sitting, and persons who have arrived in order to consider next agenda matter shall be invited in the room.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
178. If the submitter asks to exclusively include in the agenda of the Cabinet sitting an additional draft planning document, an informative statement or draft legal act, it shall be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers not later than 2:00 p.m. two working days before the sitting.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
179. Updated agenda of the Cabinet sitting and drafts additionally included in the agenda and respective materials shall be submitted by the State Chancellery in the e-portfolio system not later than 10:00 a.m. of the day of the Cabinet sitting.
180. The Prime Minister is authorised to decide in which part of the Cabinet sitting – the open or closed – the matters shall be concerned.
181. When submitting documents for consideration at the Cabinet sitting which contain restricted information "RESTRICTED" or "FOR OFFICIAL USE", each document (electronic or printed) enclosed to a covering letter with restriction, shall be marked with special labels as provided by respective laws and regulations on protection of respective information, and the covering letter shall contain information about restrictions on its use.
182. When submitting unrestricted draft documents for their consideration at the Cabinet sitting with an appeal to make discussion on those documents in the closed part of the Cabinet sitting, the submitter in his/her covering letter shall include justification for this.
183. Documents mentioned in Sub-clause 2.7 and 2.8 and draft planning documents, the informative statements and draft legal acts containing restricted information “RESTRICTED” mentioned in Clause 181 of the present Regulations, shall be considered in the closed part of the Cabinet sitting, unless the ministry in charge has specified that the draft document should be considered in the open part of the Cabinet sitting.
184. The Cabinet sitting, after specifying its agenda and length, shall be chaired by the Prime Minister or a person who acts for him/her in line with provisions set forth in laws and regulations (hereinafter – Chair of the Cabinet sitting).
185. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
186. If a person invited to the Cabinet sitting disturbs the orderly procedure of the sitting, the Chair of the Cabinet sitting may expel the person from the sitting’s room.
187. The protocol of the Cabinet sitting shall be recorded by the Director of the State Chancellery or his/her authorised official. The minutes of the sitting shall include persons who participated in the sitting and spoke about a respective matter, as well as the decisions and voting results (in case of vote).
188. The State Chancellery shall perform audio recording of the open and closed part of the Cabinet sitting. The audio recordings are performed, stored and used in conformity with Chapter XIV1 of the present Regulations.
189. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
190. Decisions of the Cabinet sitting shall be adopted according to the procedure set forth in the Law "On the Structure of the Cabinet of Ministers". If votes are equally divided (“vote-for” equal to “vote-against” and “refrain”) a decisive vote belongs to the Chair of the Cabinet sitting.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
191. In case of postponing the consideration of a draft included in the agenda of the Cabinet sitting upon an initiative of the Chair of the sitting, submitter or any other member of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Chair of the sitting shall specify the term for consideration of the matter.
192. If the Cabinet sitting rejects the draft, the State Chancellery removes the control over the draft, and, if needed, resumes the control over fulfilment of task, also setting a deadline for task – a month counting from the date of the sitting, and notifies the submitter.
193. If a member of the Cabinet of Ministers has any objections or additional considerations on a matter addressed at the Cabinet sitting, he/she shall communicate them during the consideration of a respective matter at the Cabinet sitting, prepare objections or additional considerations in a written form and by the end of the sitting submit them to the Director of the State Chancellery. The State Chancellery shall ensure that an individual opinion of a Cabinet member submitted in writing is included in the minutes of the Cabinet sitting.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
194. Draft law, draft decision of the Saeima and draft letter of the Cabinet of Ministers to the Saeima shall be approved by the Cabinet sitting only when its text has been completely elaborated and prepared for submission to the Saeima. If the text has not been fully elaborated, it shall not be approved and the Cabinet of Ministers decides on further consideration of a draft in the Cabinet of Ministers.
195. During the Cabinet sitting, the Chair shall precisely define proposals expressed and accepted during the debates for their recording in the sitting's minutes.
196. If a draft planning document, an informative statement or a draft legal act require amendments decision on which has not been passed during the Cabinet sitting and which have not been recorded in the protocol of the Cabinet sitting, or a draft needs to be endorsed with respective ministries or other institutions, the draft shall not be approved (adopted). The rejected draft shall be updated and submitted for repeated consideration at the Cabinet sitting within two months, if not otherwise decided during the sitting. On the next day following the deadline, the State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS a reminder on non-fulfilment of the task.
