Between desires and actuality – twenty years of Latvia’s membership of the EU – Cyber Tech

Safety and financial improvement have been two central themes for Latvia because it joined the European Union in 2004. Lelde Luika explains that whereas the EU nonetheless has a robust constructive picture in Latvia, the nation’s financial progress has stalled lately.

In 2003, simply earlier than Latvia’s EU membership referendum, the nation’s nationwide broadcaster ran a information report about attitudes in the direction of the EU in a small Latvian village named Zeltiņi. This 12 months, on the twentieth anniversary of Latvia’s EU accession, journalists returned to the village to be taught what has modified since then.

Regardless of fears about growing dwelling prices and strict European legal guidelines, most villagers in Zeltiņi voted to affix the EU within the 2003 referendum. In 2024, this preliminary scepticism had largely disappeared – individuals praised public infrastructure, such because the highway community that has been renovated with EU funding, and the chance to journey freely and really feel half of a bigger European group.

Vital issues remained, although. Many inhabitants had left for the capital, Riga, or elsewhere. The general public college and the close by household physician follow had additionally been closed. Apart from some refurbished public areas, there had been no different public improvement initiatives. Nevertheless, for villagers, this was seen because the fault of the nationwide authorities, not the EU.

True, as one interviewee famous, Europe appeared to ignore conventional household values. However in the end, as one villager defined again in 2003, it was higher to have Danish slightly than Russian entrepreneurs purchase the land – a sentiment that has solely develop into extra resonant at this time, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This information story, wittingly or not, encapsulated the central narratives and themes which have outlined Latvia’s European integration since 2004.

Safety and the economic system

Safety and financial improvement are the 2 key dimensions by which Latvia’s membership and progress within the EU have been outlined by politicians and residents alike. Safety, understood as Latvia’s deeper integration into western political buildings, has all the time been the foremost objective of Latvian political elites.

This included financial insurance policies, corresponding to adopting the euro within the speedy aftermath of Latvia’s harsh 2009 financial disaster. Latvia pursued painful reforms and austerity insurance policies throughout this era, which resulted in important inhabitants loss from emigration. One of many central motivations for following this course was the perceived want by native politicians to indicate that Latvia belongs to the core of Europe. Russia’s current actions have confirmed these safety considerations legitimate. The EU’s overseas coverage has subsequently moved nearer to the place of Latvia and the opposite Baltic states.

Financial progress has been much less simple. After experiencing speedy progress across the EU accession interval and throughout the restoration from the depths of the recession in 2009, the Latvian economic system has stagnated. Based on the OECD, the rise in dwelling requirements has been a lot slower in Latvia because the financial disaster than in neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania.

Within the view of each worldwide and native specialists, the important thing components behind this lag are low overseas and home funding ranges, a decrease share of producing in Latvia, and inadequate improvement of innovation and higher-value merchandise. Maybe probably the most worrying side is that the large emigration Latvia has skilled has considerably lowered the variety of younger and certified individuals within the workforce. The notion of working overseas has develop into a longtime a part of Latvian nationwide id.

On the identical time, specializing in GDP can overshadow low spending on social help, well being and schooling, in addition to the systemic points in these sectors. Latvia has deeply embraced the neoliberal mindset, even rejecting suggestions from the European Union to increase social safety. Although the current state of affairs appears alarming for a lot of, others take a long-term perspective, the place many tendencies, together with in migration and social coverage, present a constructive improvement, although slower than was anticipated at first of EU membership.

The Latvian paradox

Whatever the notion of the state’s improvement, Latvians are largely appreciative of the European Union, and, in distinction to most Central and Japanese Europeans, help for the EU has elevated over time. Even when the nation has conservative attitudes, corresponding to relating to LGBTQ+ rights and immigration, this doesn’t mirror on Europe as an imposing power on nationwide id. And whereas safety issues, most residents view financial positive aspects and free motion as the best advantages of being within the EU.

The paradox in Latvia is that regardless of being a devoted and dedicated get together to the EU imaginative and prescient of modernisation, the state of affairs within the nation has stagnated or develop into worse. It’s not possible to easily put the fault on the EU, given it has clearly performed a vital function in bettering many sectors of society. Nevertheless, ascribing full accountability to nationwide governments just isn’t useful both.

For Latvian residents and specialists, nationwide insurance policies are liable for the nation’s lack of progress. Regardless of this, the present ruling get together, New Unity, has managed to remain in energy since 2009, aside from a three-year interval between 2016 and 2019. Although the get together has shifted its kind through the years, its liberal, pro-modernisation and anti-corruption ethos has remained the identical. Latvian political elites, notably because the financial disaster, have earnestly embraced the “European manner”.

There has all the time been a shared objective within the political imaginary of Latvian society and politicians – to modernise, develop into wealthier, and develop into extra like western international locations. Nevertheless, discussions of what these imprecise formulation imply in follow have been largely absent within the political area, reflecting weak, nearly non-existent ties between voters and political representatives.

Removed from being passive, Latvian civil society mobilises round totally different points, nevertheless, it’s not often mediated by political establishments and actors. As a substitute, Latvian establishments embrace the EU steerage on most nationwide laws because it creates the framework of reference for his or her selections.

The affect that Latvia has sought on the European Union has very not often been expressed as advancing its personal nationwide pursuits. As a substitute, these pursuits, corresponding to better safety ensures within the neighbouring area, have been positioned as advancing EU targets. With the EU’s strategy to Russia altering within the final two years, Latvia has develop into extra assertive, corresponding to in calling for an EU-wide ban on agricultural imports from Russia. Whether or not this signifies a change to the beforehand largely asymmetrical mode of the connection stays to be seen.

In some ways, the neoliberal mandate has freed politics of its function as an area for expressing and formulating identities and opinions, to debate, demand and articulate selections. Political elites have understood and introduced the neoliberal transition in post-socialist contexts as a “no various” situation. However in Latvia – aided by the ethos of self-sufficiency and particular person success, extremely polarising ethnic division and cultural narratives that affiliate politics with venality, not public service – that area has been notably restricted.

The European Union, the distant and summary actor, symbolises the dream of financial and social modernisation, whereas nationwide leaders epitomise its failed actuality. To this point, the hole in-between stays empty and shapeless, though there are constructive indications, such because the slowly rising belief in nationwide establishments and the rise of the centre-left various in Latvian politics.

Usually, a disaster, corresponding to the present regional insecurity, may imply a possibility. The essential final result of the current disaster may very well be a better and extra significant relationship between residents and political representatives. Being a “mannequin pupil”, Latvia has not often pushed to make its voice heard within the wider EU politics.

As argued by the previous President of Latvia Egils Levits, “previous Europe continues to be affected by a scarcity of means to recognise the deserves of our place… which might partly be additionally blamed on our incapacity to interrupt out of this ‘asymmetrical infatuation’”. The problem for Latvian residents and politicians is to work collectively in articulating Latvia’s voice and the problem for its European companions is to take heed to various voices and co-create a extra balanced relationship.

This text is a part of a collection organised by Eli Gateva on Rethinking Europe’s East-West Divide – 20 Years because the Massive Bang Enlargement

Be aware: This text offers the views of the writer, not the place of EUROPP – European Politics and Coverage or the London Faculty of Economics. Featured picture credit score: AUTHOR / Shutterstock.com