The infrastructure of Latvia’s eastern border will be built at the maximum speed of coordination, according to the statement of the Minister of the Interior Marija Golubeva (AP) today after the coalition meeting for journalists.
Golubeva pointed out that at the coalition meeting she had presented a draft law prepared by the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) on the construction of the land border. Under the supervision of the committee responsible for the Ministry of the Interior, the border infrastructure will be built at the maximum harmonization speed, the Minister emphasized.
According to the ministry’s proposal, the design and construction will be entrusted to SJSC “Valsts nekustamie īpašumi” (VNI), which would ensure greater state control over this process, as it will not be entrusted only to the private sector, Golubeva explained.
According to Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (JV), the draft law forwarded by the Ministry of the Interior will be considered at a government sitting on Tuesday, November 2, asking the Saeima to consider it urgent so that the construction of the eastern border can move forward faster.
It has already been reported that the Ministry of the Interior has prepared a draft law on the construction of the external land border infrastructure, which envisages entrusting the organization of construction to the VNĪ.
The draft law is designed to reduce administrative barriers to the construction of the Latvian-Belarusian border, including the construction of a permanent fence. The law will apply only to the European Union’s (EU) external border or Latvia’s border with Belarus and Russia, but is not applicable to the EU’s internal border or Latvia’s border with Lithuania and Estonia.
It is envisaged that the determination of the territory necessary for the construction of border infrastructure will be ensured by the State Border Guard in cooperation with the State Security Agency (SEA), but the cadastral survey of land will be organized by the SEA.
The right to fell trees and shrubs and the property rights to wood prepared in the territory necessary for the construction of border infrastructure will be JSC “Latvijas valsts meži”, the draft law provides.
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