Latvian President to MEPs: Europe must be on the right side of history

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Tuesday, Latvian President Egils Levits called on Europe to find the political will to try Russia for its crimes and give Ukraine a future in Europe. In a formal address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Levits echoed Parliament’s demand to establish […]

Reforms in Latvia must result in stronger enforcement to tackle foreign bribery and subsequent money laundering risks

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Latvia has continued to improve its framework against bribery of foreign public officials and subsequent money laundering but the reforms need to translate into further effective enforcement, according to a new report by the OECD Working Group on Bribery. According to the Working Group, […]

Latvian economy is thriving, but boosting productivity, improving social protection and transitioning to a low-carbon productive model are vital for sustainable and inclusive growth

This article is brought to you in association with OECD. The Latvian economy is thriving, with strong job growth driving convergence with more advanced economies. Efforts should now focus on reducing inequality, responding to the challenges posed by population ageing and making growth stronger, inclusive and greener, according to two new OECD reports. The latest OECD Economic […]

ECB: Monetary policy decisions

ECB Governing Council and Press Conference in Riga, Latvia. ECB photo, some rights reserved. This article is brought to you from ECB’s Media Services On 14 June 2018 meeting, which was held in Riga, the Governing Council of the ECB undertook a careful review of the progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of […]

Draghi to hold on zero interest rates until he leaves ECB

The announcement of the end of the monthly money injections into Eurozone by Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank was not received in the capital markets as a hawkish toughening of monetary policy, as it theoretically should have been. The reasons are many. On the contrary, the euro lost more ground with […]

Minority governments ‘à la mode’ in Europe but can they last long?

With the Italian elections set for 4 March and anticipated to produce a hang parliament, four out of the five bigger European countries will be in political limbo for a good part, if not for the entire new year 2018. France is the only exception in this Euro-plague of political uncertainty. In some cases the […]

Fighting for minds of youth in Latvia

This article was written by one of our passionate readers, Mr Adomas Abromaitis. The opinions expressed within reflect only the write’s views and not The European Sting’s position on the issue. The most disappointing consequence of Brexit for foreigners living in the UK has become the unexpected rise of xenophobia. According to the behavior of locals, the […]

What changes in the EU as from today

As from today, first working day of the New Year 2014 in the European Union, the Latvians start using the euro in their daily transactions, the Romanians and the Bulgarians can reside and work in every other EU member state without a special permit and the Greeks assume the Presidency of the EU, representing all […]

Eurozone needs more than some decimals of growth

Despite the ambivalent mood within and without Europe for the euro area’s economic prospects, some factual developments do not seem to be discouraging. For one thing the Commission gave yesterday the green light for Latvia to adopt the euro and join the Eurozone as from 1 January 2014. The solid decisiveness of this country during […]

Eurozone examines the prospect of issuing debt paper jointly

Yesterday, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, confirmed with its usual second estimate that Eurozone’s economy contracted by 0.6% during the last quarter of 2012. This is not at all a small figure. Given that the Gross Domestic Product in the 17 euro area of 17 countries is close to €10 trillion annually, a 0.6% loss […]