Dear Mr Dombrovskis,

Over the last several weeks, the JSC Latvijas kuģniecība( Latvian Shipping Company) has, with great interest, monitored public claims made by one of the shareholders in the company, Ventspils Nafta.

Latvia is a parliamentary country in which there is a separation of powers – those are fundamental elements of our country’s democratic system.  For that reason, the Latvian Shipping Company is fully justified in failing to understand how it can be that the aforementioned shareholder is unwilling or unable to deal with its commercial relationship with another enterprise in a legal way, instead trying to involve high-ranking government officials, including the prime minister, into the process.  That is something that is typical of authoritarian countries.  The potential intervention in the relationship between two independent legal entities in Latvia would have to be assessed in terms of the competence of the specific government official and in terms of the issue of conflicts of interest.

Because we consider the Republic of Latvia to be a democratic country in which the rule of law prevails and in which commercial disputes are resolved in accordance with the law, and not a “banana republic” in which any issue can be “settled” in the office of a minister or the prime minister, we consider it to be our duty to present our views on the matter.  We would like to ask everyone who is interested in this issue and, perhaps, has become involved in the public exchange of views about it against his or her own will, to calm down.  The Latvian Shipping Company has operated in full compliance with the laws of the Republic of Latvia.  The company has taken into account the interests of all of its shareholders, not just the whims of the single shareholder that is Ventspils Nafta.  The Latvian Shipping Company has operated precisely within the context of the laws of the Republic of Latvia in convening shareholder meetings in exact accordance with the requirements enshrined therein.

At the same time, we would call on all Latvian Shipping Company shareholders to engage in an open discussion in which the focus is not on the prime minister, but instead on the Latvian Shipping Company.  Since the end of 2009, the company has on many occasions sought to establish constructive dialogue with the one shareholder that is Ventspils Nafta.  We have written to the shareholder several times in relation to the commercial relationship between the two companies, but we are sad to say that no response has ever been received to our proposals.

We have read the correspondence that has occurred between Ventspils Nafta and the prime minister of the Republic of Latvia, and we are forced to ask that you, Prime Minister, bring your authority to bear.  The next time that you are in contact with Ventspils Nafta, you must inform its board chairman, Simon Digby Boddy, about the laws which prevail in our country, about the separate functions of the executive branch and the judicial branch of the government, and about the fact that Ventspils Nafta has every lawful right to dispute decisions taken by government institutions that are not to its liking in the courts, not by seeking political patronage.

Respectfully yours,

The Board of JSC Latvijas kuģniecība