197. If a draft planning document, an informative statement or draft legal act is approved (adopted) by the Cabinet sitting assigning to make specific modifications, the submitter within a week after the Cabinet sitting, during which the draft was approved (adopted), unless otherwise specified, shall update the draft according to the decisions passed during the sitting and submits the updated draft to the State Chancellery. On the next day following the deadline, the State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS a reminder on non-fulfilment of the task.
198. During the Cabinet sitting, a member of the Cabinet of Ministers can ask that following the processing of final editorial of draft protocol decision the State Chancellery endorses with him/her the sitting’s draft protocol decision on any matter considered at the Cabinet sitting.
199. The minutes of the Cabinet sitting shall be signed by the Chair of the Cabinet sitting and by the Director of the State Chancellery. If the Cabinet sitting has several Chairs, each of them shall sign the minutes. The signed minutes of the Cabinet sitting shall be immediately submitted by the State Chancellery in the e-portfolio system.
200. Within two working days after the submission of minutes of the Cabinet sitting in e-portfolio system, members of the Cabinet of Ministers are allowed to submit to the Director of the State Chancellery the written objections on the content of the minutes, and include precise wording of the amendment to the protocol decision. The mentioned objections shall be considered in the next Cabinet sitting.
201. The State Chancellery shall remove the control over a draft planning document, an informative statement or a draft legal act, and, if needed, resumes the control over fulfilment of task, also setting a deadline for task – a month counting from the date of the Cabinet sitting, and shall notify the ministry in charge:
201.1 if within a week after the term set forth in Clauses 196 and 197 of the present Regulations the ministry in charge has not submitted the updated draft to the Cabinet of Ministers;
201.2 if within six months after the receipt of resolution of the Prime Minister, the implementation of provisions necessary for further progressing of draft has not been ensured.
XIV.1 Performing, Storing and Using the Audio Recordings of the Cabinet Sittings, Committee’s Meetings and the State Secretaries’ Meetings
201.1 The purpose of audio recording of the Cabinet sittings, Committee’s meetings and the State Secretaries’ meetings is to fix the procedure of the sitting, debates and to ensure that every person who has presented an opinion and his/her statement is recognizable. If necessary, the audio recording is used to update a draft protocol resolution, assess the validity of the objections, as well as clarify the arguments used in decision-making process.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
201.2 To ensure that the audio recording complies with the objective mentioned in Clause 2011 of the present Regulations:
201.2 1 the participant of the sitting entitled to vote and other person who is willing to present an opinion on certain issue of the agenda takes the floor only upon the invitation of the Chair of the sitting. The Chair invites to express an opinion by mentioning name, surname and position of a respective person;
201.2 2 if the Chair of the meeting has not mentioned name, surname and position of a respective person who is entitled to vote or other person, the person himself/herself shall mention his/her name, surname and position before taking the floor. This requirement shall also apply to any other repeated presentation by respective person during respective sitting on the same or other matter;
201.2 3 the participants of the sitting entitled to vote, the Director of the State Chancellery, and the Deputy Director shall turn on a microphone at a respective work place before taking the floor. Other persons shall speak only from the place where the microphone is available.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
201.3 If a member of the sitting entitled to vote or other person fails to comply with requirements laid down in Clause 201.2 1 of the present Regulations, the Chair of the meeting or the Director of the State Chancellery has the right to interrupt the speaker to ensure that he/she mentions his/her name, surname, position and uses the microphone.
201.4 The State Chancellery shall perform a separate audio recording for the open and closed part of the State Secretaries’ meetings, Committee’s meetings and the Cabinet sittings, save in the information carriers and transfer to the Archive of the State Chancellery.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
201.5 In order to become familiar with audio recording of the open part of the State Secretaries’ meetings, Committee’s meetings or the Cabinet sittings, a written application shall be submitted to the State Chancellery. After receiving an approval of the State Chancellery it is possible to listen to audio recording in the premises of the State Chancellery, receive electronically a note indicating a link to the audio recording. The audio recording shall not be processed according to a user’s needs.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
201.6 In order to familiarize oneself with audio recordings of closed parts of the Cabinet sittings, which contain restricted use information, a written application shall be submitted to the State Chancellery, subject to procedure laid down in the Freedom of Information Law concerning requests for information. After receiving the approval by the State Chancellery, it is possible to listen to a recording of respective matter in the premises of the State Chancellery or audio recording shall be sent to the applicant pursuant to procedure for flow of restricted information set out in the regulatory acts.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
201.7 The audio recordings of closed parts of the Cabinet sittings containing objects of national secret shall be stored and used under laws and regulations that stipulate protection of objects of national secret.
