OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities highly values Latvia's achievements in social integration

 

On 21 April 2006, the Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks met with the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Rolf Ekeus, who had arrived on a working visit to Latvia.

During the meeting, Mr Ekeus noted that Latvia's experience in the area of social integration may be useful as a model for other countries. Experts from Latvia are operating successfully in the OSCE projects in a number of countries, and the OSCE High Commissioner will continue to recommend Latvian experts for the realisation of social integration projects elsewhere, initially in Georgia, Moldova and the Central Asian countries.

Commissioner Ekeus briefed Mr Pabriks on the elaborate studies carried out by OSCE experts in connection with social integration issues in Western Europe, and noted that Latvia's positive experience might be used for resolving the problems existing there.

During the meeting, Minister Pabriks briefed High Commissioner Ekeus that parallel to the rapid economic growth in Latvia there is also a positive tendency with respect to the number of naturalisation applications, which makes our country unique. The OSCE High Commissioner expressed his approval at the positive trends and encouraged the continuation of this process.

Commissioner Ekeus briefed Minister Pabriks on his own involvement in the reconciliation process among the ethnic groups of Kosovo during the period of determination of the status of Kosovo.

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