The Agreement regulates joint maintenance of the Lithuanian-Latvian state border and the activities of border delegates. It specifically lays down the procedures for maintenance of the state border, border markers and the border strip, inventory of the state border and joint inspection of the state border, border markers and the border strip.
Within six months from the entry into force of the Agreement, the parties will set up a Joint Commission. It will be responsible for the control of the maintenance on site of the state border, organisation of the state border inventory, as well as coordination and addressing of the issues related to the location of the state border, as well as its marking and maintenance.
‘It should be noted that more than 18 years have passed since the approval of the map and the description of the state border between the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Latvia. Over that period, only the necessary geodetic and cartographic works on the state border of the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Latvia have been carried out (inventory has not been conducted, border markers have not been restored, etc.),’ says the Explanatory Note to the Agreement.
In the period of 2020–2022, within the framework of geodetic and cartographic works on the Lithuanian–Latvian state border, a number of tasks are to be carried out. There are plans to update georeferenced maps of the border area in the territory of Lithuania (1,375 km2); conduct the inventory of the state border line and the analysis of the alterations in the bank lines of hydrographical objects (lakes, rivers, streams, trenches and other bodies of water) where the state border is situated (428 km); and carry out geodetic and cartographic works concerning the state border markers (1,415 pieces of state border markers), curve points of the state border situated in water bodies (26 curve points), and newly installed, relocated or restored state border markers.
Currently, the Agreement of 25 January 1931 between Latvia and Lithuania on the Maintenance of Border Signs and Border Zone, and the Agreement of 1 March 2002 between the Government of the Republic of Latvia and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on Activities of Authorised Border Representatives are in force. These agreements are no longer relevant as they are not adapted to the countries’ membership of the Schengen area and will therefore expire once the ratified Agreement comes into force.
The draft Law on the Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Government of the Republic of Latvia on the Maintenance of the Lithuanian-Latvian State Border and the Activities of Border Delegates (No XIIIP-3947(2)) was adopted by a total of 90 votes in favour, no votes against and no abstentions.
