January 2000

Latvia Update Memo

The following report outlines new developments in the past three months and the state of on-going developments.

In December 1999, Latvia was appointed an European Union candidate country. Latvia declared to be ready to open negotiations on 15 (out of 31) accession topics, including IT&T policy. The other new candidate countries, except one, expressed much lower readiness. Delegations are currently being established for the negotiations. The selection for preaccession will mean that further measures must be taken in Latvia in order to meet the requirements of the European Union.

On-going developments

1. On-going changes in the institutional structures

• Creation of the National Regulator of all monopoly services is being discussed.
• Independent Data Inspection (to be in charge of Personal Data Protection) is waiting for the adoption of the Law to be established. Discussion is taking place whether the Inspection should report directly to the Parliament, be part of the already existing Human Rights Bureaux reporting directly to the Parliament, or report to the Minister of Justice.

2. On going changes in the regulatory framework

2.1. Telecommunications liberalisation

The Government’s working group still is dealing with the privatisation of the state owned shares of Lattelekom. The group was set up though a decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers. The monopoly of Lattelecom, the Umbrella agreement, is currently under renegotiation. The aim is to reduce the time under which Lattelecom enjoys monopoly from 2013 to 2003 in order to meet the requirements of the European Union. The Minister of Finance is nominated as a chairman. The working group’s terms of reference cover:

• negotiations between Privatisation Agency and the "Lattelekom" foreign investor "Sonera Ltd" on the alteration of the Umbrella Agreement;
• compensation for the reduction in the term (2003 instead of agreed 2013) during which "Lattelekom" enjoys monopoly rights;
• terms for privatisation of the state share in "Lattelekom";
• transformation of "Lattelekom" into a public stock company, allowing the public to purchase the state-owned shares.

2.2 New laws/measures under preparation:

• A new draft of the Telecommunications Law was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers in December 1999.
  
• Draft Law On Electronic Data Base Protection has been suspended because the same task force is busy amending the Law on Authors Rights and Neighboring Rights.
  
• The new Law on Authors Rights and Neighboring Rights (harmonised with EU directives) is waiting for the final reading in the Parliament.
  
• Draft Government regulations regarding information systems security have been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers in December 1999.
  
• The draft Law on Personal Data Protection is still waiting for the second reading in the Parliament.
  
• The Law on National Information Systems ( responsibilities and competence of government bodies regarding collection and processing public information as well as provision of general access to public information) was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers in August 1999. At present, in December 1999, the law is still being reconciliated by ministerial experts and officers.
  
• The draft Government regulation regarding protection of health of employees using computerised workplaces (implemented EU directives 89/391 EEC and 90/270 EEC) has been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers but is not yet adopted. The draft regulation is expected to come into effect from January 2001 and onwards.

• Government regulation regarding procedure of output of information from government on municipal institutions has been adopted in August 1999. This regulation is needed to implement the Information Freedom Law.

• Government regulation regarding output of data from the Population Register was adopted in March 1999.

2.3. New concepts for future legislative developments

Several concepts for future legislative work have been developed and submitted to the Government:

• unified registration of judicial persons;
• registration of sentences;
• registration of addresses/residence of natural persons.

3. On-going changes in IS policies

Latvian Information Technology and Telecommunications Association, a professional non-governmental not-for-profit organisation, together with major software production companies DATI and SWH-Technology has developed a 20 year long vision for Latvia (as well as Estonia and Lithuania) to become a world-known center of software service competence. The vision will be fundamental for developing transnational projects. The content of these projects are e.g. further introduction of IT&T in the educational and training systems as well as other government-supported actions.

A concerted action started November 1999 aiming at establishing a system of higher vocational IT&T education in Latvia. This training-system should increase the annual numbers of IT trained engineers up to 6 times.