XV. Processing, Signing and Publishing of Decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers
202. Decisions adopted during the Cabinet sitting or tasks assigned to individual ministries, other institutions or officials shall be recorded in the sitting’s minutes and they come into effect from the moment of adopting the decision, unless otherwise indicated in the decision.
203. Before signing a legal act which has been approved (adopted) by the Cabinet of Ministers, only amendments which have been decided by the Cabinet sitting can be introduced to the text, as well as it can include corrections (updates) pertaining to the mentioned amendments.
204. The State Chancellery shall ensure preparation of draft legal act which has been approved (adopted) by the Cabinet sitting for its signing or delivery to the Saeima.
205. A planning document (summary) which has been approved by the Cabinet sitting shall be signed by its submitter.
206. Regulations, instructions, recommendations and orders adopted by the Cabinet sitting shall be signed by the Director of the State Chancellery, and afterwards handed over for its signing to a respective member of the Cabinet of Ministers (second signature) and to the Prime Minister (first signature).
207. If a legal act according to the present Regulations has been considered at the Cabinet sitting as a matter of the Cabinet of Ministers, the State Chancellery, unless otherwise stated in the protocol of the Cabinet sitting, shall within five working days ensure preparation of approved (adopted) legal act for its signing.
208. If a submitter of a draft legal act does not participate in the Cabinet sitting, a legal act which has been passed by the Cabinet of Ministers instead of the respective Minister shall be signed (second signature) by a Minister who acts for him/her on a respective day of the Cabinet sitting.
209. If a draft legal act has been submitted for its consideration in the Cabinet of Ministers by the Prime Minister, then the Cabinet of Ministers during its sitting shall make a decision on which Minister shall sign (second signature) a respective legal act, and a respective record with regard to this shall be included in minutes of the Cabinet sitting.
210. The State Chancellery usually within three working days after the Cabinet sitting, unless otherwise specified in the minutes of the Cabinet of Ministers, shall electronically and in a printed form send to the Saeima the following documents: a draft law (in cases mentioned in the present Regulations – also the text of an international agreement) which has been approved by the Cabinet sitting and its annotation or the draft decision of the Saeima and its annotation enclosing an extract of the minutes of the Cabinet sitting together with a covering letter signed by the Prime Minister, as well as a letter of the Cabinet of Ministers signed by the Prime Minister to the Saeima together with extract of the minutes of the Cabinet sitting. The submitter shall sign the draft law and its annotation and a draft decision of the Saeima and its annotation before sending to the Saeima.
211. Regulations, instructions and recommendations of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be dated according of their adoption. Orders of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be dated according to the date of their signing.
212. Planning document (summary) approved by the Cabinet of Ministers and the passed legal act shall normally be published in the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis within two working days upon receipt of a copy of the planning document (summary) and legal act sent by the State Chancellery. The State Chancellery shall place the supported planning document (summary, the informative part, annexes) and the accompanying legal act in the information system "Database of the Policy Planning Documents”.
213. Legal act adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers which is to be submitted to the Ministry of Economics according to the endorsement procedure of technical regulations, shall be sent to the Ministry of Economics by the State Chancellery within three working days after its signing.
214. The State Chancellery shall ensure conformity of the planning document (summary) or text of the legal act sent for publishing in the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis (through DAUKS system) to the original. Publisher of the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis shall ensure conformity of the planning document (summary) or publication of a legal act to the planning document (summary) or legal act received from the State Chancellery through DAUKS system.
214.1 (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
215. Submitter of a respective legal act or a ministry, other institution or official indicated in the legal act shall be responsible for enforcement of regulations, instructions, recommendations and orders of the Cabinet of Ministers.
216. If necessary, the submitter of a respective legal act shall present an explanation of a legal act passed by the Cabinet of Ministers.
XVI. Orders and Resolutions of the Prime Minister and their Enforcement
217. For purposes of a specific task, the Prime Minister passes an order on creation of a working group. The order shall include the composition of a working group, issues to be discussed, activities and scheduled tasks. The order can also instruct that materials related to matters of the working group (for instance, minutes of the meetings) shall be submitted to a respective institution.
