Latvia’s Foreign Policy: 10 Years of EU Membership

Abstract

This article aims to address the impact of EU membership on Latvia’s foreign policy since 2004. It looks at five key aspects of Latvia’s foreign policy – relations with the EU’s eastern neighbours, the development cooperation policy, relations with Russia, the cooperation of the Baltic States, and the diaspora policy – in order to assess the effects of EU membership. The article finds that the impact of EU membership varies. The influence is at its strongest with regard to Latvia’s development cooperation policy, which was largely initiated by the EU membership. With regard to the European Neighbourhood Policy, it has strengthened Latvia’s already present willingness to contribute to the development of countries such as Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, and Belarus. While the EU membership initially had a restrictive effect on the cooperation of the Baltic States, it has become apparent over time that the Baltic cooperation is useful both within the EU context and outside of it. Massive outward migration, in large part a consequence of EU membership, has strengthened the need for a more coherent diaspora policy. The relationship with Russia is probably the element of Latvia’s foreign policy that is the least affected by the EU membership, both because Russia prefers bilateral relations with Latvia over a multilateral approach and because of the significant hard security aspect present in Latvian-Russian relations.