EU Council Presidency Latvia 2015

The official logo of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, complemented by the inscription "LATVIJAS PREZIDENTŪRA ES PADOMĒ" (Latvia's Presidency of the EU Council) and the website address "EU2015.LV".

For Latvia, the Council presidency in the first half of 2015 was a political milestone: having joined the European Union only in 2004, the Baltic country took on the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time after just over a decade of membership. This was no routine matter, but a visible sign of how fully Latvia had integrated into European institutions. Under the motto "Strong Europe," Riga led Council work across all policy areas from January to June 2015, from economic and energy policy to the Digital Agenda. Substantively, these six months included negotiations on the Juncker Commission's investment offensive as well as discussions on the Energy Union — both dossiers of considerable weight for the entire Union.

Latvia itself had regained independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and had since pursued a rapid course of Western integration: NATO accession in 2004, adoption of the euro in 2014. The 2015 EU Council presidency marked, in a sense, the conclusion of this integration phase — the country was no longer acting as a new member, but as a fully-fledged driving force in European policy. This historic chapter is commemorated by the Latvian 2-euro coin from 2015, minted in the year of the presidency itself.