You're reading: Latvian prime minister tells Ukrainians to believe in their ability to change

RIGA, LATVIA - Latvia represents one of the few ex-Soviet states that successfully joined the European Union and had sought NATO membership. Now, as a member of the EU, it can teach a lot to its neighbors about how to deal with economic and political problems, Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma believes.

Latvia, with a population of only two million people, takes a central role this year by holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Latvian presidency also is a platform in preparing the debate over whether to extend sanctions imposed on Russia that will be discussed in Brussels in late June.

During the May 21-22 Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, Straujuma explained in an interview why Latvia takes a hard line against Moscow despite economic hardships.

“For Latvia, it’s important to have links with Russia,” Straujuma said in an interview with the Kyiv Post in Riga on May 21. The same is true for Ukraine. “But the situation in the east of Ukraine (and Crimea) is something we can’t accept here,” she said.

The prime minister said Latvia’s milk sector has been one of the hardest hit by the Russian import ban as well as the food processing industry. Latvia’s losses are estimated by Straujuma, however, at less than 1 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

“We gave additional 13 million euros for milk sector to overcome these sanctions,” the prime minister explained. “And now the milk sector is looking for other markets – such as China, Belarus and other countries, including Ukraine.”

Ten of Latvia’s leading dairy sector companies have already received the necessary certification from Chinese agricultural authorities to begin exporting their products. “We also improved regulations and decreased administration restrictions for transport industry and other sectors. We did everything what we could,” Straujuma said.

Speaking of Latvia’s success in joining the EU and Ukraine’s chances, Staujuma said there are no easy solutions. It’s a “tough and painful” process, she said. Latvia needed nine years for reforms that started in 1995 before the country joined the EU in 2004.

“I remember how difficult it was to prepare our legislation for joining the EU. European countries and Latvia can help you with it, but Ukraine won’t have this much time,” Straujuma said

Now Latvia is focused on education, justice and health care.

“Ukraine needs to deal with corruption, make judicial and municipal reform, improve regional development and push it even though it would be difficult, because certain groups can lose something, so you need a strong will,” Straujuma said.

“When we decided we wanted to be members, we had a plan, the road map on how to do this,” the prime minister recalled. ”The first thing to keep in mind is ownership of reforms – nobody from outside will tell you how to do better.”

Russia’s war against Ukraine in Donbas, which has already claimed nearly 7,000 lives and left more than a million people without homes, forced EU leaders to focus on the countries of eastern bloc and to improve their security programs.

“For example, in Latvia, defense wasn’t a priority even three years ago in terms of budget spending,” Straujuma expains. “Since 2014 and now the priority is defense and security and we will have 2 percent of our GDP allocated to defense sector by 2018.”

“It’s difficult to imagine what Russia wants (in Ukraine), but we have Minsk agreement and this agreement has to be fulfilled by all the parts. But we need to think what will be after – how to rebuild (Donbas), because people want to see a future for their children there and have jobs.”

Straujuma also believes that the European Commission would deliver a positive assessment by the end of the year and then decide on a visa-free travel for Ukraine and Georgia.

During the second day of the Riga summit, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko expressed hope that Ukraine will receive a positive report from the European Commission on implementation of the visa liberalization plan by Dec. 15.

“If we won’t complete the requirements, it will cost us visa-free travel,” Poroshenko said. Poroshenko explained that the country will focus on establishing a safe procedure of issuing documents and launching a digital map, integrated with Interpol databases, that will help border surveillance.

“We’ll also work on human trafficking legislation and asylum policy, and after the assessment mission which would evaluate the country’s progress by the end of 2015, it will open a door for visa-free Europe,” Poroshenko said on May 22.

Straujuma believes it’s an assignment Ukraine can complete.

“I usually tell Latvian people – you need to have trust in yourself and trust your country that it can actually achieve a better life. Ukraine can do it too.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].