Integration monitor is a daily Latvian press digest on ethnic minority and society integration issues. The Monitor reviews the biggest Latvian dailies: Diena, Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga (in Latvian language), Vesti Segodnya (in Russian language). In specific cases other information sources are used. Latvian Centre for Human Rights is not responsible for information published by the media.

• Employers’ Confederation of Latvia criticizes draft amendments forbidding the employers from requiring employees foreign language proficiency
• President of Latvia Andris Berzins: day of the end of the WWII should become the day of reconciliation

The Saeima’s Social and Labour Affairs Committee approved the draft amendments to the Labour Law which forbid the employers from requiring employees foreign language proficiency unless it is obligatory required for fulfilment of work duties. According to the authors of the draft, the amendments would eliminate discrimination of those ethnic Latvians who are not proficient in Russian language. Russian language proficiency is a widespread job requirement, especially in large cities.  The Employers’ Confederation of Latvia (LDDK in its Latvian acronym) criticizes the amendments and calls the Saeima not to support those. The LDDK states that the foreign language proficiency is evidence of professionalism of a person and the employer never asks for it unreasonably. Vesti Segodnya, Telegraf

The President of Latvia Andris Berzins called all veterans of the WWII in Latvia to commemorate the victims of Nazism and Communism on 8 May at the Fraternal cemetery in Riga. The President believes that the day of the end of the WWII should become the day of reconciliation of veterans who battled on one or the opposite side. The President believes the WWII was a tragedy for Latvian state as its residents got involved in the battle between the two superpowers and the nation got split into two belligerent parts.