The four policy priorities of Latvia’s coalition government in 2025 are “security, support for families, economic growth, and reducing bureaucracy,” Prime Minister Evika Silina announced, LSM reports. She will begin individual meetings with ministers to discuss the priorities, according to LETA. Silina said that national security remained the government’s most pressing priority, highlighting the need…
Lithuania’s former president, Valdas Adamkus, has been hospitalised, his assistant, Bozena Bagonaitiene, confirmed, BNS reports. The former president, who is 98 years old, was admitted to Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos on 3 January 2024. The hospital said that Adamkus was hospitalised due to a worsening of his cardiac condition. Adamkus served two terms as…
Five schools in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, will take part in a pilot project to curb children’s use of smart devices, ERR reports. Ott Oja, head of Tallinn’s mental health action plan for children and youth, said that the city was developing the project in collaboration with researchers at Tallinn University’s Centre for Educational Psychology…
Annual alcohol consumption in Estonia amounted to 11.2 litres of pure alcohol per capita in 2022, which was down from 14.8 litres in 2007, according to a report from the National Institute for Health Development (TAI), ERR reports. The report noted that alcohol consumption declined over 2012-2018, but began rising again in 2019 after a…
The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has passed in final reading amendments to ban advertising of beer and wine on radio and TV, Baltic News Network reports. The ban will apply to advertisements that include information on prices and discounts. The restriction is aimed at reducing the total consumption and negative impact of alcohol on young…
The Estonian government has dropped plans to impose a tax on sugary beverages, Prime Minister Kristen Michal announced, ERR reports. Health Minister Riina Sikkut said that she proposed withdrawing the proposal, noting that the coalition agreement only allowed new taxes to finance defence and security needs. Michal expressed hope that opinions on the matter would…
A four-year-old boy in Latvia died of diphtheria at the Children’s Clinical University Hospital (BKUS) in Riga on 16 September 2024, LSM reports. The boy was unvaccinated for the preventable disease. Four children, including two of the dead boy’s sisters, were treated for diphtheria at the hospital. The parents, who took the sisters out of…
The Latvian government is unlikely to satisfy the Health Ministry’s request for EUR 153.3mn of additional funding for hospitals in the 2025 state budget, LSM reports. Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri said that the money was needed for human resources, medicines, infrastructure, emergency services, digitalisation, and data security. However, the government has listed external and…
Lithuania had the highest suicide rate in the Baltic States in 2021, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. Lithuania had 19.5 deaths by suicide per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021, which was the second-highest rate in the entire EU. The suicide rate stood at 14.01 in Estonia and 13.38 in Latvia. All three Baltic States thus…