Latvia’s parliament may miss deadline to overhaul MP compensation

Latvia’s 14th Saeima may not have enough time to change the system for compensating MPs, LSM reported Monday. Parliamentary factions must submit their proposals to the responsible Legal Affairs Committee, which will then decide how to proceed.

The committee had not officially received the proposals at the time of publication, but factions had the rest of the day to submit them.

Representatives of all factions agreed at a joint meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee and its Constitutional and Judicial Policy Subcommittee last week that the current compensation system should be changed. However, they differed significantly on what the new system should look like.

MPs proposed reducing compensation and introducing stricter restrictions, ending reimbursement for private-car expenses, providing hotel accommodation, or increasing the salaries of MPs from the regions. Another proposal was to cover these expenses from the state funding allocated to political parties.

Because the factions did not agree on a single solution, they were asked to formulate their own proposals by Monday. Andrejs Judins of New Unity, the chair of the Legal Affairs Committee, said after last week’s meeting that the current parliament might not have time to pass amendments through all readings.

Judins said it would nevertheless be important to prepare and begin advancing a specific bill so that the next parliament would not have to restart the discussion. Once the factions submit their proposals, the committee will have to find common ground, as simply combining the documents would not be enough.

MPs have also received a report from the Saeima Analytical Service on compensation systems in other countries. It found that all nine countries examined Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland, Germany and Sweden cover MPs’ work-related transport and accommodation expenses, although their control mechanisms differ.

The report also says that MPs in Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden are provided with public transport passes.