Latvian parliament ratifies EU constitution

Latvia ratified the EU constitution today, with MPs overwhelmingly voting to approve its adoption a day after Dutch voters rejected it.

The 71-5 vote in Latvia’s 100-member Saeima, or Parliament, was widely expected after the charter was approved in a first reading on May 19. Twenty-four legislators abstained or were absent.

Two weeks earlier, 82 MPs voted in favour of the constitution, after a delay in the ratification process in January when hundreds of mistakes were discovered in the Latvian translation of the document.

Janis Lagzdins, chairman of the government coalition People’s Party’s faction in Parliament, said Latvia was showing the rest of Europe the way ahead.

“This was a symbolic step by the Latvian Parliament and Latvian state that shows that Latvia and other new member states are for the new united Europe and its fundamental law,” Lagzdins said.

Latvia, a former Soviet republic of 2.3 million residents, was one of 10 countries to join the EU last year.

The EU constitution needs approval from all 25 EU nations to take effect in 2006. Latvia becomes the 10th to ratify it. The Netherlands and France have both rejected it.