218. In addition to cases set forth in the Law “On the Structure of the Cabinet of Ministers”, the Prime Minister upon his/her order shall:
218.1 (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011);
218.2 appoint the Head of the Prime Minister’s Office;
218.3 appoint the Acting Prime Minister who shall act for the Prime Minister if he/she is absent or otherwise obstructed from fulfilling his/her duties;
218.4 appoint the Acting Deputy Prime Minister or Minister if the Deputy Prime Minister or Minister is absent or otherwise obstructed from fulfilling his/her duties;
218.5 assign vacations to the Director of the State Chancellery, the Head of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Head of an institution which is subordinated to the Prime Minister.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
219. Prime Minister shall make a decision on progressing the drafts submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as he/she shall assign tasks to members of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, the Director of the State Chancellery and other heads of subordinated public administration institutions.
220. When submitting a draft order of the Prime Minister to the State Chancellery, its submitter shall enclose a covering letter and documents according to an example of covering letter and a list of documents that should be enclosed (see Annex 5 of the present Regulations). A submitter or a head of the institution subordinated to the Prime Minister shall submit the Prime Minister’s draft order to the State Chancellery only through DAUKS system.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
221. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
222. The State Chancellery shall prepare draft order of the Prime Minister for its signing. Order of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be dated according to the date of their signing.
223. The State Chancellery shall send through DAUKS system the Prime Minister’s order for publishing in the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis within one working day after its signing. The publisher of the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis shall ensure publishing in the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis usually within two working days upon a receipt of the order of the Prime Minister. Conformity of the published order of the Prime Minister with text of the order received from the State Chancellery through DAUKS system shall be ensured by the publisher of the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis.
224. Ministry, other institution or official indicated in an order of the Prime Minister shall be responsible for fulfilment of tasks assigned upon the order.
225. Every official mentioned in the task (resolution) shall be responsible for fulfilment of tasks assigned upon the Prime Minister's resolution. Official which is listed in task (resolution) as first shall ensure fulfilment of a common task assigned upon the task (resolution).
226. The deadline for fulfilment of task which has been assigned upon an order of the Prime Minister is one month from the date of signing the order, unless other deadline is specified in the respective order. A proposal on modification of the deadline indicated in the Prime Minister’s order shall be presented to the State Chancellery in a form of a draft order of the Prime Minister.
227. The deadline for fulfilment of a task which has been assigned upon a resolution of the Prime Minister is 10 working days from the day of receipt of the respective resolution, unless any other deadline is provided in the resolution or other external normative act. If additional preparation and endorsement of a matter is needed, the Prime Minister after considering reasoned request of an addressee of resolution may extend the task’s deadline.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
228. The deadline for fulfilment of an urgent task which has been assigned upon a resolution of the Prime Minister is three working days from the day of receipt of the respective resolution, unless any other deadline is provided.
229. The State Chancellery shall assume control only over those tasks assigned upon the Prime Minister's orders and resolutions the fulfilment of which shall be communicated (in a written form) to the Cabinet of Ministers or the Prime Minister or those tasks which include preparation and submission of documents to the Cabinet of Ministers.
230. On the working day following the deadline for fulfilment of task assigned upon an order or resolution of the Prime Minister, the State Chancellery shall send to a responsible official of a ministry a reminder for non-fulfilment of the task through DAUKS system. Upon a receipt of reminder, the responsible official shall within five working days communicate to the State Chancellery the task fulfilment progress and the reason for non-fulfilment.
231. Following the deadline mentioned in Clause 230 of the present Regulations, the State Chancellery shall prepare proposals to the Prime Minister with regard to further progress of a matter and, if necessary, present respective information in the State Secretaries' meeting.
232. Response to the State Chancellery on fulfilment of task assigned upon an order or resolution of the Prime Minister shall also include the number and date of finalised document.
233. After consideration of a written proposal of the submitter, the Prime Minister shall decide on termination of control over expired task which was assigned upon a resolution of the Prime Minister.
XVII. Ensuring Enforcement of Laws and Saiema Decisions
234. The State Chancellery, upon a receipt of laws and the Saiema decisions, containing tasks for the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as other Saiema documents sent for their consideration in the Cabinet of Ministers or for informative purposes, shall register them. In order to ensure fulfilment of tasks assigned to the Cabinet of Ministers upon laws and the Saiema decisions, the Prime Minister shall instruct a respective member of the Cabinet of Ministers to prepare and submit draft legal act needed for consideration.
235. The Director of the State Chancellery upon assignment of the Prime Minister has a right to request information from the State Secretaries about fulfilment of tasks mentioned in Clause 234 of the present Regulations. The information shall be provided within 10 working days upon a receipt of the request.
