At the next meeting of the press club of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv, the Latvian diplomat expressed hope that those living in Latvia who have not yet received Latvian or any other citizenship would decide on the timing of obtaining it before the country joins the European Union in 2004. “Residents of Latvia who have not received Latvian citizenship must decide within what timeframe, when, whether they want it or not, to obtain Latvian citizenship,” said Andris Vilcans.
At the same time, he recalled that “the naturalization procedure in Latvia is quite simple—it is a basic knowledge of the Latvian language at the everyday level, the main facts of Latvia’s history, the Constitution and the anthem.” “In principle, this is not a serious problem,” the ambassador noted. “We are interested in making the naturalization process as fast as possible; now even more money is being allocated for free Latvian language courses.”
A. Vilcans reminded that “in the EU there will be certain restrictions on obtaining employment if they (those who have not received Latvian citizenship - ed.) consider that there is no need to obtain Latvian citizenship.” At the same time, he expressed hope that this issue would be resolved in the near future, noting that “the EU is a fairly attractive goal that offers a great many opportunities.” The ambassador said that currently about 68,000 ethnic Ukrainians live in Latvia, of whom only 16% have adopted Latvian citizenship. In total, about 300,000 non-citizens of Latvia live in Latvia, and the country’s population is more than 2 million people.
“If the majority, for example, Russians, have adopted Latvian citizenship, then Ukrainians, unfortunately, are slow,” the diplomat said. At the same time, he stated that data from sociological studies conducted in Latvia on this issue also do not provide a clear answer as to why Ukrainians living here are in no hurry to obtain Latvian citizenship. A. Vilcans expressed the opinion that earlier this was due to Ukrainians’ hopes of obtaining dual citizenship of Ukraine and Latvia.
In this regard, he noted that new political realities contributed to the adoption of a decision on Latvian citizenship for many ethnic Russians living on the territory of this country. “We are grateful that Russia, finally, after a very long time, introduced a visa regime for non-citizens, thereby prompting part of the population to decide on citizenship,” the Ambassador of Latvia to Ukraine noted.