• Draft law: only loyal political parties should function in Latvia
• State Service of Education Quality suggests to dismiss the teacher Vladislavs Rafalskis
• Raivis Dzintars: state should not support distribution of Russian language periodicals

According to a draft law elaborated by the Registry of Enterprises, only loyal political parties should function in Latvia. The draft law initiated by the Minister of Justice Janis Bordans (nationalists’ union) after a party “For Native Language” was officially registered. The draft law stipulates that the parties during the registration process should be checked for compliance of their aims with Latvian legal acts. The evaluation of parties’ activities will be given by the Ministry of Justice which will take into account opinion of the special services and evaluate whether these activities do not threaten human rights, democracy, security and the welfare of society. Chas

The State Service of Education Quality (SSEQ) suggests to dismiss the teacher of Russian language school Vladislavs Rafalskis because his statements about disloyalty towards the state violate the Education Law. According to the SSEQ, the Education Law says that the teachers educate conscious, honest and responsible people – Latvian patriots. The ethics committee of the school where Mr Rafalskis is employed, in its turn, recommends to issue a written remark to the teacher. But the students of the school collected signatures against the teacher’s dismissal. Diena

According to the head of the nationalists’ union All for Latvia!-FF/LNIM Raivis Dzintars, the state should not support distribution of Russian language periodicals which discredit Latvian state. Mr Dzintars believes that his proposal should not be seen as discrimination because Latvian language is more discriminated language in the informative space comparing to foreign languages. At present, the state partly subsidizes distribution of all periodicals by the Latvian Post without discriminating the language of the periodicals. Diena

• Central Election Committee delayed the decision on referendum about non-citizen for one month

The Central Election Committee (CEC) delayed the decision on initiation of a state funded collection of signatures for support of referendum on granting Latvian citizenship to non-citizens for a month. Yesterday, the CEC announced that it will wait for all the requested evaluations of legal experts about whether the draft law is fully elaborated according to the Article 78 of the Constitution and can be forwarded to the referendum. Up to now, the evaluation are provided by the President’s Chancellery, the Saeima’s Legal Office, the Ministry of Justice, department of the Legal faculty of the University of Latvia, Legal faculty if the Riga Stradins University, and the Riga Graduate School of Law. According to the newspapers, all the provided opinions critically evaluate the draft law. The CEC wants to receive additional opinion of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Legal faculty of the University of Latvia (not only its department), the Ombudsman’s Office, and experts in international law concerning citizenship. Telegraf, Diena, Chas, Vesti Segodnya, Latvijas Avize

• Saeima’s Society Consolidation Committee: naturalisation procedure should become more emotional
• Security Police initiated criminal proceedings about incitement to ethnic hatred in Internet comments
• MP Vineta Porina prepared a reply to the criticism of the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Knut Volebeak
• Constitutional Court of Latvia refused to provide its opinion about the draft law on citizenship

The Saeima’s Society Consolidation Committee considers that the naturalisation procedure should become more emotional because now it is rather bureaucratic or commercial process and does not promote ties with the state. The MPs propose to introduce more solemn ceremony on granting citizenship to a new citizen. The MPs also consider that naturalisation examination should be modified in order to test not the memory of applicants but their comprehension about Latvia. Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga

The Security Police initiated criminal proceedings about incitement to ethnic hatred in comments on an Internet portal www.ventasbalss.lv. The comments were published in February 2012 during the referendum on granting Russian language status of state language in Latvia. According to the portal’s editor, there were sharp debates insulting ethnic Latvians and Russians and the portal’s administration tried to delete the insulting comments. Neatkariga

Head of Latvian delegation to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), MP Vineta Porina (nationalists’ union) prepared a reply to the criticism of the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Knut Volebeak about draft amendments to the Citizenship Law. In the draft reply, Mrs Porina explains that additional requirements stipulated by the draft amendments in the procedure of registration children as Latvian citizens born in a family of non-citizens are based on the interests of consolidation of the society and national security. Mrs Porina also states that Latvia is a state with sovereign legal acts which should ensure development of Latvia as stabile European state and recommends that it would be better if the High Commissioner turns his attention to the regions violating norms of European security such as Russia and Belarus. The MP’s reply was discussed at the Saeima’s Foreign Affairs Committee and was only taken into consideration by the other MPs, yet not approved. Vesti Segodnya

