On government affairs
An interview with the Minister of Agriculture, Didzis Šmits.
...we will have to fight hard for Latvia's interests, so that we can continue to use our fields and forests for the purposes we have been accustomed to using them for...
The minister had planned to end this practice with the 2024 budget, but it has now been decided with the Prime Minister to end it immediately.
Agnese Margēviča questions the Minister of Transport, Jānis Vitenbergs, about why the completion of the Rail Baltica project is being delayed, how long the introduction of the new passenger trains will be delayed, about the feasts during a time of plague for the management of airBaltic and Latvijas dzelzceļš, and other industry problems.
On laws
The most significant changes to legislation coming into force at the beginning of 2023.
On industry issues
The short answer is: as the owner—namely, the Latvian state—decides, so it shall be. To start listing shares on the stock exchange, a company must be super-healthy and highly desirable from the perspective of potential investors—stock buyers.
At the moment, it is impossible to predict exactly when "Rīgas meži" might exit the roundwood processing business. Experts have concluded that it will not happen before 2024.
Entrepreneur Andris Ramoliņš has gifted a multifunctional bicycle track to the Tukums municipality.
On change of ownership
Concluding the media group restructuring process begun in the spring of this year, from January 2023 the newspaper "Diena" and its associated printed publications will be published by SIA "Izdevniecība 'Dienas bizness'", which has become the user of the relevant trademarks.
On hunting
A reminder of the opportunity to sign up and support the future of hunting in Europe:
Practical climate information
Information on the climate indicators for each Latvian municipality and state city with an individual local government, based on LVĢMC meteorological observations and future climate models.
Compared to the previous few years, 2022 was relatively more normal—there was less extreme weather, but there was no shortage of fluctuations—the third warmest summer in Latvian history, followed by the coldest September of this century...
On hunters' “friends” who do not sleep
Look at that!
The "Kurmīši" farm in Ūdrīši parish, Krāslava municipality, turns 28 this year. Ivars and Sandra Geiba grow medicinal herbs and practice beekeeping; now they have also been joined by their son Miķelis. He is an agronomist and combines paid work at the Latgale regional department of the State Plant Protection Service with work on the farm.
In any case, seeing the exclusive support of the West for Ukraine, the conclusion is this: the economy may be global, but people will increasingly try to solve crises (or will be forced to do so) in their own respective regions. Figuratively speaking, European problems will be primary for Europe, while, for example, Ethiopia (Somalia, South Sudan, etc.) must take into account that, from the European perspective, “this is an internal African matter,” which the people of that specific region must solve themselves.
Firstly, the prolonged obsession with a specific character and the regime he created as something almost unique—in a bad sense—ignores the fact that an equally tragic fate awaited Estonia and Lithuania. In turn, to the objection that political regimes in Estonia and Lithuania at that time were also—using modern terminology—authoritarian (a lighter version, a heavier version—that is a different question), one can counter with the reminder that democratic regimes in Czechoslovakia or Denmark did not protect them from aggression (in the execution of Nazi Germany).
The "Par pašpietiekamu elektroenerģiju Latvijā" (For Self-Sufficient Electricity in Latvia) movement wants to achieve complete self-sufficiency for the Latvian electricity system with additional hydroelectric power plants (HES) and other capacities. It presented its ideas to the general public on Thursday.
Designating climate and energy as priority areas, one more ministry has been added to the 14 existing ones—the Ministry of Climate and Energy. Industry representatives are cautiously positive about the creation of a new top-level executive institution, emphasizing that this preserves a lingering problem—the separation of climate issues from the environment and nature sector.
A few topical cartoons