Lithuania’s conservative opposition Homeland Union has submitted to parliament a draft national agreement on demographics for 2026-2040, ELTA reports. The proposal would expand state support for first-time homebuyers, strengthen family policy and access to services, improve work-life balance, and encourage the return of Lithuanian emigrants. Earlier, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius proposed a cross-party agreement on…
Latvia’s United List continues to oppose the ratification of the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on violence against women, but is not committed to withdrawing from the treaty immediately, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs stated, LETA reports. He said that the question should not be made into a top political priority, given that the treaty had…
Estonia’s population totalled 1,360,745 people in the beginning of 2026, according to Statistics Estonia, ERR reported. The number of ethnic Estonians amounted to 932,603 people (68.5%) and Russians to 276,125 people (20.2%) of the total population. People of other ethnic nationalities numbered 146,619 (10.8%), including 75,250 (5.5%) Ukrainians, 11,477 Belarusians, 8,059 Finns, and 4,272 Latvians….
Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius urged the Catholic Church to cooperate in an investigation into child sexual abuse by two local priests, BNS reported. He called for answers on whether the Church had taken sufficient measures to detect, prevent, and report such abuse. “Moral authority mandates the highest standards of responsibility,” he stated. In the…
Latvia has failed to reach targets set in the country’s addiction prevention plan for 2023-2025, the Ministry of Health announced, LETA reported. The ministry’s evaluation report attributed the incomplete implementation of the plan to the lack of government budget funding. The plan included 35 measures to reduce alcohol and drug use, of which 19 were…
Latvia’s National Alliance party, which is part of the current coalition government, has been embroiled in controversy due to accusations of racist messaging, LSM reports. First, a woman claimed that she was sexually assaulted by people of Indian or Pakistani origin, after which National Alliance representatives, including Interior Minister Janis Dombrava and Riga deputy mayor…
The number of children aged 0-17 years in Latvia totalled 334,233 in the beginning of 2026, which was down 2.7% from 343,555 a year earlier, according to the Central Statistical Bureau’s (CSP) data, LSM reported. Children accounted for 18.1% (18.5%) of Latvia’s population. The number of boys amounted to 171,836 (176,322) and girls to 162,486…
Altogether 257,373 Latvian nationals lived abroad at the end of the first half of 2026, which was up 1.5% from 253,572 in the beginning of 2026, according to data from the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP), LETA reports. The number of Latvians in the UK totalled 102,086 (up by 950), followed by Germany…
Lithuania is making progress towards normalising relations with communist China, Juozas Olekas, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, said, BNS reports. Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that Lithuania’s position on China remained unchanged, stressing the need for a unified European approach as part of the EU’s common foreign and security policy. He warned that…