The Constitutional Court of Latvia refused to provide the Central Election Committee (CEC) its opinion about the draft law on granting Latvian citizenship to non-citizens automatically. The Court explained that if it provides the opinion now it will not be able to consider the appeal to the court about the issue later. The CEC should decide today whether to initiate state funded collection of signatures for support of the referendum on the draft law. Chas

• The Ministry of Justice believes the draft law on granting Latvian citizenship to non-citizens cannot be forwarded for the national referendum
• Saeima’s subcommittee on national education recommends to dismiss Mr Rafalskis
• Vesti Segodnya reports about a complaint on Latvianisation of a Norwegian surname
• Riga City Council approved the Society Consolidation Program of Riga City

The Ministry of Justice believes the draft law on granting Latvian citizenship to non-citizens contradicts the Constitution of Latvia and it cannot be forwarded for the national referendum. As reported, the Central Election Committee (CEC) received the required amount of signatures for this draft law and forwarded the draft to lawyers and legal institutions for legal evaluation. According to a representative of the Ministry of Justice, granting citizenship automatically does not correspond with the legal system in Latvia where the basic principle of granting citizenship is applicants’ loyalty towards the state. Newspaper Vesti Segodnya notes the CEC never before asked for evaluation of the draft law for referendum and if it refuses to initiate the second stage of referendum it will be the first precedent in Latvian history.

Yesterday, the Saeima’s subcommittee on national education discussed the case of a teacher of Russian language school Vladislavs Rafalskis who publicly stated his disloyalty towards Latvian state. The MPs concluded that Mr Rafalskis should be dismissed because it is inadmissible for persons with such views to work as a teacher. However, only the director of the school can take the decision about dismissal of the teacher. Chas, Vesti Segodnya, Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga

Vesti Segodnya reports about a complaint on Latvianisation of a Norwegian surname. A Latvian citizen who got married with a Norwegian citizen and took husband’s surname refuse to change her old passport because does not want her new surname to be Latvianised loosing the correct spelling of the original surname. The expert of the State Language Agency considers that the Norwegian surname “Soiland” should be written in Latvian version as “Seilanne.” Mrs Soiland believes such modification of her surname will cause many legal problems. According to a head of an organisation “Return our Names” working against Latvianisation of names Ruslan Pankratov, there are more and more cases when Latvians married with foreign citizens do not agree with modification of their surnames according to Latvian language. Mr Pankratov states that such modifications usually cause problems in official contacts such as when dealing with banks, inheritance, buying or selling real estate.

The Riga City Council approved the Society Consolidation Program of Riga City for 2012-2017 and action plan for 2012-2014. Both documents are aimed at promotion of society consolidation and establishment of a strong sense of belonging to Riga. Latvijas Avize

• New EU directive may exclude non-citizens of Latvia from equal consular protection abroad 

Chas reports that draft EU Directive on consular protection for citizens of the Union abroad may exclude from equal consular protection the unique Latvian legal category - non-citizens of Latvia. The Directive envisages consular protection to those citizens who do not have their Member States' representation in the third country and entitles them to seek help at any embassy or consulate of another Member State represented in that third country. The MEP from Latvia Tatjana Zdanoka requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia (MFA) to pursue active steps in order to ensure equal consular protection for the non-citizens. In response, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry Vladimirs Makarovs stated that Latvian non-citizens abroad will not be denied consulate protection. However, Mrs Zdanoka believes that this response lacks substance and in particular, MFA does not explain what amendments to the draft were proposed by Latvia to ensure equal consular protection for Latvian non-citizens. Previously, MFA neglected non-citizens altogether when negotiating visa-free agreements with the EU. Chas (24.09.2012)