On Tuesday, 2 November, the Cabinet of Ministers supported the draft law “On the Construction of External Land Border”, submitted by the Ministry of the Interior. The draft law is designed to ensure the rapid and efficient construction of the infrastructure necessary for the protection of the external land border by establishing a special legal framework.
This law will determine the division of responsibilities between the Ministry of the Interior, other ministries, state institutions and capital companies in the preparation, design, construction and supervision of the construction of the border. The law will provide a higher priority for the coordination of decisions related to the construction of the border in all public administration institutions and wider involvement and cooperation of public institutions.
Since the declaration of the state of emergency in August, the Ministry of the Interior has carried out a number of measures to ensure that there is a temporary solution on the Latvian-Belarusian border by the end of November - a barbed wire fence. However, it is also necessary to expediate the construction of a permanent fence. The urgent construction of the external border is a matter of national security, but the current legal framework has hampered quick and effective solutions. This draft law will significantly accelerate the construction of the permanent border fence and will apply to both the Latvian-Belarusian and Latvian-Russian borders,” explains the Minister for the Interior Marija Golubeva.
The government has asked the Parliament to view the draft law as a matter of urgency in order to be able to move faster in the construction of the eastern border.
The law will determine the division of responsibilities in the construction of the external land border. The State Border Guard and the State Security Agency will be responsible for marking and surveying of the borderline and settling the property issues. The State Security Agency will be responsible for setting user requirements for the development of the technical specification. The state capital company “Latvijas valsts meži” in cooperation with the State Security Agency will be responsible for deforestation, while the state capital company “Valsts nekustamie īpašumi” will be responsible for managing, organizing and supervising the necessary construction works and performing the procurement.
In order to monitor and coordinate the construction of the external border infrastructure, it is planned to establish a Monitoring Committee for the Construction of the External Border Infrastructure, the work of which will be managed and organized by the Ministry of the Interior.
Prepared by:
Linda Curika
Adviser to the Minister for the Interior on public relations