On 4 March, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft law Amendments to the Law on National Security drafted by the Ministry of the Interior for submission to the Parliament for consideration.
The aim of the draft law is to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure by ensuring the transposition of Directive 2022/2557 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on the resilience of critical entities, as well as to ensure restriction of access to information and technologies important for the functioning of critical infrastructure to persons who are recognised as disloyal to the Republic of Latvia.
To enhance national security and safeguard critical infrastructure essential to the state's and society's functioning, the proposed legislation introduces measures to prevent potential risks. The draft law prohibits individuals who support entities or states that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of democratic nations, or seek to disrupt the constitutional order, from holding ownership, beneficial ownership, or legal possession of critical infrastructure.
The draft law further strengthens national security by prohibiting Russian and Belarusian citizens, as well as legal entities registered in Russia or Belarus, from owning, legally holding, or benefiting from critical infrastructure. Additionally, individuals from these categories are barred from holding positions in the management bodies of critical infrastructure.
The draft law also provides for a ban on Russian and Belarusian citizens being employed or providing a service in critical infrastructure if the provision of the service involves access to information or technological equipment essential for the functioning of the critical infrastructure. At the same time, the draft law includes an exception that allows individuals to work in critical infrastructure, provided they receive authorization from the competent national security authority.
The draft law clarifies and complements the legal norms relating to the criteria for determining critical entities of particular importance at European level, complements the law with national documents in the field of resilience of critical entities, as well as defines the obligation of the owner or legal holder of critical infrastructure to ensure the resilience of its critical infrastructure, including reporting incidents that affect or may affect the operation of critical infrastructure, introduces the concept of resilience, and clarifies the delegation to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the procedure for incident reporting, security measures, business continuity, resilience planning and implementation.
To enter into force, the draft law still needs to be examined and approved by the Parliament.