Riga, 23 December 2020 - In order to facilitate access to information and openness of local governments, as of 1 January 2021, the binding rules and explanatory articles will be published free of charge in the official publication “Latvijas Vēstnesis”. From 2022, the vestnesis.lv website will issue binding rules for all municipalities, thereby systematising and facilitating the search for documents for citizens.
On 1 January 2021, the “Amendments to the Law on Official Publications and Legal Information” and all notifiers, including State and local government institutions, merchants and residents, will not be required to pay for publications in the official publication “Latvijas Vēstnesis”. The publication will therefore be free of charge for the publication of binding rules for municipalities and their explanatory articles, which were published so far by the majority in municipal expenditure and made available on websites. In the light of this, municipal councils in accordance with the Law * remain entitled to choose the place of official publication of the binding provisions in 2021 and their explanatory memorandum, in the official publication “Latvijas Vēstnesis”, in the local newspaper or in the free edition. The regulations and explanatory articles of the cities of the Republic, as well as individual municipalities, which are already binding, are published in the “Latvijas Vēstnesis”.
On 1 January 2022, the official publication “Latvijas Vēstnesis” will issue binding rules for all municipalities (including local government regulations, budgets and amendments thereto, binding rules related to spatial development planning) in full, which will be available freely and free of charge on the website vestnesis.lv and systematically on the portal likumi.lv, thereby facilitating the digitisation of information. 'Digital.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development calls on the municipal councils, taking into account the changes planned for 2022, to set the official publication of their binding rules in the following year as the place of official publication of the official “Latvijas Vēstnesis”. In order to change the place of official publication of the binding rules, they should adopt binding rules. . The Ministry calls to take into account that the county council may change the place of publication of binding regulations not more frequently than once a year.
If the municipality local government intends to determine the official publication site of the official publication of the local government's binding regulations, the local authority shall contact the official publication “Latvijas Vēstnesis” in good time, as well as inform the residents of the local government regarding the planned changes to the availability of binding regulations.
* Law On Local Governments, Section 45, Paragraph five
Information:
Public Relations Department
Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development
Tel. 67026533 E-mail: prese@varam.gov.lv