236. The deadline for fulfilment of the tasks mentioned in Clause 234 of the present Regulations shall be specified in line with the deadline provided by the law or the Saiema decision, by which the Cabinet of Ministers shall pass a respective legal act or if the law or the Saiema decision do not provide such a deadline, it shall be set in compliance with deadline of the entry in to force of the law or Saiema decision. If additional preparation and endorsement of a matter is needed, the Prime Minister after considering a reasoned request of a respective member of the Cabinet of Ministers may extend the deadline.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
237. The enforcement of a resolution of the Prime Minister or the Director of the State Chancellery shall be ensured by an official who is mentioned first in the resolution, whereas the control should be assumed by the ministry or the State Chancellery.
238. On the working day following the deadline for enforcement of the resolution of the Prime Minister or the Director of the State Chancellery, the State Chancellery shall send to a responsible official of ministry a reminder for non-fulfilment of the task via DAUKS system. Upon a receipt of reminder, the responsible official shall within five working days communicate to the State Chancellery the task fulfilment progress and the reason for non-fulfilment.
239. Following the deadline mentioned in Clause 238 of the present Regulations, the State Chancellery shall prepare proposals to the Prime Minister with regard to further progress of a matter and, if necessary, present respective information in the State Secretaries' meeting.
XVIII. Ensuring Fulfilment of Tasks Assigned by the Cabinet of Ministers or Documents
240. Responsibility for fulfilment of task assigned upon protocol decision of the State Secretaries' meeting, protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting, protocol decision of a Committee’s meeting or legal act of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be assumed by the ministry, other institution or official which is mentioned first, unless otherwise stated in a respective document.
241. The State Chancellery shall assume control only over those tasks the fulfilment of which shall be notified (in a written form) to the Cabinet of Ministers or the Prime Minister or those tasks which include preparation and submission of documents to the Cabinet of Ministers.
242. Deadline for a task assigned upon protocol decision of the State Secretaries’ meeting (except for tasks related to announcement of the notified drafts) shall be two months after the date of the State Secretaries’ meeting unless other date is specified.
243. Deadline for tasks assigned upon protocol decision of the Committee’s meeting, protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting and legal act of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be two months unless other deadline is specified.
244. Proposal for modification of deadline specified in protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting or legal act of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be presented in a form of respective draft legal act. Decision on modification of deadline for fulfilment of the task assigned by protocol decision of the Committee’s meeting shall be adopted by the Prime Minister after considering a written proposal by a member of the Cabinet of Ministers.
245. In order to ensure fulfilment of tasks assigned by the Cabinet of Ministers and protocol decisions of State Secretaries’ meeting, the Director of the State Chancellery upon an assignment by the Prime Minister has a right to request information from the State Secretaries on fulfilment of the assigned tasks. Information shall be presented within 10 working days upon receipt of the request.
246. On the working day following the deadline for fulfilment of task, the State Chancellery shall send to a responsible official of ministry a reminder for non-fulfilment of the task through DAUKS system. Within five working days upon a receipt of reminder, the responsible official shall inform the State Chancellery about fulfilment of the task or according to Clauses 226, 227 and 244 of the present Regulations shall prepare proposals for modification of the deadline.
247. Following the deadline mentioned in Clause 246 of the present Regulations, the State Chancellery shall prepare proposals to the Prime Minister with regard to further progress of a matter and, if necessary, present respective information in the State Secretaries' meeting.
248. Response to the State Chancellery on fulfilment of the task assigned by a resolution of the Director of the State Chancellery shall also include the number and date of finalised document.
249. Decision on termination of control over expired tasks or drafts mentioned in Clause 16 of the present Regulations shall be adopted by the Prime Minister after considering a written proposal of a member of the Cabinet of Ministers or by the Director of the State Chancellery after considering a written proposal of the State Secretary.
XIX. Meetings of Parliamentary Secretaries
250. The State Chancellery shall ensure meetings of Parliamentary Secretaries convened and chaired by the Prime Minister's Parliamentary Secretary. The Prime Minister's Parliamentary Secretary shall set date, place and items of the meeting of Parliamentary Secretaries.
251. The minutes of the Parliamentary Secretaries’ meetings shall be prepared by an official appointed by the Director of the State Chancellery. The minutes shall contain participants of the meeting and issues discussed and decisions adopted during the meeting.
XX. Procedure for Documenting Absence of Members of the Cabinet of Ministers and Other State Officials Due to a Business Trip, Vacation or Illness
252. Not later than three working days before planned absence, a member of the Cabinet of Ministers (hereinafter – Minister) shall submit an application to the Prime Minister. The application shall specify period and reason for the absence as well as may contain a recommendation for a Minister who will act for him/her during the absence.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
253. In case of unplanned absence (e.g., illness), a Minister shall submit his/her absence application to the State Chancellery as soon as possible.
