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Customs, Food and Veterinary Service need additional funding because of Brexit - Rinkevics

BC, Riga, 14.12.2018.Print version
Customs, the Food and Veterinary Service and the State Plant Protection Service will need additional funding due to the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU), Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (New Unity) said at a joint meeting of the Saeima Foreign and European Affairs Committees, reported LETA.

Commenting on Brexit’s possible impact on Latvia’s budget, the minister said that regardless of whether the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal, it is already clear that the process will create a necessity to provide extra funding and staff for the aforementioned government services.


“If the deal is not reached, EUR 2.6 mln to EUR 4.9 mln will be needed in the 2019 budget for the customs service alone. Even if the deal is made, the customs service will need EUR 2.3 mln anyway. In 2020, the customs service will need additional EUR 2.1 to EUR 2.6 mln without a deal and EUR 1.8 to EUR 2.3 mln with the deal. The customs service will also need 48 new jobs and the Food and Veterinary Service and the State Plant Protection Service will need five jobs,” Rinkevics said, adding that the situation still can change.


As for the Latvian Foreign Ministry’s issues, the struggle is not for raising the number of employees at Latvian diplomatic missions in the UK after Brexit but rather to prevent these jobs from being cut. “The system we have established in Great Britain with honorary consuls and the consular service, which is large enough, is functioning very well. It would be good to preserve what we have there for the next two or three years. We are not fighting for more employees but against reducing the existing staff,” the minister said.






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