EP's Schulz congratulates new Latvian PM on winning confidence vote

European Parliament President Martin Schulz i made the following statement to congratulate Laimdota Straujuma on forming a coalition government in Latvia.

"I congratulate new Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma i on winning a confidence vote in parliament for her coalition government and becoming the country's first woman to hold the post.

I wish Prime Minister Straujuma all the best in efforts to meet the challenges she rightly identified in her policy speech to the deputies in the Saeima. Those challenges include sustaining Latvia's accelerating economic growth while reducing social inequality, curbing unemployment and avoiding the past boom and bust cycles.

It has been a difficult time for Latvia as it mourned the deaths of so many people in a supermarket roof collapse.

I welcome Prime Minister Straujuma's plans to continue the reforms launched by her predecessor Valdis Dombrovskis i that allowed Latvia to become the 18th member state of the euro zone i this year.

I am looking forward to cooperating with her, notably in preparations for Latvia's presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2015."