254. In an application for foreign business trip, a Minister shall indicate the purpose of this trip and any matters that he/she will concern. Application shall also contain an official invitation and agenda, as well as indicate officials that will be met during the business trip.
255. The Prime Minister upon his/her order assigns another Minister to perform respective duties upon a request by Minister who is or will be absent or upon a proposal by the State Chancellery; the Prime Minister may perform duties of the Minister who is on planned absence.
256. After receiving instruction by the Prime Minister for substitution of a Minister during his absence, the Prime Minister shall accordingly prepare a draft order of the Prime Minister as well as inform the Minister who will perform duties of absent Minister.
257. If due to unexpected reasons, the Minister who is indicated in the order of the Prime Minister cannot act for the absent Minister, he/she shall immediately in writing inform the Prime Minister about this issue. The State Chancellery shall prepare and submit to the Prime Minister a proposal on assigning another Minister who will perform duties of the Minister who is on planned absence.
258. If a Minister who is substituted resumes his duties before the end of absence term which was indicated (if the term was not specified – then, according to the end of respective reasons) in order of the Prime Minister, he shall immediately inform the Prime Minister about this issue. The State Chancellery, on the basis of provided information, shall prepare a respective draft order of the Prime Minister.
259. The State Chancellery shall prepare draft order of the Prime Minister on vacation or foreign business trip of a member of the Cabinet of Ministers, Parliamentary Secretary of the Prime Minister, Director of the State Chancellery, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office and other heads of public administration institutions subordinated to the Prime Minister.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010; Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
260. The State Chancellery shall endorse with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a draft order of the Prime Minister on foreign business trips (except for a draft order on the foreign business trip of the Minister for Foreign Affairs). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs within 24 hours after signing the Prime Minister’s order shall:
260.1 if necessary, prepare memorandums to respective foreign embassies on visas;
260.2 inform the respective diplomatic or consular representation of the Republic of Latvia about planned official foreign business trip and coordinate assistance needed for its organisation and process.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 170 as of 23.02.2010)
261. After signing the order of the Prime Minister, the State Chancellery shall immediately communicate this to the officials mentioned in the order.
262. Within five working days after the end of foreign business trip, Minister, Parliamentary Secretary of the Prime Minister, Director of the State Chancellery, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office and heads of other public administration institutions subordinated to the Prime Minister shall present to the Prime Minister a written report (one copy – to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) on the business trip and its results, also indicating the official representatives he/she met and what issues were concerned during the trip.
(Amended by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
XXI. Final Provisions
263. Instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers No 20 „Procedure for Completing Annotations of Laws and Regulations” of 18 December 2007 shall apply till the passing of instruction mentioned in Clause 4 of the present Regulations, but not later than 1 November 2009, without prejudice to present Regulations.
264. Clause 5 of the present Regulations shall come into effect together with laws and regulations which stipulate planning documents of all levels and types, their content, procedure for their preparation, approval, updating, term of validity, procedure for providing reports, as well as procedure according to which they become void.
265. Instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers No 18 “Procedure for Submission to and Consideration in the Cabinet of Ministers of a Draft Policy Planning Document, Draft Legal Act and Informative Statement which According to the Law ‘On State Secret’ is an Object of State Secret" as of 6 November 2007 shall apply till the passing of instruction mentioned in Clause 27 or present Regulation, but not later than 1 July 2009, without prejudice to present Regulations.
266. (Deleted by Cabinet Regulation No 690 as of 06.09.2011)
267. Clause 82 of the present Regulations dealing with procedure for organising a public discussion and Sub-clause 2.3 of Chapter II of Annex 5 shall come into effect together with regulations for public involvement in the process of development planning. By the day when above-mentioned regulations come into force, the State Secretaries’ meeting shall decide on procedure for organising public discussions.
268. Procedure set forth in Clause 87 of the present Regulations for cancellation of announced drafts in DRAUKS system shall come into effect on 1 November 2009. By the above-mentioned term, drafts can be cancelled upon electronically presenting to the State Chancellery information including the date of the State Secretaries' meeting in which the draft was announced, as well as the protocol number, paragraph number and draft's title.
269. Requirements set forth in present Regulations with regard to filling out of annotation (section of annotation) and preparation of statement shall not apply to drafts which were declared for their announcement in the State Secretaries’ meeting before the present Regulations came into force, but not later than 1 June 2009.
