The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has taken up a case of suspected corruption at Latvian capital Riga’s municipal public transport company, Rigas Satiksme, LETA reports. EPPO conducted three searches as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into possible secret collaboration between Rigas Satiksme and private companies aimed at artificially inflating prices for goods and…
The total area of forest destroyed by fire in Latvia in the first half of 2023 was more than in the past full three years, according to the State Forest Service (VMD), LETA reports. Altogether 508 forest fires were registered and 607 hectares of forest was destroyed in six months. By comparison, the total area…
Lithuania’s government has approved an updated state border protection plan adapted to new threats, Baltic News Network reports. The Interior Ministry said that the updated plan would ensure timely and operational reinforcement of forces at the border, without the need for additional inter-agency coordination, in the event of a high threat level. The plan establishes…
Lithuania’s Constitutional Court ruled that legislation allowing the spelling of names of Lithuanian citizens in Latin-based non-Lithuanian characters in official documents does not violate the country’s Constitution, Baltic News Network reports. A group of 30 MPs, mostly from the opposition Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVZS), had petitioned the court over the constitutionality of the…
Lithuania’s state-owned rail freight operator, LTG Cargo, plans to buy electric locomotives for around EUR 100mn to transport cargo between Vilnius and the port of Klaipeda, Baltic News Network reports. The company has launched an international public procurement procedure for the purchase of the electric locomotives, technical maintenance, and supply of spare parts for at…
Accommodation establishments in Estonia received a total of 265,000 guests in May 2023, which was 7% more than in the same month of 2022, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. The number of foreign guests totalled 141,000, which was 21% more than a year earlier. The number of tourists from Finland amounted to…
Estonia’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by 9.2% on year in June 2023, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. The rise was mostly due to an increase in the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which accounted for almost 50% of the total increase of the CPI. The average price of goods was…
Latvia is likely to have a new three-party coalition government consisting of Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s New Unity and two current opposition parties, the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) and the Progressives, in August 2023, Ilona Berzina writes for Baltic News Network. Previously, Karins had assured that New Unity would not cooperate with ZZS…
The situation on Lithuania’s borders with Belarus and Russia is quite calm ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Rustamas Liubajevas, commander of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT), announced, The Baltic Times reports. He said that while there was no additional activity of Belarusian or Russian border guards at the moment, VSAT officers were…