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LATVIA HAS BEEN given the green light to join the euro from next January.
The European Commission has today said Latvia has met all of the necessary criteria to be considered for entry into the EU’s single currency.
In an analysis published this lunchtime, the Commission said the country’s general budget deficit, debt levels, and inflation and interest rates were all in keeping with the broad goals of the eurozone as a whole.
A final decision on Latvian membership of the single currency will fall to the individual EU member states, who are unlikely to oppose it.
Latvia will become the second Baltic nation, after Estonia, and the sixth of the 12 newer EU members to adopt the currency.
The decision comes as the EU’s statistics body, Eurostat, issues new estimates confirming that the eurozone’s economy shrank in the first quarter of 2013.
GDP in the eurozone is thought to have fallen by 0.2 per cent, while the EU as a whole saw its economy contract by 0.1 per cent.
Latvia’s economy is estimated to have grown by 1.2 per cent in that period, second only to its neighbour Lithuania, which recorded growth of 1.3 per cent.
A formal estimate of Ireland’s economic growth is due in early July.
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Welcome, Latvians.
Can you lend us a few Euros??
Th economic powerhouse of Latvia has 20% of its people living on around 215 euro’s a month.
A Baltic Bangladesh, it was not always so. After their bust the choice was to either devalue and get back on track economically but doing that would have meant forgetting about the Euro for a generation.
So in turn Lativa lost 20% of its population, most of its young, and now enjoys wages of 2 euro an hour in many jobs.
It was a developed economy now it is a 3rd world one and with the overvalued Euro it will only stay that way.
Are they nuts ???!!
As lovely as the photo of lots of Latvian people with flags looking patriotic is, it was taken on Latvian Legion Day, which is essentially a commemorative march for fallen Latvian members of the SS.
So they’re not all out flag-waving for the Euro, just to clarify.
“The Baltic Waffen SS Units (Baltic Legions) are to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities, and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission holds them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United States.”
About 1000 Baltic Waffen SS guarded Nazis during the Nuremberg trials.
Err I think there is something seriously historically wrong with the last point of your statement???
It`s a fact, Simon.
“Latvian soldiers from the Latvian Legion, along with Estonians, Lithuanians and men of other nationalities, served as guards, under American leadership, of the Nazi war crimes trials that have become known as the Nuremberg Trials.”
taken from: http://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/policy/history/legion/
Do they not read the newspapers in Latvia?
Smaller EU countries are routinely trampled by the EU/ECB/IMF.
Ireland was treated very harshly after the 2008 crash and we are paying the price in brutal austerity for an elitist banking crisis that was not of our own making.
I can think of another country that was treated more harshly than Ireland – Cyprus.
Why? Because Cyprus is tiny.
Latvia should be very wary.
Don’t do it.
Are they mad
Guess they miss living under an autocratic dictatorship!!
Can’t we get on top of or existing problems before taking on new projects.
6 months ago world was talking about end of euro, Poland and many other EU members were openly saying joining euro may be bad idea for them.
Latvia have decent economy but if you’re houses foundations need repay you need to do that before taking on a conservatory
Need repair
The Euro was never about economic reality but political ambition, the vision of a select few.
Economist after economist predicted that this crisis would happen and why it would happen. They were ignored. An empire had to be built.
Unfortunately for the Poles and the other states that joined since the euro was launched they have an obligation to join the euro written in their accession treaties. The only way they can avoid it is by keeping just outside the economic criteria, but not far enough outside to get a penalty. It’s working for them so far but one government that hits the targets will trigger euro membership.
The Euro was a natural extension of the EEC, this was created to bring more unity to Europe so we would not have another world war.
Did you not learn anything in history class ?
Yeah that most of the EU plans are based on what the economic policies were for occupied Europa by the Nazis.Their financial genius pretty much drew up the idea of the Euro and how to run the ecnomies of occupied countries to supply the Reich with finance and material.
Adolf must be very happy nowadays
Those growth figures aren’t difficult to achieve once you cut the economy down to the bone, as Latvia did post-2008. A couple of percentage points of growth doesn’t mean much considering what the starting point was. Latvia still has high unemployment and high emigration. There are many Latvian women who’ve handed their children over to their grandparents so that they can move to the UK or Ireland to make a living. Not exactly an economic miracle.
Also, over 30% of Latvia’s residents, mostly ethnic Russians and many of whom were born there, are not citizens, the government of the newly independent republic having decided after the collapse of the USSR that only those residents who had lived there before 1940, and their descendants, could become citizens automatically. But the EU has turned a blind eye to this problem.
Bring on the euro. I’m sure nothing could possibly go wrong with that idea…
Latvia instead of devaluing its currency, the long accepted way to growth and rebalncing its economy went for mass austerity so as to keep the Euro ambition of its political class alive.
20% of the population now live abroad. Latvia is a land without people between 20-40. Village after village of grandparents looking after kids.
Latvia is now growing but it drove its economy back 27% to maintain the Euro ambition. It will take decades to return to where it was.
20% of its population try to survive on 215 euro’s a month. Pay in factories can often be 2 euro an hour.
If anything symbolizes the toxic mindset at the heart of Europe’s one state, one nation dream over the needs or desires of the people it is latvia.
Bangladesh, that country enjoying strong growth should be eligible for Euro membership at this rate.
Well said.
Very bad news.
The political class and a few large businesses though will get rewarded with jobs in Europe.
The latvian people can look forward to maintaining their 2 euro an hour wages as they also pretend that they have the same economic and requirements as Germany, Finland and the Netherlands.
Massive cringe moment when you agree to join the euro in 2013.
Can we sell them our membership ?
It seems the Latvians are Galway fans
Ham sandwich, banana, yogurt, vitamin D pills in your lunch box….yes Latvia you meet the criteria for joining the euro…..so bucking sad….
Hide your potatoes !
Croatia joins in July , any I spoke to last year said they will be on the first plane out of Croatia to work elsewhere .
Just makes no sense
I heard Somalia have also applied, and their chances of acceptance are good.
On a serious note though the Latvians would be crazy to join at the moment..
Its more a case of ,as Wallis_Eaves points out above : The political class and a few large businesses though will get rewarded with jobs in Europe
They should at the moment follow the example of Iceland, and be very much aware of what happened in Cyprus.
Cead mille failte to more skanks
Fools!
E.U. ?
NEXT YEAR?
Ah here lads. Someone needs to tell them.
have your say