The President of Latvia opened the public discussion “Brexit lessons for Latvia and Europe” with his speech, where he reminded that national security was not only military defence on the country and strengthening of the national borders. “National security also includes economic development of the country, judicial power, protection of human rights, love to homeland and many other factors,” emphasized Raimonds Vējonis. He admitted that there were many questions how so called Brexit would affect the future of Europe including Latvia after the referendum in the United Kingdom.
During introductory part of the discussion, Director of International Studies Centre Gunda Reire stressed that Brexit results shocked the UK itself and the entire European Union. “Now, when the first confusion has ceased, one requires analysing all the factors contributing to Brexit and the way how European identity is rooted in the Latvian society and what our population expects from integration of Latvia in the European Union,” indicated G.Reire.
Director of Sociological Research Centre SKDS Arnis Kaktiņš presented the data showing that the Latvian population supported deeper integration in Europe after the British referendum. In the survey carried out by SKDS, 45% of respondents admitted that the integration of Latvia in Europe created very positive or rather positive emotions for them, while 23% of the respondents admitted that they experienced negative or rather negative emotions. “Similar to the situation in Great Britain, the population in Latvia are concerned about immigration and have not accepted the European identity too much. However, unlike the British, many Latvian residents see the economic benefits from the membership in the EU and they consider it necessary for tackling the issues of foreign policy and military defence, which are particularly relevant after the events in Ukraine in recent years,” told A.Kaktiņš.
Assistant professor of Riga Stradins University Edijs Bošs analysed the most important domestic political factors in the UK during the discussion, which led to the decision of the British citizens to exit from the European Union, namely, British tradition of Euroscepticism, low European identity, and the sense of economic insecurity closely linked to concerns about rapid immigration flow from Eastern Europe. E.Bošs stressed that peculiarities of political campaigns in the Internet era wee very important in the event of Brexit, because the widely available information on the Internet often facilitated radicalization of the people’s political beliefs.
During the discussion, it was argued that the matters of migration were among the tipping points in the context of Brexit, and they were still high on the EU agenda. Doctoral candidate for Migration Studies at the University of Istanbul Agnese Lāce emphasized that it was important for Latvia to develop a coordinated refugee integration policy with a long-term perspective. “A comprehensive approach to integration will make full use of socio-economic potential of those people, thereby contributing to social cohesion and growth of Latvia,” said A.Lāce.
“In the case of Latvia, increase of hate speech and transnational intolerance manifestations in the UK, where Latvian citizens were also living and working, was one of the most alarming aspects of Brexit. The citizens of the Republic of Latvia are under the protection of their state anywhere in the world and the Latvian government must be prepared to take the diplomatic or judicial steps if necessary to achieve cessation and prevention of the injury caused to Latvian nationals,” said Lecturer of the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia Māris Lejnieks during the discussion.
M.Lejnieks also pointed out that Brexit was an informal notion from the legal point of view for the time being, which had a political, socio-psychological, and economic dimension, but the process of exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union de facto would start only when the United Kingdom would notify it formally to the European Council.