Prime Minister,
Minister for Children, Family
and Integration Affairs V.Dombrovskis
Minister for Justice M.Segliņš
Appendix 1
Cabinet Regulation No 843
of 28 July 2009
Information to be Prepared for Assignments of Matters of a Cabinet Member
1. In accordance with the strategy and other planning documents of the respective line ministry, the following information shall be submitted:
1.1 priority activities of the line ministry (no more than five);
1.2 main tasks;
1.3 reforms already commenced (by indicating the relevant planning documents and legal acts);
1.4 the key policy outputs of the line ministry (up to five) and their dynamics during last three years if they are related to the information mentioned in this Clause.
2. The most topical issues related to the implementation of the strategy of the line ministry and other planning documents and legal acts under ministry’s competence.
3. Information about draft planning documents, draft informative statements and draft legal acts being developed or progressed by the line ministry.
4. Information about proceedings in which the line ministry is involved.
5. Information about the implementation of the budget and about the number of employees during the current year and last three years.
_________________________________________
(signature of the State Secretary)*
Note. * The field “signature” shall not be filled out provided the document is drafted electronically according to the relevant laws and regulations on drafting of electronic documents.
M.Segliņš
Minister for Justice
Sections of the Action Plan Prepared for Every Task Covered in the Declaration of the Intended Activities of the Cabinet of Ministers
Note. * The field „signature” is not filled out provided the document is drafted electronically according to the relevant laws and regulations on drafting of electronic documents.
Note. * The field „signature” is not filled out provided the document is drafted electronically according to the relevant laws and regulations on drafting of electronic documents.
Pursuant to _____________ of Cabinet Regulation No 300 “Rules of Procedure of the Cabinet of Ministers” of 7 April 2009
(at the State Secretaries’ meeting, the Cabinet Committee’s meeting, the Cabinet sitting or to the Prime Minister)
__________________________________________________ .
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...
...
* Information about the attached documents (title, date, number, number of pages and file name) and technical media by separately indicating whether any of the documents contains restricted information.
** The field “signature” shall not be filled out provided the document is drafted electronically according to the relevant laws and regulations on drafting of electronic documents.
1. When a draft legal act is submitted to the State Secretaries’ meeting, the following documents shall be attached to its covering letter in DAUKS system:
1.2 opinions of the ministries and other institutions, confirmation that a draft legal act is endorsed (by signature or e-mail message);
1.4 copy of the opinion of the European Commission – under the endorsement procedure for technical regulations;
1.5 copy of the opinion of the European Central Bank – under the endorsement procedure for financial regulations;
1.6 relevant documents which certify lawfulness of the provisions in the draft legal act (for instance, ownership documents, decision of the local government on its consent to take the possession of real estate) and which are required for adoption of a decision;
2. When a draft planning document and the attached draft legal act and an informative statement (Clause 59 of the present Regulations) and the attached draft legal act are submitted at the Cabinet Committee meeting or the Cabinet sitting, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
2.1 opinions, confirmation of the line ministries and other institutions that the draft planning document or informative statement has been endorsed (by signature or a-mail message);
2.3 information concerning consultations with the public in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations on public involvement in the development planning process;
3. When a draft legal act is submitted to the Cabinet Committee’s meeting or to the Cabinet sitting after its consideration at the State Secretaries’ meeting, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
3.2 copy of the opinion of the European Commission – under the endorsement procedure for technical regulations;
3.3 copy of the opinion of the European Central Bank – under the endorsement procedure for financial regulations.
4. When a draft legal act is submitted to the Cabinet sitting without its consideration at the State Secretaries’ meeting and the Cabinet Committee’s meeting (except for draft legal acts specified Paragraph 5 of Chapter II of this Appendix), the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
4.2 opinions or e-mail message printouts of the line ministries and other institutions;
4.4 copy of the opinion of the European Commission – under the endorsement procedure for technical regulations;
4.5 copy of the opinion of the European Central Bank – under the endorsement procedure for financial regulations;
4.6 relevant documents which certify lawfulness of the provisions in the draft legal act (for instance, ownership documents, decision of the local government on its consent to take the possession of real estate) and which are required for adoption of a decision;
4.7 a letter or other document certifying persons’ consent (authorisation) to participate in a working group, council or committee if these persons are not representatives of the line ministry which has submitted the draft legal act, – with regard to a draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers on participants of the working group, council or committee;
5. When a draft legal act mentioned in Clause 73 of the present regulations is submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
5.1 annotation, except for draft Cabinet orders on granting citizenship under the naturalisation procedure and on renewal of citizenship;
5.2 information signed by the Head of the Naturalisation Board – with regard to a draft Cabinet order on granting citizenship under the naturalisation procedure and opinion for the draft Cabinet order on renewal of citizenship;
5.3 opinions, confirmation of the line ministries and other institutions indicating that the draft order has been endorsed (by signature or e-mail message) in accordance with Clause 111 of the present regulations;
5.5 decision of competition’s committee if such a competition is provided by the respective laws and regulations;
5.6 decision of the Awards Committee of the Cabinet of Ministers – with regard to a draft Cabinet order on conferring Certificates of Recognition of the Cabinet of Ministers or awards of the Cabinet of Ministers;
5.7 decision on admissibility of person’s extradition together with the relevant examination materials (Section 708 of the Criminal Procedure Law) – with regard to a draft Cabinet order on person’s extradition to a foreign country.
