Chapter 8: Latvia

(continued)

MAPPING AND EVALUATION OF OPPORTUNITIES

The major problems encountered are the lack of clear procedural rules in Latvia on how to consider the public's right to be involved in international decisionmaking. There is also a lack of legal procedure for how the public can make comments regarding international decisions

In the case of international investment decisions, the problem is again the lack of clear rules to determine access to different EIA phases.

Concerning national laws and regulations, there is more possibility in practice for the public to be involved in decisionmaking throughout the whole cycle of initiation and preparation. The major problem in this regard is that there are not many NGOs able and interested in participating in the development of legislation. There is also a lack of procedural rules on how to consider public rights to monitor decisionmakers, as the public cannot directly initiate referendum and the procedure of referendum is very complicated. The right to initiative exists. There are also no consultative bodies where NGOs or the public can share the power of decisionmaking. There is no legal procedure to guarantee that the comments of the public are taken into account or how this should be done. Also, there are no procedures for notification of the public in this regard. It is not clear when, what and who is responsible for providing the information to the public and what should be the scope of the information given. There is a general concern that public involvement and access to all information will slow down the decisionmaking process.

The case is very similar concerning the preparation and approval of national and local/regional strategies and policies and local rules and regulations. At the local level there is also the problem that no working system exists to help to decide who should be informed.

In some concrete procedures such as preparation and approval of territorial planning decisions, building decisions and EIA, there is more opportunity for public participation and accounting of public comments. As mentioned earlier, the public has the best opportunity for participation in territorial planning decisions, where public participation is provided for at all planning levels, there are public discussions organized and comments can be submitted to the planning authority. The Law on Building also provides for public hearings before a decision is made on building projects. There is a legal procedure in place on how to organize these hearings and how to take into consideration the recommendations made by the public.

Concerning EIA, the present procedure of State Environmental Expertise includes only limited possibilities for the public, as there are no specific clear procedures for public participation despite the fact that a public discussion of the assessment report is required. There is a lack of legal procedure on notification of the different phases of the EIA, and it is not clearly regulated when, what and who must provide information to the public and and how much should be provided. Also, there is a lack of clear rules to determine the level of public involvement in the different phases of the EIA, nor is there a legal requirement that public comments must be taken into account. The new draft of EIA Law to be adopted in 1998 already contains such guarantees. In case of siting and permitting, the situation is rather similar.