Lithuania has asked the European Commission (EC) to disburse EUR 463mn from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), BNS reports. This is Lithuania’s third payment request under the facility. Lithuania asked for EUR 174.7mn in grants and EUR 288.3mn in loans. The EC will now assess the request and assess Lithuania’s achievement of the…
More than 60 Latvian companies are taking part in a large trade mission to the US led by President Edgars Rinkevics, Labs of Latvia reports. Around 80% of the companies represent the service sector. The delegation will visit three cities — Houston, San Francisco, and Denver — over 16-24 September 2024. Economy Minister Viktors Valainis…
The Estonian government expects to raise around EUR 2.47bn of new tax revenue to finance increased defence spending by the end of 2028, the Ministry of Finance estimated, ERR reports. The new so-called broad security tax will consist of three components: increased VAT rate, rise in personal income tax, and a corporate profit tax. The…
The president of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, has presented her list of candidates for EU commissioners, ERR reports. Estonia’s former prime minister, Kaja Kallas, was named as candidate for EU’s foreign policy chief earlier. If confirmed by the European Parliament, she will be one of six EC vice-presidents. Meanwhile, von der…
Lithuania’s central bank, the Bank of Lithuania, has raised its GDP growth forecast for 2024, BNS reports. The central bank now expects the GDP to grow by 2.2% in 2024, up from its previous forecast of 1.9% in June 2024. The central bank projects that the GDP will rise by 3.1% in 2025 and 3.3%…
Estonia’s three-party coalition government has reached agreement on tax changes, Prime Minister Kristen Michal announced, ERR reports. He said that the government would raise the corporate profit tax, personal income tax, and VAT to finance increased spending on defence. The government will raise the VAT rate by 2 percentage points as of 1 July 2025…
The Baltic and Polish parliamentary committees of European affairs held a joint meeting in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on 15-16 September 2024, BNS reported. The committees urged the EU to strengthen the protection of Poland’s border amid a new surge in migrant flows. Zygimantas Pavilionis, chairman of the European affairs committee of the Lithuanian parliament,…
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has submitted to the country’s parliament, the Saeima, amendments that would freeze the wages of top management in state-owned enterprises (SOE), LETA reports. Under the proposal, the wages of top executives at state and municipal companies would be frozen until the end of 2026. Rinkevics stressed that the remuneration of top…
Latvia’s banking association, Finance Latvia Association (FNA), opposes a proposed windfall tax on local banks, LETA reports. The association argued that the tax was “disproportionate, short-sighted, and nontransparent.” FNA warned that the tax would have negative long-term consequences, hampering Latvia’s growth, competitiveness, and attractiveness for private investment. The tax would oblige the financial sector to…