Latvia became the 18th country to join the eurozone on Tuesday (1 January).
Joining the currency is "a big opportunity for Latvia's economic development," Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said as he became the first Latvian to withdraw euro banknotes in Riga.
The move leaves neighbouring country Lithuania as the only one of the three Baltic states not to be part of the single currency, although Vilnius hopes to join in 2015.
After enduring a severe recession in 2008, at the...
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Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.