Latvija in brief - 2011-04-14

A 58-year-old Latvian woman, who set herself on fire in front of the German parliament building (Reichstag) on April 10, remains in stable condition, and the Latvian Embassy maintains close contact with the hospital, said Foreign Ministry press secretary Janis Silis, reports LETA. Silis pointed out that the embassy will provide any necessary assistance to the Latvian woman. A security guard saw the woman set herself on fire, then managed to intervene and start to provide the necessary first-aid medical treatment. The woman was taken to the hospital with second-degree burns on her legs. The German media report that the woman held a placard protesting against Latvian-German relations and the attitude of Latvian authorities towards her mother in Latvia.

Phone tapping is only one of the 70 complaints against the conduct of Corruption Prevention Bureau (CPB) Chief Normunds Vilnitis, and obviously the Prosecutor’s Office has not been able to gather enough evidence on this specific violation, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) said in regard to April 8 comments by Prosecutor General Eriks Kalnmeiers, reports LETA. Dombrovskis says that the Prosecutor’s Office has admitted that there is enough reason to form a commission to investigate Vilnitis’ suitability for office.

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers urges Latvia, in compliance with the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, to allow use of “topographical indications” in minority languages, reports LETA. The Committee of Ministers has concluded that, due to specific exceptions under the Latvian law, national minorities do not benefit from the protection of a number of provisions of the Framework Convention, in particular those relating to effective participation in public life. Therefore, Latvian authorities are encouraged to interpret and apply the relevant national legislation so that minorities would be able to use their languages in dealings with the administrative authorities and in local topographical indications. The European officials point out that, while protecting and strengthening Latvian as the state language is a legitimate aim, all due attention should be paid to the effective enjoyment of the right of persons belonging to national minorities to use freely their minority languages.

At the beginning of April, the registered unemployment level was 14.3 percent, which was 0.1 percent less when compared to the previous month, according to the State Employment Agency (SEA), reports LETA. SEA Director Baiba Pasevica said that 162,004 persons are currently registered as out of work in Latvia. There are currently 2,786 available jobs in the SEA’s database, meaning that there are 58 registered unemployed to each vacancy. The highest unemployment rate is in Latgale Province, at 22.9 percent, while the lowest is in the Riga region, at 10.8 percent. The lowest unemployment rate among Latvia’s largest cities was recorded in Riga - 9.9 percent, and Jelgava (central Latvia) - 11.3 percent, while the highest is in Rezekne (eastern Latvia), at 20.8 percent. The registered unemployment level in Latvia at the end of March was 14.4 percent, which was 0.1 percent less when compared to February.