Latvia in 2004

Latvia in 2004

Area: 64,589 sq km (24,938 sq mi) Population (2004 est.): 2,312,000 Capital: Riga Chief of state: President Vaira Vike-Freiberga Head of government: Prime Ministers Einars Repse, Indulis Emsis from March 9, and, from December 2, Aigars Kalvitis

Having joined NATO on March 29 and the European Union on May 1, Latvia in 2004 achieved its main foreign-policy goals since regaining independence. Riga contributed to international missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Georgia and generally maintained good relations with the rest of the world.

Relations with Russia remained a challenge, however. Moscow objected to NATO’s patrolling airspace over the Baltic States and insisted that EU enlargement and the new EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement be contingent upon concessions from both the EU and the Baltic States. In April Riga expelled a Russian diplomat suspected of espionage, and Moscow reciprocated in kind. The EU rejected Moscow’s accusations that the rights of Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia and Estonia were being violated, especially in education, and by September some 60% of 10th-grade courses in minority-language schools were being taught in Latvian without major problems.

Indulis Emsis of the Green and Farmers’ Party became prime minister in March after the tension-ridden coalition government of Einars Repse (New Era) resigned. People’s Party deputies decided not to endorse the 2005 budget, which led to the fall of Emsis’s government on October 28. After numerous political machinations, Aigars Kalvitis of the People’s Party formed a minority centre-right government.

Latvia’s GDP grew about 8%, and midyear revenues permitted raising the income of some of the neediest members of society. Teachers’ salaries, pensions, and child-care payments grew, but not the wages of doctors and nurses, who began a crippling strike on November 1. Latvia remained among the poorest EU countries in terms of GDP per capita (42% of the EU average) and inflation rate (about 7%), but unemployment was at about the EU average of 9%.

Dzintra Bungs