On 1 June 2016 in cooperation with European Commission Representation in Latvia* there was held the conference
Latvia's Fiscal Discipline Law: the First Three Years and Future Prospects
Conference video available here. Conference summary video available here.
Conference venue: EU house, Aspazijas boulevard 28, Riga
Working languages - Latvian and English. Simultaneous translation will be provided.
Conference annotation.
10:00 Registration, coffee
10:30 Opening keynote by Prof., Dr.hab.oec. Inna Šteinbuka, Head of European Commission Representation in Latvia, presentation, video
10:45 Latvia's Fiscal Discipline Law in the European Landscape, Jānis Platais, Chairman of Latvian Fiscal Discipline Council, presentation, video
11:00 First session: Was the Fiscal Discipline Law a success? Is there something to be changed?
Moderated by Morten Hansen, Head of Economics Department at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Member of Latvian Fiscal Discipline Council. Discussion video.
Evolvement of the Latvian Fiscal Discipline Law, Nils Sakss, the Director of the Fiscal policy Department, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia, presentation
EU Economic Governance Perspective: Evolution of Fiscal Surveillance Framework, Ingrid Toming, representative of the European Commission, presentation
Parliamentary Oversight of the Fiscal Policy, Edgars Putra, representative of Parliamentary Budget and finances (taxes) Committee of the Republic of Latvia, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia, presentation
Latvia's Track Record of Fiscal Discipline – Before and After Fiscal Discipline Law, Mārtiņš Bitāns, Deputy Head of Monetary Policy Department, Bank of Latvia, presentation
13:00 Lunch
14:00 (coffee break 15:30-15:45) Second session: Latvia's Fiscal Discipline Law – has it served its purpose, what are the lessons learned and what is the way forward?
Moderated by Andžs Ūbelis, an Expert on Public Financial Management, Member of Latvian Fiscal Discipline Council. Discussion video.
Role of Fiscal Discipline Councils in Strengthening the Fiscal Governance, Independent Fiscal Institutions representatives:
Andrus Alber, Vice-chairman of Estonian Fiscal Council, presentation
Saulė Iždonaitė-Karalevičienė, Macroeconomics Expert, State Audit Office of Lithuania, presentation
Seppo Orjasniemi, Principal Economist, National Audit Office of Finland, presentation
Public Perception of Fiscal Discipline, Communication Channels, Opinion Leaders, Māris Zanders, Daily Newspaper Diena, Portal satori.lv, TVRīga 24
Awareness of Fiscal Policy Issues, Lessons Learned, Jānis Hermanis, Expert on Economic Issues, Employers' Confederation of Latvia, presentation
15:30 Coffee break
15:45 Continuation of the discussion
16:45 Concluding remarks, presentation. Discussion video.
On 1 June 2016 we have are published the summary and the main results of the survey on the budget discipline.
* Event is financed by the European Commission from the budget for communicating on the European Economic and Monetary Union.