Member States’ best practices on the Charter

Latvian legislation and case-law incorporate articles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’) that relating to matters of personal data protection, equality between people and human rights in the areas of migration, science and access to information.

References in explanatory memorandums to draft legislation

• Law on the processing of personal data in criminal proceedings and administrative infringement proceedings - in the explanatory memorandum to the draft law reference to Article 8 of the Charter on the protection and fair processing of personal data. The law has been drawn up to prevent, investigate and detect criminal and administrative offences with regard to the processing of personal data.
• Law on private pension funds - in the explanatory memorandum to the draft law reference to Article 8 of the Charter on the protection and fair processing of personal data.
• Law amending the Law on State social insurance of 25 October 2018 - in the explanatory memorandum to the draft law reference to Article 20 of the Charter on everyone being equal before the law.
• In the explanatory memorandum to the draft law amending the Law on taxes and duties reference to Article 42 of the Charter on the right of access to documents of EU institutions and bodies.

References in judgments of the Constitutional Court

• Judgment in case No 2018-18-01 on the compliance of articles of the Law on road traffic with the Constitution. The articles were found to be unconstitutional with regard to personal data protection requirements. Reference was made to Article 8 of the Charter on the protection of personal data.
• Judgment in case No 2018-15-01 on the compliance of articles of the Law on higher education institutions with the Constitution. Reference to Article 13 of the Charter on the academic freedom of arts and scientific research.
• Judgement in case No 2018-11-01 on the compliance of articles of the Law on the remuneration of officials and employees of central and local government bodies with the Constitution. Reference to Article 8 of the Charter on the protection and fair processing of personal data.

Tools that help better understand the Charter and when it applies

For practitioners

In Latvia there is the Latvian Judicial Training Centre [Latvijas Tiesnešu mācību centrs] (LTMC), which organises and delivers further training and professional development courses for judges and court officials. General lectures on human rights are organised on a regular basis, during which it is also possible to discuss the Charter.

The LTMC works alongside with the Academy of European Law (ERA) and the European Judicial Training Network (EJNT) and also offers international training courses for judges.

• In 2014, the LTMC organised six lectures on the Charter. In total, 141 lawyers attended the events in 2014.
• From 2017 to 2019, 43 Latvian judges attended seminars relating to the Charter.
• In 2018, a cooperation agreement was concluded with the Academy of European Law (ERA) on high-level training services for Latvian judicial and law enforcement staff to train judges, court officials, investigators, prosecutors and officials, including in matters of EU general law.

For citizens

The Supreme Court promotes transparent application of the Charter by including a separate section dedicated to it in the legislation directory . Not all Senate rulings are included in this directory, only those that are relevant for the application of the legal provisions (see in the directory: European Union Law -> Treaties -> Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union).

In the Manuals section of the Supreme Court website, information has been included on the expenditure of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (see Expenditure of European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights).