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Abstract
Explaining the withdrawal of his signature from the Estonian- Russian Border Agreement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov announced on June 27, 2005 that "they in the EU might have succumbed to the temptation of telling us to ratify it […] on your side also, with some interpretations attached, so that the treaty can enter into force. To stop the EU from falling into this temptation, we have withdrawn our signature. There will be no treaty". Thus, Moscow actually punished the European Union, which seems logical as with regard to geopolitics and geostrategy, the border negotiations were held in the buffer zone between the European Union and Russia.
In 2004-2005 Russia held simultaneous and also interconnected border negotiations with Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Estonia, with agreements eventually signed only with China and Kazakhstan. Failures with Japan, Latvia and Estonia derived from Moscow's position to keep all gains of World War II. At the same time Russia had related all its foreign affairs with the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II held in Russia, which was curiously used by the young Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili, whose quick and clear manoeuvres approved by the West turned the ordinary Rimland country Georgia into a classic geopolitical pivot. And all this was done at the expense of Russia's influence. The highlight of the process was Saakashvili's statement that he will come to Moscow on May 9th only if Russia agrees to withdraw its military bases from Georgia. The Kremlin considered it best to agree, however, as the European Council aside the US, uniting the problems of Estonia, Latvia and the non-EU member Georgia, also began to praise the latter for overcoming Russia, Moscow decided to punish the nearest available EU member in the given situation by withdrawing its signature from the Russian-Estonian border treaty.

Auto road sector in national economy, is a sector development of which, with appropriate funding, creates basis for other sector development and facilitates competitiveness of country in international market. The goal of auto road sector is auto road network maintenance and development, in order to contribute to the development of the whole country, increase of standards of living of inhabitants, as well as facilitate compliance of Latvian auto roads with the European Union requirements for auto road network. Effective resource utilization and investment attraction to auto road sector is determinant for favorable conditions to overcome economic crisis, structural changes in national economy, regional development and technical progress implementation, which, subsequently, are basis for stable growth of economy. Development and construction of international and national roads is strategically important for further country's economic development, as well as for the European Union regulation and standard fulfillment. In order to achieve positive progress in Latvian auto road development, it is important to assign existing funds, as well as try to find opportunity to increase financing for roads in Latvia. It is necessary to elaborate effective method in order to be able to assign funds appropriately for prioritized projects for them to create reflective return in the development of national economy of Latvia. Solution for this problem is scientifically grounded, well considered auto road construction resource appraisal and assigning method elaboration. Traffic intensity on Latvian roads has considerably increased during the past few years – motor road traffic has increased at least two times. Roads are very overloaded. Demand on use of the transport infrastructure is still increasing. This growth is due to both increasing of number of registered vehicles and the fact that there increases the number of inhabitants of Latvia which live outside Riga but work in Riga. During the past ten years quality of the Latvian ...

Public administration efficiency is essential for any country in the world. Economic literature offers a variety of methods and criteria for assessing the quality of governance. The article deals with regional policy tools as a way to improve the efficiency of public administration in general. In regional policy, there can be distinguished administrative, legal, economic, social and psychological methods and integrated management method as well. In this work, the author focuses on the analysis of the main economic and legal methods of state regional management of the economy. As an example, the author chose the Latgale region of the Republic of Latvia as the most backward region and identified the main ways of its development. The author used the methods of Sociological research, statistical analysis and method of expert evaluations. In the concluding part, the author showed that the housing energy efficiency programs are an effective tool for the development of backward regions and can serve as a basis for alignment of the socio-economic potential of various regions. ; Эффективность государственного управления имеет существенное значение для любого государства в мире. В экономической литературе предлагаются различные методы и критерии оценки качества государственного управления. В статье рассматриваются инструменты региональной политики как способ повышения эффективности государственного управления в целом. В региональной политике можно выделить административно-правовые, экономические, социально-психологические, а также комплексные методы управления. В своей работе автор сосредотачивается в основном на анализе экономических и административно-правовых методов государственного управления региональной экономикой. В качестве примера автор выбрал Латгальский регион Латвийской Республики как наиболее отсталый регион и определил основные способы его развития. Автор использовал методы социологического исследования, статистического анализа и метод экспертных оценок. В заключительной части автор показывает, что программы энергоэффективности жилого фонда являются эффективным инструментом развития отсталых регионов и могут служить основой для выравнивания социально–экономического потенциала различных регионов.

