Lithuania should spend at least 3.5% of its GDP on defence each year, President Gitanas Nauseda stated, BNS reports. He said that military spending should be increased “year after year” to implement plans to modernise the Lithuanian Armed Forces (LGP) and host a full German brigade in the country. Meanwhile, Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, speaker of the Lithuanian…
The Latvian government should seek to reduce the costs of the Rail Baltica railway project, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis stated, LETA reports. Speaking in an interview with Latvijas Radio, Dombrovskis pointed out that not everything could be financed with EU funds. He said that part of the project should be financed from…
The Estonian government plans to cut public funding for political parties by 10% in the 2025 state budget, Prime Minister Kristen Michal announced, ERR reports. Both Michal and Regional Affairs Minister Piret Hartman expect that the reduction will have an impact on party activities. Michal said that right-wing parties, which usually receive more support from…
Latvian hospitals ran a budget deficit of EUR 20mn in the first half of 2024, according to the Latvian Hospital Association (LSB), LSM reports. Emergency services alone cost EUR 8mn more than planned. Several regional hospitals reported that they had already used a large part of the state-funded annual quota for medical services in the…
Lithuania’s Economy Minister, Ausrine Armonaite, rejected the idea of introducing new taxes to fund increased defence spending, BNS reports. Speaking in an interview with Ziniu Radijas, Armonaite insisted that additional money for defence should come from borrowed funds or through economic growth instead. Also, the government should use unused funds of state institutions, she said….
Lithuania plans to allocate more than 3% of its GDP to defence, President Gitanas Nauseda announced, BNS reports. Speaking during a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Nauseda said that Lithuania would follow Poland’s example of raising defence spending. Also, he said that the two countries would soon begin training Ukrainian…
Raising Estonia’s defence spending to 5% of GDP would be unfeasible, Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi stated, ERR reports. Earlier, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur suggested that NATO’s new defence plans meant that Estonia would have to raise its defence budget from the current 3% of GDP to somewhere less than 5% over a period of 20…
The Latvian government may impose a new surplus profit tax on individual banks as of 2025, Economy Minister Viktors Valainis has announced, LSM reports. The tax could be levied for two years. Valainis argued that the tax would incentivise banks to increase their lending significantly. Banks that increased their volume of lending could then be…
The National Audit Office of Estonia (Riigikontroll) found significant errors in the 2023 state budget act despite the overall accuracy of the state’s financial accounts, ERR reports. Key issues included incorrect recording of transactions in the budgets of the ministries of economy, regional affairs, and agriculture, leading to a discrepancy of EUR 122mn. Additionally, the…