Latvia: Supporting the Right Cause and Deepening the Economic and Monetary Union
Latvia’s benefits to the EU have been clear. It has boosted the modernisation of the country and its infrastructures via the Cohesion Funds. It has helped reconnect the country with the West. And it has served to provide security to Latvia, especially vis-à-vis Russia.
Criticism regarding the EU has risen. The reasons are threefold. For some, lack of clarity of the EU project has generated unrealistic expectations of the gains that the EU membership would bring to the economy. By others, the EU’s handling of current crises is perceived as ineffective. But generally, the original accession idealism has given way to more pragmatic views on the EU.
Latvia feels that integration within the Eurozone has intensified for good reasons – and the country remains supportive of being part of the core. Yet, the EU should now improve its capacity to face threats, such as cross-border crime and terrorism, and exceptional situations, such as the refugee crisis.
This publication is part of the "Building Bridges Paper Series". For more information about this project, click here.
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Latvia: Supporting the Right Cause and Deepening the Economic and Monetary Union
Center for Asian Studies
Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.
The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands.
The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.
The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The work of Center’s researchers, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.
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