The main objective of this article is to stress and to prove that the Latgalian national identity is the only national identity for a lot of citizens of Latvia and it is not the second or the additional identity that may be attributed only to secret service men inter alia.My personal studies of official sources, literature and correspondence with officials of state institutions, etc. are at the basis of this article.National identity is the person's identity and sense of belonging to one state or to one nation, a feeling one shares with a group of people, regardless of one's status of citizenship.National identity is not inborn trait; various studies have shown that a person's national identity is a direct result of the presence of elements from the "common points" in people's daily lives: national symbols, language, national colours, the nation's history, national consciousness, culture, music, cuisine, radio, television, etc.There are cases where national identity collides with a person's civil identity. For example, many Israeli Arabs associate themselves or are associated with the Arab or Palestinian nationality, while at the same time they are citizens of the state of Israel, which is in conflict with the Palestinians and with many Arab countries.There are also cases in which the national identity of a particular group is oppressed by the government in the country where the group lives. A notable example was in Spain under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939–1947) who abolished the official statute and recognition for the Basque, Galician, and Catalan languages for the first time in the history of Spain and returned to Spanish (Castillian) as the only official language of the State and education, although millions of citizens of Spain spoke other languages.During the first independence period of Latvia in the thirties, the schools of Latgale used Latgalian as the language of instruction during the first four years, Latgalian language was taught as a subject starting with the third year twice a week. After the coup d'état on May 15, 1934 the Latgalian textbooks were withdrawn from use and even burnt.There is enough evidence to prove that the Latvian nationalist elite was very unwilling to accept the spread of Latgalian both during the first period of independence and the multinational Soviet rule. The positive expression of one's national identity is patriotism, and the negative is chauvinism.Latgalians are an autochthonous people living mostly in the eastern part of the contemporary Latvia. As regards Latgalian (it has been named in different ways – language, dialect, subdialect, foreign language, but it does not change the essence of the phenomenon) various resolutions, decrees etc. have been passed and adopted.Participants of the 2nd Conference on Latgalistics (Rezekne, October 17, 2009) adopted the resolution "On the Status of a Regional Language to Be Attributable to the Latgalian Language".In accordance with the new Official Language Law enacted on September 1, 2000 the official language in Latvia is the Latvian language. Section 3 Paragraph 4 of the Law prescribes: "The State shall ensure the maintenance, protection and development of the Latgalian written language as a historic variant of the Latvian language." However, it is a very formal statement. Strange as it may sound but the Senate of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Latvia has adopted a decision (August 18, 2009, Case No. A42571907 SKA-596/2009): "The Senate concludes that in the first sentence of Article 4 of the Satversme (the Constitution – J. C.) of the Republic of Latvia the concept "The Latvian language" means the Latvian literary language. It is the official language for the purpose of Section 110 of the Administrative Procedure Law. From the conclusion that for the purpose of Section 110 Paragraph I of the Administrative Procedure Law the official language is the Latvian literary language it follows that other subdialects or languages for the purpose of Section 110 Paragraph II of the Administrative Procedure Law are foreign languages and a document drafted in the Latgalian literary language is to be acknowledged as a document drafted in a foreign language. This decision is not to be appealed against."It took the Latgalian enthusiasts (I am one of them) seven years (2003–2010) to get the individual code for the Latgalian language. ISO 639/Joint Advisory Committee (Library of Congress, Washington) has finally attributed the code, namely, LTG.Hopefully the Latgalian identity will not be swept away and this only identity for a lot of citizens of Latvia will be fought for and preserved also in the shadow of the so-called majority.

In the process of European integration and seeking for the membership inside the European Union, the problem of value change remains very significant if we are to understand processes of change not only in the economy, politics, and society in general, but in the minds, outlooks and social behaviour of the people as well. The purpose of this paper is to identify similarities and differences in attitudes, beliefs and value priorities between the three Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and to suggest historical, economic, social, cultural, etc., aspects of these countries that may account for the differences. ; Vertybių kaitos problema nėra pakankamai ištirta, ypač Baltijos šalyse ir apskritai pokomunistinėse šalyse. Ši problema tampa dar aktualesnė eurointegracinių procesų bei jų įtakos visuomenės vertybinėms orientacijoms kontekste. Todėl šio straipsnio tikslas – išanalizuoti vertybines orientacijas bei jų kaitą trijose Baltijos šalyse (Lietuvoje, Latvijoje, Estijoje) įvertinant tai nulėmusius politinius, ekonominius, socialinius, kultūrinius aspektus. Tiriant vertybių kaitą remtasi Schwartzo ir Bilsky (1987, 1990) metodologija, Ingleharto (1990,1995, 1997, 2000), De Graaf ir Evans (1996) teorinėmis nuostatomis. Empirinė tyrimo dalis analizuoja apklausos "Baltic Barometer – 2001" duomenis. Ši apklausa – tarptautinio projekto "Demokratizacija ir socialinė kaita Baltijos šalių regione", koordinuojamo Södertörns universiteto Švedijoje, dalis. Tyrimo rezultatai atskleidė, kad pagrindinės kultūrinės normos ir vertybinės orientacijos per pastaruosius dešimtį metų kito nežymiai. Kultūrinis kaitos procesas yra ilgas ir ypač sunkus vyresnės kartos žmonėms, kurių vertybinė sistema formavosi esant kitai socialinei-ekonominei aplinkai. Todėl kultūriniai pokyčiai atsilieka nuo ekonominių bei politinių ir vyksta keičiantis kartoms. Kuo didesni ilgalaikiai ekonominiai pokyčiai šalyje, tuo labiau skiriasi vertybinės kartų orientacijos. Vertybių transformacija, vykstanti europinės integracijos kontekste, neišvengiamai siejasi su individualizmo/kolektyvizmo bei modernizmo/tradiciškumo santykio kaita. Ekonominė bei technologinė pažanga, nepaisydama tautinių ribų, skatina visapusišką integracinį procesą, todėl iškyla tautinės ir globalinės kultūros santykio problema, kuri siejasi su tradiciškumo ir modernizmo samplaika šiuolaikinėje kultūroje. Tyrimas atskleidė, kad amžius yra labai svarbus kintamasis vertybių kaitos analizėje. Lietuvoje, Latvijoje ir Estijoje galima stebėti šias vertybių kaitos tendencijas: vertybinių orientacijų skirtumai tiesiogiai priklauso nuo respondentų amžiaus ir laikotarpio, kurio metu formavosi vertybinės nuostatos. Vyresnioji karta labiau vertina tradicines vertybes, o jaunimas imlus naujovėms ir greičiau perima, internalizuoja naujas vertybes. Jaunimo pažiūros žymiai liberalesnės. Sovietinis laikotarpis paliko ženklų pėdsaką tuo laikotarpiu brendusių žmonių sąmonėje. Tolerancijos socialinėms mažumoms stoka – uždaros visuomenės palikimas. Europinė integracija ir demokratizacija keičia vertybines nuostatas. Jaunimas labiau pasitiki naujomis demokratinėmis institucijomis, yra liberalesnių pažiūrų, pasižymi didesne tolerancija socialinių mažumų atžvilgiu.

