The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has taken up a case of suspected corruption at Latvian capital Riga’s municipal public transport company, Rigas Satiksme, LETA reports. EPPO conducted three searches as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into possible secret collaboration between Rigas Satiksme and private companies aimed at artificially inflating prices for goods and…
The total area of forest destroyed by fire in Latvia in the first half of 2023 was more than in the past full three years, according to the State Forest Service (VMD), LETA reports. Altogether 508 forest fires were registered and 607 hectares of forest was destroyed in six months. By comparison, the total area…
Accommodation establishments in Estonia received a total of 265,000 guests in May 2023, which was 7% more than in the same month of 2022, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. The number of foreign guests totalled 141,000, which was 21% more than a year earlier. The number of tourists from Finland amounted to…
Latvia is likely to have a new three-party coalition government consisting of Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s New Unity and two current opposition parties, the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) and the Progressives, in August 2023, Ilona Berzina writes for Baltic News Network. Previously, Karins had assured that New Unity would not cooperate with ZZS…
The situation on Lithuania’s borders with Belarus and Russia is quite calm ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Rustamas Liubajevas, commander of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT), announced, The Baltic Times reports. He said that while there was no additional activity of Belarusian or Russian border guards at the moment, VSAT officers were…
Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity) plans to clarify the future of the current ruling coalition by the middle of August 2023, before the start of next year’s budget talks, LSM reports. Karins said that summer was a “time of silence,” and that he would use the time to ascertain whether the coalition government…
Baltic and Polish culture ministers will sign a joint declaration of support for the restoration of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, Baltic News Network reports. The ministers will sign the declaration on the final day of the Latvian Song and Dance Festival at the Latvian Museum of Architecture (LAM) in Riga on 9 July 2023. The joint…
Latvia’s New Unity and the combined faction of Movement For and Progressives (PP) will continue talks on possible future cooperation in the Riga City Council on 11 July 2023, Baltic News Network reports. A spokesman for the PP faction said that the group was not interested in snap elections, but in “returning to good management…
Lithuania has reintroduced border control measures, which will remain in place until the end of the NATO summit in Vilnius, BNS reports. Border checks will be carried out from 8am on 7 July 2023 until 8am on 13 July 2023. Travellers crossing internal EU borders will have to present a valid travel document and third-country…