Latvia: membership application and partnership, 13 October 1995

The European Parliament adopted the report by Mrs Elisabeth SCHROEDTER (Greens/EFA, D). It welcomes the opening of negotiations on EU membership with Latvia and calls for these negotiations to be conducted in such a way as to enable Latvia to join the first wave of enlargement. The resolution welcomes the fact that Latvia has 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 resolution adds that a campaign should be launched to encourage non-citizens to apply for citizenship. Furthermore, economic and social cohesion is seen as an another area which needs to be strengthened and the resolution calls for the acquis communautaire on the environment to be incorporated more rapidly. Finally, the Parliament calls for improved treatment of persons whose requests for refugee status have been turned down and for humane treatment of immigrants without appropriate legal documents. �