Lithuania’s incoming centre-left government has revealed its draft programme for the next four years, LRT reports. The new coalition plans to focus on welfare, with more child benefits and better accessibility to health care and education. Also, the government may make changes to tax policy, moving towards progressive taxation. The new government plans to reverse…
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…
The Latvian government has approved new regulations under which transport and related infrastructure, signs, and information must be in Latvian and, if needed, in another official EU language, LSM reports. The new rules will thus preclude such signs in Russian. Justice Minister Inese Libina-Egnere said that the new rules would create a more attractive environment…
Estonia’s Defence Ministry sees no need to halt the development of wind farms off the Estonian coast, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur announced, ERR reports. He insisted that air and maritime surveillance issues related to offshore wind farm projects were manageable. Pevkur assured that concerns expressed by the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) over the negative impact…
The chairwoman of Estonia’s Political Party Funding Supervision Committee (ERJK), Liisa Oviir, has criticised the lack of progress on proposed amendments to the law on political parties, ERR reports. The amendments would expand the committee’s powers to supervise the financing of non-party organisations affiliated with political parties. Despite assurances from previous ministers of justice that…
Latvia approved 30 applications for investor visas and 53 dependent visas under its so-called golden visa programme in the first half of 2024, Investment Migration Insider reports. The biggest number of approved applications were submitted by Chinese (11) and Turkish (7) nationals. The EUR 50,000 business investment option accounted for 22 and real estate investments…
Trucks crossing Lithuania’s borders with Belarus and Russia will have to register in advance as of 1 December 2024, BNS reports. Drivers of heavy duty vehicles must now pre-register on the online booking system (EVIS) to cross the border through the remaining three checkpoints on the borders with Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region. The new…
A public petition in Latvia is collecting signatures to restrict or ban US entrepreneur Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (former Twitter), in Latvia, BNS reports. The author of the legislative initiative, Gvido Grava, notes that an increasing volume of disinformation is being spread on X. He points out that X fails to comply with…
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…