The Latvian Union of Local Governments (LSS) is considering the possibility of appealing to the president regarding the coordination of wind farms, said LSS Chairman Gints Kaminskis in an interview with the Latvian Television program "Morning Panorama," reports LETA.
He noted that he hopes for the meeting scheduled for Thursday with Prime Minister Evika Silina.
"If the situation is not resolved, we still have the president of the state," emphasized Kaminskis.
In response to the question of whether he considers the opposition's demand for the resignation of the Minister of Smart Governance and Regional Development Raimonds Čudars justified, Kaminskis pointed out that this issue is not currently on the agenda of the LSS.
"The most important thing is to finally start working, methodically manage, and organize these issues with criteria (...)," he said, emphasizing that everyone will benefit from this.
As reported, today Kaminskis will meet with Silina to discuss issues of territorial planning of local governments and further actions.
The Minister of Smart Governance and Regional Development partially suspended the territorial plans of the Bauska and Preili regions by his order, which he believes unjustifiably restrict the construction of wind farms.
The LSS called for the immediate cancellation of Čudars' order, which, in his assessment, creates significant consequences and negatively affects all local governments in Latvia. However, after the meeting with Čudars and the Minister of Climate and Energy Kaspars Melņiks, a unified decision was not reached.
According to the LSS's interpretation, the discussion only concerns the restrictions imposed by local governments on 0.5% of the territory of the Preili region and 4.29% of the territory of the Bauska region, taking into account the interests of residents. Local governments want an immediate solution and clarity in territorial planning policy and vision for the future.
The Bauska Regional Council decided on January 22 at an extraordinary meeting to appeal to the Constitutional Court to challenge the minister's order partially suspending the action of the territorial plan of the Bauska region. In turn, the Preili Council made a similar decision on January 26.
The LSS points out that one of the significant factors in the suspension of the mentioned plans was the prolonged absence of developed guidelines and criteria from the Ministry of Smart Governance and Regional Development (MSGRD) for implementing a unified approach to integrating wind farms into the developed territorial plans.
By partially suspending the local governments' plans, the Minister of Smart Governance and Regional Development Čudars explained that he identified significant legal and substantive deficiencies. In his opinion, the suspended provisions establish disproportionate restrictions on the development of renewable energy sources, entrepreneurial activities, and the realization of private rights without sufficient data, research, and legal justification.
LLC "EWE Neue Energien 2" submitted an intention to the State Environmental Service (SES) for the construction of 17 wind power plants in the territories of the Bauska and Jelgava regions, and the service began the environmental impact assessment procedure.
In October of last year, the local government sent an official response to the SES, indicating that the majority of the planned wind farm territory is on agricultural land of national significance, where such construction is not permissible. In the conclusion presented in November, the local government reiterated that the intention does not comply with the current territorial plan and the zoning is not subject to change.
In the Preili region, JSC "Latvenergo" plans to build a wind power plant park "Riebiņi."
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