Two big stories in Latvia yesterday October 1st, 2013 I'd like to bring up and one general observation served as desert.
The first but by no means most important story is the indicating of all prices on goods/services and receipt totals in both Euros and Lats. This is interesting from my perspective because after >seven years here I am still stunned at the prices for goods and services. Appalled actually! And I have never been able to have an intelligent conversation with a Latvian about this. Usually I get the "oh we don't use that" or "we grow that at our country cabin" or some other show of disinterest. Latvia joins the eurozone January 1, 2014 which is what this is all about of course but now having an easy reference to the prices paid in the rest of the EU for the same goods and services one could wonder whether it will force normally docile Latvians to ask serious questions about why everything is imported and costs so much? Not holding my breath.
Stores display prices in both lats and euros as of October 1
The second and more important story of the two is the implementation of the amendments to the citizenship law passed by the Saeima on May 9 of this year. The story below only covers a very small part of the changes but lets face it, it's the only part that interests Latvians due to the possibility that it might with almost no effort increase the numbers of Latvian citizens. And by "increase" I mean of course "very slightly offset the huge migration of citizens to the EU and beyond".
The first but by no means most important story is the indicating of all prices on goods/services and receipt totals in both Euros and Lats. This is interesting from my perspective because after >seven years here I am still stunned at the prices for goods and services. Appalled actually! And I have never been able to have an intelligent conversation with a Latvian about this. Usually I get the "oh we don't use that" or "we grow that at our country cabin" or some other show of disinterest. Latvia joins the eurozone January 1, 2014 which is what this is all about of course but now having an easy reference to the prices paid in the rest of the EU for the same goods and services one could wonder whether it will force normally docile Latvians to ask serious questions about why everything is imported and costs so much? Not holding my breath.
Stores display prices in both lats and euros as of October 1
October 1, 2013, is the first day when stores in Latvia must display prices in both lats and euros ahead of Latvia's pending accession to the eurozone on January 1, 2014, informs LETA.
Also, cash registers in stores must print receipts showing prices in both lats and euros as of today.
All prices in the euro currency must be calculated using the official lat-euro exchange rate of EUR 1 per LVL 0.702804.
Consumer Rights Protection Center and Financial and Capital Market Commission will monitor price tags at stores and bank fees until January 1, 2014 to ensure that the prices in euro be calculated correctly.
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Citizens and the potential number of voters from abroad may increase by 23 000
As of today, the first October, about 23 000 could increase number of Latvian citizens - for the amendment of the Citizenship Law, which allows dual citizenship. This means that living abroad Latvians, Livs and exiles will be able to obtain Latvian citizenship without renouncing the citizenship of their home country. It should be stressed: living abroad Latvians and Livs exiles will retain dual citizenship with any country in the world.
For Latvians and Livs consider people whose ancestors of the 1881st and the 1940th On the 17th June lived in the Latvian territory belonged to the Latvians or Livs and with the Latvian language. For exiles, people are (and their descendants) who 1940th On the 17th June were Latvian citizens and which of the 1940th On the 17th June 1990th On the fourth May fled from the Soviet Union or the German regime or were deported.
In order to obtain Latvian citizenship exiles either of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) or Latvian diplomatic and consular representations abroad must submit an application with a request to be admitted to Latvian citizenship as well as proof of identity. Those applicants for citizenship who are not exiles, but see themselves as Latvians or Livs (Latvian departed from before the 1940th on the 17th of June), along with other documents submitted to the Latvian language identification document issued by the Latvian performed Latvian language proficiency test. The decision on the granting or the refusal to adopt within one year from the date of receipt of documents required for the CMA.
It's typically Latvian "pie in the sky thinking" but then why is this important you ask? Because in theory it may also counter somewhat the short sighted selling of five year residence permits which is about the only thing floating the real estate market here which benefits the banks and those with large real estate holdings being the ten richest families in Latvia and almost no one else. It's so successful that the moneyed interests want to set a minimum of 1000 to 2000 transactions per year. This pleases the EU not at all since these permits are used as a backdoor for folks who simply have no interest in staying in Latvia and prefer to live elsewhere. Some of them criminals.
And now we have the promised feel good desert. This is a fairly miserable month for most of us living in apartments. Night time temperatures are starting to drop and the heat in our buildings has not yet been turned on which makes for some fairly grumpy breakfast encounters. The rule is that the day time temperature has to be below 8℃ for three days running before the condominium societies are forced to turn on heat and we're not there yet.
But the people living in old apartments who rely totally on wood heat have got one over on the rest of us and good on you! They're nice and roasty-toasty at the moment being the masters of their own universe. A little lesson there methinks.
It's typically Latvian "pie in the sky thinking" but then why is this important you ask? Because in theory it may also counter somewhat the short sighted selling of five year residence permits which is about the only thing floating the real estate market here which benefits the banks and those with large real estate holdings being the ten richest families in Latvia and almost no one else. It's so successful that the moneyed interests want to set a minimum of 1000 to 2000 transactions per year. This pleases the EU not at all since these permits are used as a backdoor for folks who simply have no interest in staying in Latvia and prefer to live elsewhere. Some of them criminals.
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