The Lithuanian wood processing group, VMG Group, has suspended its plan to build a particleboard factory in neighbouring Latvia for an indefinite period, Baltic News Network reports, citing business news portal Verslo Zinios. Rimas Varanauskas, shareholder of the project’s partners, Lithuanian furniture manufacturers Freda and Freda II, said that the project was put on hold…
The presidents of Lithuania and Poland, Gitanas Nauseda and Andrzej Duda, have signed a declaration on deepening bilateral defence and security ties, Baltic News Network reports. The presidents made the declaration during Nauseda’s official visit to Poland. At the same time, Lithuanian and Polish officials signed cooperation agreements on cyber security and defence industry, TVP…
The Latvian government will freeze public funding for political parties in 2025, Prime Minister Evika Silina announced, LSM reports. She said that coalition parties had approved the proposal to halt the indexation of state support for parties. The government’s austerity measures have required ministries to cut spending in the public sector. Altogether 12 political parties…
The average monthly wage in the Baltic States rose the fastest in Lithuania in 2023, according to research agency Figure Baltic Advisory’s study, LETA reports. The average wage rose by 8.8% in Lithuania, 8.2% in Latvia, and 7.3% in Estonia over a year. The agency projects that the monthly basic salary will rise by 6.3%…
UAE-based messaging platform Telegram has deleted several channels and groups, including ones containing child pornography, following requests from Latvian State Police, LETA reports. However, Telegram has failed to provide information about the creators of the channels. The State Police noted that criminals in Latvia often use Telegram for planning and to sell illegal substances and…
Schools in Latvia received bomb threats in Russian at the start of the new school year on 2 September 2024, LETA reports, citing TV3. Armands Ruks, chief of the State Police of Latvia, said that more than 200 emails with bomb threats were sent. He said that schools in all counties received such messages. While…
Altogether 224,322 pupils in Latvia, including 20,657 first-graders, started their new school year on 2 September 2024, LETA reported. Latvia has 481 municipal and 75 private schools, including 224 primary schools and 197 secondary schools. The number of school teachers totals 25,879.
Latvian MEP Roberts Zile has been reelected one of the 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament, LSM reports. He is the only Baltic MEP elected to the post so far. Zile is a member of the opposition National Alliance, which is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. He has served as MEP…
Latvia’s Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of the transition to school education in Latvian only, LETA reports. The transition follows legislative amendments passed in October 2022. The court found that weekly tuition in minority languages and cultural history sufficiently supports the preservation of minority identities. Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights supported the…