The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has passed in final reading amendments freezing state funding for political parties for one year, LETA reports. Altogether 88 MPs voted in favour of the amendments. State support for political parties in 2025 will be calculated based on the minimum monthly wage in 2024. Altogether 13 parties received a total…
Sweden-based Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will end its cooperation with Estonia’s state-owned Nordic Aviation Group (Nordica), ERR reports. SAS has informed Nordica’s subsidiary, Regional Jet (Xfly), that it will terminate its wet lease agreement on flights between Tallinn and Stockholm. SAS may cut the number of flights on the route from six to two per day. SAS…
Latvia’s national air carrier, airBaltic, plans to expand its operations at Lithuania’s Vilnius International Airport (VIA), CEO Martin Gauss announced, LETA reports. He said that the company would more than double its fleet in Vilnius and increase the number of destinations offered from the airport. Currently, airBaltic has two aircraft stationed at VIA. Gauss said…
Latvia’s state-owned passenger train operator, Pasazieru Vilciens (Vivi), has now received all 32 new electric trains from the Czech manufacturer, Skoda Vagonka, LETA reports. Initially, all trains were due to be delivered by the end of 2023. Raitis Nespors, acting board chairman of Vivi, conceded that the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine contributed…
Estonian officials have again refuted suggestions that the rupture of the Balticconnector gas pipeline and two data cables in the Baltic Sea by the Chinese cargo ship, NewNew Polar Bear, in October 2023 was an accident, ERR reports. “You would need to find a very stupid captain” for the incident to have been an accident,…
The Lithuanian government has launched a pilot scheme to combat the use of narcotics and smoking in schools, LRT reports. Seven schools in Vilnius, Klaipeda, and Alytus will take part in the pilot programme, placing students under closer surveillance. The aim is to develop a joint response plan to prevent drug use and smoking. The…
A notorious leader of organised crime in Latvia has been arrested in an international operation, LSM reports. Latvia’s State Police, in cooperation with Europol and the Spanish National Police, detained 16 people, including 10 in Latvia and 6 in Spain. The group is suspected of selling narcotics and of large-scale money laundering. Police confiscated marijuana,…
Estonia and the US have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in countering information manipulation, ERR reports. The memorandum stresses the importance of media freedom in protecting the information space. Estonian state secretary Taimar Peterkop said that Estonia could share with allies its experience in dealing with Russian information attacks. The US has signed…
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has expressed scepticism about an idea to establish a state-run second-pillar pension fund, Baltic News Network reports. She noted that there was plenty of competition in the pension fund market, and that the activities of pension funds were well regulated. The problem was that there was not much choice on…