Public Private Partnership Law Finally Passed

On 18 June 2009, the Saeima passed the Public Private Partnership Law. The Law entered in force on 10 July 2009. The Public Private Partnership Law will apply to various projects carried out jointly by one or more public entities and one or more private partners in respect of satisfaction of public needs for the services or construction works. The law will apply to long term projects with the duration of not less than 30 years, and will regulate such issues as the legal forms of the public private partnership, the procedures concerning the commencement of public private partnership procedure, awards of the contracts, various issues concerning the form and substance of the contracts, the rights and obligations of the partners.

The law distinguishes between two basic forms of public private partnerships – contractual partnership, i.e. the partnership which is based on partnership procurement contract or a concession contract, and institutional partnership, i.e. the partnership carried out through a joint venture as a contracting party to the partnership procurement contract or the concession contract. The form of an institutional partnership may only be used if the business to be carried out by the joint venture is such which under the laws of Latvia is permitted to be performed by the public partner, and the joint venture is formed to carry out a function which is assigned to the public partner under the public law of Latvia or which has been delegated to the public partner by another public person and is permitted to be sub-delegated.

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