Izziv za raziskovanje predstavlja analiza, koliko denarnih sredstev Latvija in Slovenija prispevata v proračun EU ter koliko se v izbrani državi vrne preko evropskih skladov. Namen analize v magistrskem delu je analizirati področja, ki jih ti dve državi prednostno obravnavata in njuno učinkovitost pri doseganju zastavljenih ciljev v finančni perspektivi 2014 - 2020. Opisovanje dejstev in pojmov ter njihovo preučevanje na podlagi tuje in domače strokovne literature temelji na metodi deskripcije. Zbiranje številčnih podatkov in statističnih analiz je izvedeno s kvantitativno metodo. Z metodo komparacije je bila izvedena primerjava med državama, z metodo kompilacije pa je bila izvedena potrditev oziroma zavrnitev hipotez. Z analizo je bilo ugotovljeno, da prebivalec Latvije prejme več sredstev iz skladov EU kot prebivalec Slovenije, kljub temu, da prebivalec Slovenije prispeva v proračun EU več kot prebivalec Latvije. Prejeta sredstva kohezijskega sklada na prebivalca so odvisna od BDP na prebivalca in tako vplivajo na razvitost države. Latvija iz kohezijskega sklada prejme več sredstev kot Slovenija, ima pa nižji BDP na prebivalca kot Slovenija. Slovenija uspešneje črpa sredstva Evropskega socialnega sklada in sredstva za področje razvoja in inovacij. Analiza pripomore k temu, da bo pri naslednji finančni perspektivi omogočena večja učinkovitost pri pridobivanju in koriščenju sredstev EU. Analiza je pokazatelj uspešnosti držav pri črpanju sredstev, ugotavlja pa tudi kazalnike porabljenih sredstev. Z uspešnim črpanjem sredstev iz evropskih skladov je mogoč razvoj in rast v državi, predvsem na področju gospodarskega, ekonomskega in socialnega stanja. ; A challenge for the research is mainly to analyse how much money do Latvia and Slovenia contribute to the European Union's budget and how much money do they recompensate from the European funds. The purpose of the analysis is to find out which areas do the two countries treat with the highest priority and also to find out how effective they are in achieving the set goals of the 2014 – 2020 financial perspective. Description of facts and concepts, as well as their study on the basis of foreign and domestic scientific literature, was based on the method of description. Collection of numerical data and statistical analyses were carried out using the quantitative method. The comparison method was used to conduct a comparison between the countries, whereas the compilation method was used to confirm or reject the hypotheses. The analysis showed that a resident of Latvia receives more financial means from the EU funds than a resident of Slovenia. Furthermore, the latter also contributes more to the EU budget than the resident of Latvia. Cohesion fund's received financial means per capita depend on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and thus affect the country's development. Latvia receives more such means and also has lower GDP per capita than Slovenia. However, Slovenia is more efficient at using the resources of the European Social Fund and Funds for research and innovation. The analysis that was carried out aids in the improvement of next financial perspective to be more efficient in gaining and using the EU funds. It is also an indicator of how successful both countries are when it comes to using EU funds and what are the indicators of the funds used. The successful absorption of European funds enables the development and growth of the country, especially in the economic and social perspective.

After Capitalism brings together leading scholars from across the academy to offer competing perspectives on capitalism's past incarnations, present conditions, and possible futures. Analyzing global trends from real estate bubbles to debt relief protests, this book also closely examines economic conditions in locales as varied as Cuba, India, and Latvia. Collectively, these essays raise provocative questions about how we should imagine capitalism in the twenty-first century