Latvia: membership application and partnership, 13 October 1995

The committee adopted the report by Elisabeth SCHROEDTER (Greens/EFA, D) on Latvia's application for membership of the EU and the state of the negotiations. The report called for the negotiations to be conducted in such a way as to allow Latvia to participate in the first wave of enlargement. It welcomed the fact that Latvia had decided to abandon the practice of showing in residents· passports and identity documents the ethnic group to which they belong and instead to introduce identity documents in which only citizenship is indicated. The fact that Latvia had amended the citizenship law, adopted a new language law and launched an integration programme was also welcomed. The report added that a campaign to encourage non-citizens to apply for citizenship should be launched. Economic and social cohesion was seen as another area which needed to be strengthened and the report also called for the "acquis communautaire" on the environment to be incorporated more rapidly. �