6. When a draft national position is submitted to the State Secretaries’ meeting or to the Cabinet of Ministers, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
6.1 draft protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting by indicating at least the following information:
6.1.2 authorisation for an official to represent the Republic of Latvia in an EU body in cases stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations on drafting, endorsement, approval and updating of national positions;
6.2 informative statement – one common statement when several draft national positions are submitted by providing generally available information.
7. When a draft position regarding cases considered by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the EFTA Court is submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
7.1 draft protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting by indicating at least the following information:
7.1.2 authorisation for an official to represent the Republic of Latvia in these proceedings, if necessary;
7.2 draft letter of authorisation in cases stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations on drafting and approval of positions.
8. When a draft position regarding the pre-trial process of the infringement procedure stipulated in Articles 258, 259 and 260 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
8.1.1 an assignment to respective line ministry to draft a legal act in due time and submit it to the Cabinet of Ministers if prevention of the infringement procedure requires drafting of such a legal act;
8.1.2 Under the pre-trial process of the infringement procedure stipulated in Article 259 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – an authorisation to represent Latvia in negotiations with the European Commission and an obligation to report to the Cabinet of Ministers on the results of the pre-trial process of the infringement procedure after receiving an opinion of the European Commission, as well as assignment to submit to the Cabinet of Ministers an assessment on the necessity to continue the infringement procedure at the Court of Justice of the European Union against other member state of the European Union, if Latvia has initiated the pre-trial process of the infringement procedure provided in Article 259 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union against other member state of the European Union;
8.2 draft covering letter to the European Commission (the position with the minister’s scanned signature is submitted together with this covering letter);
8.3 informative statement in cases stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations on drafting and approval of positions.
8.4 copy of the formal notice or reasoned opinion of the European Commission.
9. When a draft national position on international law matter is submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
9.1 draft protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting indicating the national position to be approved and, if necessary, authorisation for an official to represent the Republic of Latvia in the respective institution of the international organisation;
9.2 draft letter of authorisation, if necessary.
10. When a draft document to be submitted to the court is submitted for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers, the following documents shall be attached to the covering letter:
10.1 draft protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting by indicating an assignment to the ministry to authorize a representative (representatives) of the Cabinet of Ministers for representation at court or Constitutional Court:
10.2 opinions, confirmation of the line ministries and other institutions that a document to be submitted to the court has been endorsed (by signature or e-mail message);
10.4 draft letter of authorisation, if necessary.
11. When a draft legal act is submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers concerning implementation of a task assigned to a line ministry or other institution by a protocol decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the covering letter shall be accompanied by opinions and confirmations of the line ministries and other institutions that a document to be submitted to the court has been endorsed (by signature or e-mail message).
12. When a draft letter of the Cabinet of Ministers is submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for consideration, the covering letter shall be accompanied by a protocol decision of the Cabinet sitting if further actions of the line ministries are envisaged with regard to the matters specified in the letter.
13. When a draft order of the Prime Minister is submitted to the State Chancellery, the submitter shall attach a covering letter or other documents by which a person is authorised or agrees to participate in a working group if this person is not a representative of the submitting ministry, – with regard to a draft order on the working group.
14. When a draft document is submitted to the State Chancellery which is to be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers via the Prime Minister or by an institution subordinated to the Prime Minister under the prescribed procedure, this document shall be accompanied by a draft covering letter of the submitter.
2. Sub-clause 1.12 of the present Regulations shall come into force simultaneously with a regulatory act on the procedure for development, endorsement, approval and updating of a document with the aim to defend the national development objectives in international organizations.
3. The Regulations shall come into force on March 15, 2010.
