On Friday, 14 November, parliamentary delegations from the three Baltic States will convene for the annual session of the Baltic Assembly (BA) at the Saeima building where they will discuss topical regional issues, including transport connectivity as a pillar of regional unity, economic development, and security guarantee.
Daiga Mieriņa, Speaker of the Saeima, Lauri Hussar, President of the Estonian Riigikogu, and Juozas Olekas, Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas, will give opening remarks at the 44th Session of the Baltic Assembly.
The session will be opened by Jānis Vucāns, President of the Baltic Assembly and Chair of the Latvian delegation; Timo Suslov, Vice President of the Baltic Assembly and Chair of the Estonian delegation; and Giedrius Drukteinis, Vice President of the Baltic Assembly and Chair of the Lithuanian delegation.
Thematic debates on Baltic transport connectivity will be led by Andris Kulbergs, Chair of the Economics, Energy and Innovation Committee; Deputy Chair Jaak Aab, and Committee Member Raimondas Šukys. Participants will also include Atis Švinka, Minister of Transport of the Republic of Latvia, Kuldar Leis, Minister of Infrastructure of the Republic of Estonia, and Juras Taminskas, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania.
At 11:00, the 31st Baltic Council of Ministers—the platform for cooperation between parliaments and executive authorities—will also convene on the margins of the Baltic Assembly Session. It will be chaired by Jānis Vucāns and Baiba Braže, Chair of the Cooperation Council of the Baltic Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia. The Council will also be addressed by Ágnes Vadai, Vice President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly; Margus Tsahkna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia; and Kęstutis Budrys, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. After the meeting, at 13:00, a joint statement will be signed and a press conference will be held, which will be broadcast live on the Saeima website www.saeima.lv, and through the Parliament’s social media accounts.
The Baltic Assembly Prizes and Medals Award Ceremony will take place ahead of the session on Thursday, 13 November. The Baltic Assembly Prize in the Arts will be awarded to Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš for his performance with the Latvian Radio Choir in the concert programme Stream of Dreams, which was held on 31 March 2023 in the Great Hall of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music as part of the Baltic Music Days. The BA Prize in Literature will be awarded to Lithuanian poet, literary critic, and translator Tomas Venclova for his latest poetry collection Už Onos ir Bernardinų, while the Prize in Science will go to political theory professor at the University of Tartu, Eva Piirimäe, for her monograph Herder and Enlightenment Politics. The Baltic Assembly Medals will also be awarded during the ceremony.
Information about the Baltic Assembly:
The Baltic Assembly is an inter-parliamentary cooperation organisation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania established on 8 November 1991. The Baltic Assembly consists of national delegations—12 to 16 members from each country’s parliament. It is a coordinating and consultative organisation that has a right to express its opinion to the national parliaments and governments of the Baltic States, as well as the Baltic Council of Ministers, in the form of resolutions, decisions, declarations, and recommendations; it also has a right to request the above-mentioned bodies to provide information on cross-border issues that are high on the Baltic Assembly’s agenda.
Representatives of the media without permanent accreditation are kindly asked to register with the Saeima Press Service by 15:00 on 12 November by sending an e-mail to prese@saeima.lv, or by calling +371 67087244.
Saeima Press Service