Artūrs Butāns proposes new National Defense Service recruitment priorities

Latvian Saeima deputy Artūrs Butāns has proposed amendments to the National Defense Service (VAD) law to address recruitment shortages. The proposal suggests that after voluntary enlistments are accounted for, the remaining required quota should be filled by prioritizing citizens who are neither employed nor currently pursuing education.

Under this plan, a person would be classified as unemployed or non-student if they lack an active status in the State Education Information System and are not registered as an employee or economic actor in the State Revenue Service system. If this group does not meet the required numbers, the deputy suggests selecting remaining candidates via a random selection process from those who did not volunteer or those whose evaluation process was interrupted.

To facilitate this, the proposal includes granting authorities the right to access employment status data from the State Revenue Service. Butāns has requested that the government adopt the necessary regulatory changes by December 31 of this year to implement this new recruitment procedure for the January 2028 intake.