Ministry stung by EU wording

RIGA -- Latvia's Foreign Ministry has taken the unusual step of issuing a press release that strongly criticises a key European institution.

On 19 November, in Strasbourg, the Bureau of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe made a decision to send a mission to familiarise itself with the situation in Latvia.

But the wording of the announcement has clearly riled the Foreign Ministry. "In the press release by the Congress Bureau, it is mentioned that it made its decision on the need to visit to Latvia on the grounds of an allegedly existing EU report, in which an attempt is made to claim that Latvia has the worst integration policy among the member states of the union," the Ministry statement reads.

"Latvia, as other EU member states, is a democratic and open state with high standards in the protection of universal human rights. The Foreign Ministry is not aware of any facts which could serve as grounds for such claims that the integration policy implemented in Latvia would be unacceptable. On the contrary - it is our contention that the integration policy presently in force in Latvia is one of the most successful in the EU, and for this very reason Latvia has managed to avoid numerous problems, related to social integration and immigration, that are visible in other European states.

"The Foreign Ministry deems it important that the representatives of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe should finally come to Latvia and acquaint themselves with the real situation. The EU report mentioned in the press release by the Congress Bureau is in fact a study by a group of independent experts. During their visit, the representatives of the Congress will have the opportunity to verify that many of the claims presented in the report are at quite a considerable distance from the reality in present-day Latvia."

The Council of Europe seems to possess an unusual talent for provoking anger in the Baltic states. A recent visit to Estonia by the organization's president, Rene Van der Linden, caused a storm of protest and sharp words between Van der Linden and various Estonian politicians.