Estonia needs more skilled foreign labour, Hando Sutter, CEO of the Estonian Employers’ Confederation (ETK), stated, ERR reports. Speaking on ETV, Sutter noted that Estonia’s employment rate was now one of the highest in history. At the same time, the number of births was likely to be the lowest in 100 years in 2025, he…
Several people were detained in Lithuania after smuggler balloons disrupted flights at Vilnius International Airport (VIA) overnight on 4 October 2025, LRT reports. Vilmantas Vitkauskas, director of the National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC), said that 10 of the 25 weather balloons carrying smuggled cigarettes had been found and several suspects who tried to retrieve the…
Latvia’s Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) has called on its coalition partner, New Unity, to support withdrawing from the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence, LETA reports. ZZS argued that a case of alleged inappropriate behaviour by a foreign worker towards a minor in Liepaja demonstrated that…
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna panned comments by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel who implied that the Baltic States and Poland bore indirect responsibility for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, ERR reported. Tsahkna said that the reason for Russia’s aggression lies in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “inability to come to terms with the collapse of the…
Industrial production in the Baltic States increased the most in Latvia in August 2025, compared to a year earlier. In Estonia, the total production of industrial enterprises increased by 1%, compared to August 2024, according to Statistics Estonia’s data, ERR reported. Output rose by 2.5% in manufacturing and 0.7% in mining but dropped by 20.7%…
Latvia’s ruling coalition has failed to secure a quorum in the parliament, the Saeima, for two weeks during votes on contested bills, LETA reports. On 2 October 2025, opposition parties again broke the quorum to preempt a final vote on transposing EU directives on emission trading systems into national law. Only 48 out of 100…
Employer and trade union groups in Estonia have begun talks on raising the minimum wage, ERR reports. Under an agreement signed in 2022, the minimum wage was to rise to 50% of the average wage by 2027. The monthly minimum wage would thus increase by about EUR 100 to just under EUR 1,000 in 2026….
Thousands of people in Lithuania protested on 5 October 2025 against the new government’s move to hand control of the Ministry of Culture to the far-right populist party, Dawn of Nemunas (PPNA), BNS reports. The protest manifesto urged citizens to defend culture, democracy, and freedom of expression. Cultural institutions across the country played Lithuanian composer…
The Norwegian-led Nordic-Baltic training camp for Ukrainian soldiers, Camp Jomsborg, was opened officially in southern Poland on 1 October 2025, ERR reports. The camp at the Polish Land Forces training ground in Nowa Deba will provide both basic training for soldiers and advanced courses for officers and specialists. The facility will be able to train…