European Council agrees to impose additional tariffs at EU level on agricultural imports from Russia and Belarus

RIGA, April 19 (LETA) - On Thursday, the European Council agreed to impose additional tariffs on imports of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) announced on Twitter.

"The good news is that in the we fought for sanctions against Russia and Belarus on agricultural products, which are very important for us, and this was our initiative," the Latvian prime minister told reporters.

Silina also said that the EU had started to address the issues of cutting red tape and developing the capital market. This is a priority for both the EU and Latvia.

"I am pleased that we are talking about this, and it actually coincides in an interesting way with the priorities that the Latvian government has, namely the capital market is one of our priorities, and we have managed to move forward politically in a more practical way, also in terms of state and municipal capital companies. The fact that we reached conclusions on the capital market is an achievement, because I understand that politicians had not gone that far before and that no such agreement had been reached at European Council level," said Silina.

Commenting on the German initiative to provide air defense for Ukraine, Silina said she was pleased that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had taken the lead. The Prime Minister welcomed the fact that Germany had previously provided and would provide Ukraine with another Patriot system.

According to the Prime Minister, this shows the leadership of Scholz and requires other countries with similar armaments to step up. Latvia does not have such systems, but Latvia is leading the drone coalition, the politician added.