Article 1 of this Law stated that “the internal loan of 1931 for road building with premiums shall be issued for the nominal value of 12 million lats for 30 years. The loan shall be issued on the basis of a special instruction of the Minister for Finance” (Collection of laws and Cabinet regulations, issue No. 11, 18 May 1931, pp. 441-447). On 29 June 1931, the President of the State announced to the Saeima the Law on Short-term External Loan adopted on 22 June 1931. Article 1 of this Law stated: “The Cabinet of Ministers shall be authorised to commission the Minister for Finance to issue government bonds for the amount of up to 20 million lats” (Collection of laws and Cabinet regulations, issue No. 22, 12 August 1931, p. 772). The above references illustrate that the matters pertaining to international and other loans that significantly affect the State budget were dealt with by the Saeima through legislation in the 20s and 30s of the last century. The initial practice after the restoration of the Constitution was that the matters related to international loans were decided by the Saeima (see, e.g., the Law on the Investment Bank of Latvia General Loan Security Agreement between the Republic of Latvia and the European Investment Bank adopted on 29 March 1995 and the Law on the Agreement between the Republic of Latvia and Nordic Investment Bank adopted on 29 March 1995). Article 81 of the Constitution stated: “In cases of urgent necessity between sessions of the Saeima, the Cabinet of Ministers shall have the right to issue regulations which shall have the force of law.” These regulations did not have the power to amend, inter alia, the budget and budget rights, and they could not be applied to loans and the issue of Treasury bonds. The fact that Article 81 has been deleted from the Constitution does not provide grounds for concluding that the matters specified therein would now fall within the area of authority of the Cabinet of Ministers. That is, even after the Constitution has been amended and Article 81 deleted, the Saeima still has exclusive authority to decide on the matters pertaining to the areas specified in this article, and the Cabinet of Ministers has no rights to decide on the matters regulated therein. The Constitutional Court admitted that the matters the Cabinet of Ministers dealt with by entering into the respective commitments with the international creditors were deemed as sufficiently important matters for the State and public life to be decided through legislation by the Saeima. It also obviously follows from the replies of the Saeima that the receipt of the international loan is of the last importance for halting the 50

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