EU – Baltic States, Labour Unions, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

During discussion B.Segol congratulated Prime Minister with successful work of Latvia: "I truly congratulate you with the successful progress of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Presidency provides both additional visibility to Latvia as well as addresses important topics that are essential to social partners". The parties discussed current issues of the Eurozone and the situation in Greece, the work on the EU-US Free Trade Agreement. Both sides stressed the Tripartite Social Summit, which recently took place in Brussels, where views were exchanged between the President of the European Council, the Vice-president of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis, EU Member States governments’ representatives, including the Prime Minister L.Straujuma, the European social and cooperation partners.

L.Straujuma informed B.Segol about the cooperation between Latvian government and the social and cooperation partners: “Cooperation is regular; the government involves trade unions and cooperation partners in the dialogue. It is not always possible to reach a common solution easy but we do it. I can also mention the Latvian example of implementing structural reforms and overcoming the crisis several years ago. It was a model of cooperation for a common goal – for the benefit of the state and the people."

B.Segol noted that the Latvian experience is valuable because not all EU Member States social partners are so actively involved in dialogue with the government.