Latvia’s accession to the European Union began with curiosity. A Latvian flag made in wrong proportions was raised in Brussels.
However, it did not spoil the celebration. This event embodied hopes for freedom and prosperity in a large part of Latvia. If they had not joined at that time in 2004, Latvia would be in a completely different situation today – said Vineta Kleinberga, a lecturer at the Faculty of European Studies of Riga Stradiņš University and a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Policy of Latvia.
“I think that the EU has given us both economic development and security. Imagining the situation (without joining) can be simple – we would be in a rather bad situation economically, and in terms of security we can also look at what is happening in the neighbors. We can only thank you for the fact that this time we are on the right side of history,” she said in a conversation with Latvian Television.
You can’t draw parallels with Ukraine, a candidate country for the European Union, because the starting points of the Baltics and Ukraine were different in the 90s, but in terms of security, we would definitely be more endangered – here the researcher also mentions NATO membership. Accession has also encouraged more ambitious reforms, for example in the economy and education.
The latest “Eurobarometer” data show that 54% of Latvia trust the institutions of the European Union, which is above the average EU level, while only 27% trust the national parliament.
“Eurobarometra” survey data on Latvian citizens’ trust in Latvian and EU institutions
Photo: LTV
Along with Latvia, 20 years ago nine other countries joined the bloc, including several post-Soviet countries. It was the biggest expansion the European Union has ever seen – many even called it the unification of Europe.
“The market expanded very significantly – both an outlet for goods and services and a space for people to move, work and learn. Of course, with the expansion came the many challenges of how to ensure decision-making in many countries so that things move forward and we would not stagnate how to balance this development between the relatively more developed Western countries at the time and Europe, which was economically much less developed,” said Kleinberg.
Free movement was one of the main factors influencing emigration, which many cite as the biggest loss. However, if you look at the data, after 2004 emigration even slightly decreased. The economic crisis had the greatest impact on emigration, but since 2010 the situation has improved.
“We see that development has taken place in 20 years. We ourselves will no longer be considered a less developed EU country economically – we will soon be in the group of transition countries whose GDP per person is above 75% of the EU average,” said researcher.
“That means we are have driven and we are approaching the EU average standard of living,” she added.
The bloc is looking to expand further – at the end of the year, Brussels decided to start accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, and a month ago also with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This process usually takes years, especially in the case of Ukraine, the entry is not expected sooner than the end of the war, but the researcher noted that any country that is ready to respect the bloc’s principles regarding democracy, rule of law, and fighting corruption has the right to be in the family of these countries.
