EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Forum, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The Economy Ministry is seeking to recover the entire amount of money it has paid to Expo 2015, and has already recovered EUR 334,914.42 so far – the amount that was underwritten by banks, thereby reducing the amount of losses the state has sustained as a result of the failed Expo 2015 project.

The Economy Ministry and Expo 2015 in December 2013 signed two contracts – one dealt with technical designs for Latvian pavilion at the Expo fair in Milan last year, and the other with the artistic and organizational aspects of the Latvian pavilion.

The ministry has concluded that most of the funds transferred to the company under the latter contract were lost as they are no documents proving that such payments were necessary, nor are there documents confirming that the projects for which these funds were requested have actually been implemented, or such documents are of unacceptable quality.

As for the technical design contract, it has been established that the objective of the agreement has not been attained – Expo 2015's project could not be implemented, or the funding necessary for implementation of the project would exceed the entire amount of state funding available for Latvia's participation in Expo Milano 2015.

As reported, the Expo 2015 company has sued the Economy Ministry for EUR 464,732 for failing to honor its contractual obligations to the company. The company also stressed that the State Audit Office and Revenue Service had found no wrongdoing on the company's part.

LETA also reported, the government decided on in January 2015 that Latvia would not participate in the international World Expo 2015 fair in Milan.

Limited partnership Expo 2015, made up of companies Positivus Events, Made Arhitekti, Rolands Peterkops, and McCann Riga, was originally hired to organize Latvia's participation in the fair.

Latvia has taken part in the fair three times so far – in 1935 in Brussels, Belgium, in 2000 in Hanover, Germany, and in 2010 in Shanghai, China.

The last two exhibitions did not go smoothly for Latvia. In Hanover, Latvia was criticized for a poorly-prepared pavilion, whereas the Shanghai pavilion was completed at the last minute.