President of the State Egils Levits meets with the Constitutional Court judges
Today, on 3 June, the State President Egils Levits visited the Constitutional Court. As part of the dialogue between constitutional bodies, the President and the Constitutional Court judges talked about the continuity of the Constitutional Court’s work in the emergency situation, discussed relevant issues in constitutional law in Latvia, as well as matters related to the execution of the Constitutional Court’s judgments. The parties also touched upon certain topics of current importance to society, such as, e.g., reduction of inequality.
State President Egils Levits meets with the Judges of the Constitutional Court. Photo: Ilmārs Znotiņš, Chancery of the President of Latvia.
The State President Egils Levits expressed appreciation of the Constitutional Court’s work, as well as satisfaction with the fact that the dialogue between constitutional bodies was going on despite the emergency situation.
The President of the Constitutional Court Ineta Ziemele informed the State President about a considerable increase in the amount of work at the Court. The quality of applications has improved, and one can see that the applicants have got a better understanding of the Constitutional Court proceedings. She stressed that not only the number of applications, but also the number of initiated cases has grown compared to the corresponding period last year. Already 32 cases have been initiated to date, covering the entire legal system. This number is close to the total number of cases initiated in the previous year.
The State President and the Constitutional Court judges agreed that the capacity and financial independence of the Constitutional Court needed to be reinforced to guarantee the performance of the functions entrusted to it.
State President Egils Levits meets with the Judges of the Constitutional Court. Photo: Ilmārs Znotiņš, Chancery of the President of Latvia.
Discussing the current work of the Court, the President of the Constitutional Court highlighted the current cases initiated with respect to applications by the Ombudsman, where the Court has to broadly address issues related to the social services support system. She noted that the judgment in case No 2019-24-03 was being prepared, while case No 2019-27-03 was still under adjudication, and three more cases (No 2020-28-03; No 2020-19-0103; No 2019-25-03) were scheduled to be reviewed before the beginning of next year. Also, next week, the Court will pronounce the judgment in case No 2019-12-01 regarding the provisions stipulating that the study programmes of private higher schools and colleges must be implemented in the official language.
Speaking about the execution of the Court’s rulings, the Constitutional Court judges emphasised that a timely execution of judgments essentially characterises Latvia as a rule-of-law state. The parties discussed ways to build effective communication for the purposes of controlling and facilitating timely execution of the Constitutional Court judgments.
At the end of the discussion, the President of the Constitutional Court thanked the State President for the meeting and presented him the catalogue of works submitted for the school students’ drawings and essays competition – “Brīvība un atbildība. Satversmes tiesa sarunā ar Latvijas skolēniem” [Freedom and Responsibility. The Constitutional Court in conversation with the Latvian school students], – thus placing emphasis on the court’s communication activities to educate school youth.