Education and Science, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

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The head of the mission praised Latvia's progress but also pointed to several recommendations that Latvia should heed, Straujuma told reporters.

"The recommendations concern higher education and healthcare reforms, as well as management of state-owned companies where we have already taken the necessary measures. They also noted state procurement tenders in the construction sector, and work on the energy industry," Straujuma said adding that, "these problems do not hamper the country's development very much, but we have to deal with them, and we know that."

Commenting on energy sector, Straujuma said that mission representatives spoke about liberalization of the energy market.

"This is to start on January 1. Laws have been passed to ensure compensation for low-income earners and the needy. We also discussed liberalization of the gas market, which will begin on April 1, 2017, as well as renewable energy. Concerns were expressed that we could fail to attain our goals set for 2020," said the premier.

"I, personally, have no such concerns," added Straujuma.

The Commission, on the other hand, said in a statement that it had an overall positive opinion of the post-program process since the start of 2012, however, the developments in Ukraine and Russia posed a risk to the economic growth of Latvia.

Latvia has adopted the euro and the nominal budget deficit in 2014-2015 is expected to remain at about 1 percent of gross domestic product, which attests to cautious fiscal policy. Furthermore, the financial sector has been further consolidated, including supervision of non-resident deposits. Measures are also being taken to improve courts' performance and the insolvency administration process, as well as to curb tax evasion, notes the Commission.

The Commission also states that funding for science will be allocated based on independent experts' conclusions, and that the electricity market in Latvia will be fully liberalized in January 2015.

Many promising legislative initiatives have been approved regarding the construction sector, public procurement, management of government-run companies, and others, however, these initiatives require proper supervision to be successful, and a number of secondary bills still need to be passed, indicates the Commission.