A referendum on

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

membership was held in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

on 20 September 2003.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1122 Latvia was the last of the states which would join the EU in 2004 to hold a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on the issue. Just over two-thirds of voters voted Yes and Latvia joined the EU on 1 May 2004.

Background

Latvia was invited to begin negotiations to join the EU in 1999 and was formally invited to join at a

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

in December 2002. On 27 December 2002 the Latvian government decided to hold a referendum on 20 September 2003 on joining the EU. In May 2003 the Parliament of Latvia amended the Constitution of Latvia to allow referendums on international matters. Campaigning began on 5 May 2003.

Referendum question

The question voted on in the referendum was: ''Do you support the membership of Latvia in the European Union?''

Campaign

Latvia was seen as being one of the more skeptical countries on joining the European Union, but polls in the years before the referendum consistently showed an advantage for supporters of EU accession. Only one

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...

in February 2002 showed opponents of membership in the lead. Support for membership rose during the campaign with over 50% expected to support membership as the referendum neared. Supporters of joining the EU included the

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

and the business community. They argued that this would give access to EU markets and development aid. They also stressed that membership would provide protection from pressure from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In the last few weeks the Yes campaign launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Don’t stay aside!” The No campaign argued that Latvia should not surrender the sovereignty they had recently gained from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. They also suggested that Latvia would suffer economically as the poorest of the candidate countries. Generally opposition was higher among southeastern regions of Latvia with a large ethnic Russian population.

Results

The results saw the highest turnout of any of the

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

an countries holding referendums in 2003 and well above the 35% required in order to make the referendum binding. The Yes vote was ahead in 30 of the 34 electoral districts with the highest Yes vote among Latvians abroad with over 90% supporting membership. The highest No vote was in the poorer east of Latvia, especially where there were significant numbers of ethnic Russians.

Reactions

The Prime Minister of Latvia, Einars Repše, celebrated the result with 2,000 young people in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. He put a blue EU t-shirt on and said that "Latvians understand this is a decisive moment!" The President of Latvia, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, described the result as "wiping out forever the divisions on the map of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

that the odious Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 placed here."

References

{{Latvian elections

Referendums in Latvia Referendums related to European Union accession European 2003 in international relations 2003 in the European Union Latvia and the European Union