Dear FICIL Members,
First of all, and since this is our first newsletter this year, let us wish you all a very happy and productive 2017!
Below you will find a summary of key developments and opportunities for you to participate at the FICIL work. Also – please mark your calendars, we have several important dates already earmarked for this season!
Save the date:
FICIL Member meeting: 21 February 16:00 Venue: SSE Riga, room 303, 3rd floor, 4A Strelnieku street, Riga. Please register for the meeting here.
FICIL Annual General Meeting: 22 March 15:00 Venue: SEB office, 11 Valnu street, Riga Old town. Please register for the meeting here.
High Council meeting 2017: 25 – 26 May 2017
FICIL Insolvency Abuse Report follow-up – conference in Saeima
On 27 January the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, Committee of European affairs, organized the second high-level discussion regarding the insolvency issues (first was held on 3 June 2016). At the discussion “Insolvency regime and its regulatory framework in Latvia – from an obstacle to investments towards optimal activity” chairpersons of the responsible committees of the Parliament of Latvia participated, also, Minister for Economics, representatives from the Ministry of Justice and European Commission. FICIL was represented at the discussion by Helmuts Jauja (Insolvency w/g). Video and presentations from the event are available here.
Updates from FICIL work groups
Insolvency work group
The FICIL Insolvency work group met on 19 January – members discussed latest developments in the regulatory framework, including, the key areas of focus in 2017. Work group will continue to work and plans to come up with a position paper for the High Council 2017. Next meeting will take place 23 February 2017 at 15:00, venue FICIL office, Strelnieku 1 -3. Agenda will follow in due course. Please register for the meeting here.
Education work group
Representatives from Education work group participated in the International conference on work-based learning (25 January). The conference was organised within the framework of the EU Erasmus+ programme project “National Authorities for Apprenticeships: Implementing Work Based Learning in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia” (WBL – Balt).
The next work group meeting is planned for 10 February 2017 at 9:00, venue: RBS, 11 Skolas Street, Riga. The agenda will include updates from the previous meeting (including on vocational education and opportunities for companies to contribute to the education process); SSER rectorship; FICIL meeting with State Audit office; but most importantly it will focus on key issues to be highlighted for the Position Paper on Education 2017. Please, let us know if you have any items for agenda that you would like to discuss or if you would like to participate. You can register for the meeting here.
Construction work group
FICIL Construction work group met on 10 January. On 25 January the work group met with the representatives from the Ministry of Economics regarding the planned amendments to the building regulations. All the materials are available here.
Tax administration work group
The tax work group has had several meetings in December and January. Key issues focussed around the planned changes in the Tax system, reforms in the State Revenue Service and follow up to the earlier FICIL proposals and recommendations. The minutes and all the materials from the meetings are available here. The next meeting is planned for March (TBC).
Energy and Waste management work group
The first Energy and Waste management work group meeting was held on 16 January. The objective of the first meeting was to discuss the key issues of focus for the future work – members identified a list of detailed and relevant topics. At the following meeting held on 6 February members already agreed on individual leaders for most of the topics identified that will work towards a first draft position on each topic.
The next meeting is planned for 27 February 2017 at 15:00, venue: Ernst and Young office, Muitas Street, Riga. You can still let us know if you have any items for the agenda that you would like to discuss or if you would like to participate. You can register for the meeting here.
Hope you find this update useful. Please do let us know if you have any questions.
Your FICIL team