• Riga City Council announced a grant competition for society integration projects
• Andrejs Berdnikovs: compromise regarding status of Russian language in Latvian has to be found

The Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Riga City Council has announced a grant competition on society integration for NGOs. The grant will be allocated to the projects in the field of civil participation and mutual co-operation development, promotion of social integration and tolerance and elimination of all kind of discrimination.  Latvijas Avize

Latvijas Avize prints an interview with a member of a party For Native Language, political scientist Andrejs Berdnikovs. Mr Berdnikovs believes that Russian language in Latvia should be granted a status other than “foreign language”. Mr Berdnikovs agrees that the majority of Latvian citizens stated their will at the referendum that they do not want Russian language to be the state language, but still a large number of citizens also stated they do not agree with the current status of Russian in Latvia. Thus, it is important to consider how to balance the two opinions. Regarding to the idea of Latgale region’s autonomy raised by the Party for Native Language and its leader Vladimirs Limndermans, Mr Berdnikovs said the aim of the idea is to draw closer attention to Latgale region which is the poorest region in the country.

• Sestdiena features an interview with nationals of Pakistan and Ukraine who made Latvia their home

Weekly magazine Sestdiena features an interview with nationals of Pakistan and Ukraine who made Latvia their home. Zesans is from Pakistan and studies medicine, while Julia is from Ukraine and studies entrepreneurship and management. They are satisfied with the quality of education and living conditions, but they are not sure if it would be possible to find appropriate job in Latvia after completing their studies. One of the problems is their lack of proficiency in Latvian language and the lack of opportunities to learn it. Both Julia and Zesans emphasize that they feel really safe in Latvia.

Julia and Zesans are involved in the international project AMITIE funded by the EU and conducted in Latvia by the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and the Department of Education, Sports and Culture of the Riga City Council. The AMITIE informative campaign “This is my story… or our?” informs the society about positive aspects of migration stressing the contribution of immigrants in economic, social and cultural development of the state. More about the AMITIE project on http://www.facebook.com/AMITIEproject?ref=hl and http://cilvektiesibas.org.lv/lv/media-materials/notiks-informativas-kampanas-sis-ir-mans-stasts-va-223/ (in Latvian)

 

• Ex-President Guntis Ulmanis: communication between communities is more difficult now; right-wing parties uniting against “ethnic Russian mayor” is a sign of weakness
• Proposals on the status of participants of WWII got criticised

 

Vesti Segodnya interviewed ex-President of Latvia Guntis Ulmanis. Mr.Ulmanis sees positive tendencies in the society, certain consolidation, since many ethnic Latvians speak Russian and many ethnic Russians learned Latvian. However, he sees a negative tendency that Latvians and Russians are no longer willing to openly speak their mind to each other. Any problems are easier to solve if there is an open discussion, but unfortunately, now the relations between Russin community and ethnic Latvians are much more difficult, and now Russian community is more clearly separated than 20 years ago. Mr.Ulmanis believes the Orthodox Christmas will eventually be granted official status. He is adamant that Latvian should remain the only state language. On the doorstep of the municipal elections, the problem of right-wing parties is that they fail to understand the voters are not interested in political theories, slogans or global politics, but are interested in comfortable and smooth running of the municipality, and the incumbent administration of Riga delivers just that. Mr.Ulmanis sees it a sign of weakness that the right-wing parties are only able to unite “against Usakovs” (the incumbent mayor of Riga) and their only trumpcard is the fact that Mr.Usakovs is ethnic Russian.

 

Vesti Segodnya continues to report about the reactions to the initiative of the President of Latvia Andris Berzins on reconciliation of veterans who fought on the opposite sides during the WWII. According to psychotherapist, Dr. Med. Boriss Donnikovs, every family in the former Soviet Union has suffered during the WWII, and also his mother was sent to the Nazi concentration camp. Mr. Donnikovs endorses the idea of reconciliation, but disagrees with the idea to “sort-out” the veterans according to the draft law on the status of the participants of WWII, such as denial of the status to partisans and underground resistance participants, volunteers of the Anti-Hitlerite coalition, as well as non-citizens. Mr. Donnikovs highlights that unlike the veterans of the SS legion, the veterans of the Anti-Hitlerite coalition do not receive state support.

 

• New Year’s Address by the president of Latvia Andris Berzins

 

In the New Year’s Address, the president of Latvia Andris Berzins highlighted several achievements made by Latvia during 2012, such as the fastest growing economy among the EU, creation of new jobs and the new budget which does not foresee new cuts. He also acknowledged that the reality of Latvia is that alongside the success stories about the overcoming of the crisis, there is also greater social cleavage and certain feeling of alienation among some. Regarding the upcoming municipal elections in 2013, Mr. President emphasised that this should be a “competition” for votes which does not translate into a “fight”, and called for the parties not to “look for enemies or divide the society” into “ours” and “aliens”. Latvijas Avize

• National Integration Centre will promote integration of third-country nationals
• Constitutional Court closed proceedings on the compliance of the law on initiation of referendums with the Constitution of Latvia
• President of Latvia Andris Berzins: young people should learn foreign languages

Vesti Segodnya reports about a new National Integration Centre (NIC) aimed at integration of third-country nationals in Latvia. The Centre was established in the framework of a project funded by the European Fund for the integration of third-country nationals. The Centre is planning to conduct 10 informative seminars in all Latvian regions about integration issues.

Yesterday, the Constitutional Court issued its decision to close the proceedings on the compliance of the law on initiation of referendums with the Constitution of Latvia. The case was initiated by 30 MPs who asked the Court to acknowledge that the procedure of the initiation of referendum does not comply with the Constitution and therefore, called to cancel to decision of the President and the Bureau of the Saeima to forward the draft law on the status of Russian language in Latvia for the national referendum. The real aim of the MPs was not to permit the referendum on Russian language at all. As reported, the referendum on granting Russian language the status of a state language in Latvia was conducted in February 2012 and the majority of citizens did not support the initiative. Latvijas Avize, Diena

Young people in Latvia should learn foreign languages, including Russian language in order to become more competitive, said the President of Latvia Andris Berzins in an interview with Vesti Segodnya.  The President said that no one sees anything strange in learning of English and the same should be with Russian language because there are close economical ties with Russian speaking countries. The President stated that foreign languages will make Latvia even stronger.