Lack of funding slows rollout of Latvia's new Cemetery Law
Latvia's new Cemetery Law, in force since spring, requires municipalities to build electronic burial registers, but many say they lack the money to digitize cemeteries. The State Audit Office says the law fixes most problems it flagged in 2018, though it still leaves payment rules unregulated.
Since April 29 this year, Latvia has had its first unified Cemetery Law, setting common rules for managing cemeteries, allocating burial plots and keeping burial records. Previously these matters were left to each municipality's own regulations, resulting in widely varying practices across the country.
Digitization stalled by lack of money
A key requirement is that municipalities create an electronic register of burials, covering plot numbering, layout, and data on the deceased and plot holders. They have four years to build the register and seven years to add historical records. However, several municipalities say they simply lack funds. In Valka municipality, only one of five cemeteries has been digitized so far, since covering the rest would cost at least 21,000 euros plus annual maintenance fees. Jaunjelgava's administration likewise has no budget allocated for digitization this year, though preparatory work such as cemetery maps is underway. In Bauska municipality, progress varies by district — some areas have fully digitized their cemeteries, while more than 20 cemeteries in the Vecumnieki area are still waiting. Officials also cite difficulty obtaining records from privately owned cemeteries, since the law sets no penalty for withholding such data.
Practical uncertainties
Specialists point to several debatable provisions, such as requiring a written application for a burial at a time when relatives are already grieving. There is also confusion over terminology — the law refers to individual "burial plots" rather than the previously used "burial sections," making it hard to number older plots where the exact number of burials is unknown.
A long-awaited framework
The State Audit Office already concluded in a 2018 review that a unified national framework was needed, having found major inconsistencies among municipalities. Neighboring countries adopted similar laws long ago — Estonia in 2012 and Lithuania in 2008. The Audit Office says the new law addresses most of the issues it identified back then, though it still does not set uniform rules for cemetery-related fees, which continue to vary between municipalities. Latvia has at least 1,754 known cemeteries, and private company Cemety already provides digitization services to 28 municipalities.
