Artis Pabriks (born 22 March 1966) is a

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 ...

n politician. Since January 2019 he has been the Minister for Defence and Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia. From 2014 to 2018, he was a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

Early life and career

After completing his mandatory two-year stint in the

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, Pabriks obtained a degree in history from the University of Latvia in 1992 and, on a Danish-financed grant,Gary Peach (October 23, 2013)
Artis Pabriks – Tolerant fighter
'' European Voice''. completed his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Aarhus in 1996. After finishing his Ph.D. on minorities in Europe, he became the rector of the Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, a newly founded regional college located in

Valmiera Valmiera () is the second largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020, it was at 24,879. It is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city, and ...

. He has co-authored one book: ''Latvia: Challenge of Change'' (2001), which was subsequently re-published together with volumes on Lithuania and Estonia under the title ''The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania'' (2002). Both were published by

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Political career

Pabriks was one of the founding members of the People's Party in 1998 and became a member of the

Saeima The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the p ...

in March 2004. He served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2004–2007

Pabriks was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs on 21 July 2004. He resigned from his position in October 2007 due to disagreements with the leadership of the People's Party, which he subsequently left.

Return to private life 2008-2010

In September 2008, Pabriks was one of founding members of the Society for Political Change. He was a visiting professor at Bosphorus University in Istanbul lecturing for the first semester of the 2009-2010 academic year.

Minister of Defence, 2010–2014

After the 2010 parliamentary election, Pabriks re-entered the government as the Minister of Defence. In 2010 Pabriks challenged the incumbent general secretary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Spencer Oliver for his position. Pabriks, supported by the Latvian delegation, called the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s rules "quite shocking from the perspective of an organization that's monitoring elections". It would have required a full consensus minus one to oust Oliver who has been in the position of general secretary since the organization’s inception in 1992. Pabriks was unsuccessful in his challenge. In early 2014, Pabriks was Unity’s first nominee to replace incumbent

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Valdis Dombrovskis; however, he was rejected by

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Andris Bērziņš who argued that he lacked economic credentials. Instead, the position went to Laimdota Straujuma.

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–2018

Pabriks was elected to the

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at the European election in 2014. He has since been serving on the Committee on International Trade. In this capacity, he is the Parliament’s chief rapporteur on EU-Canada trade agreement CETA. In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the Parliament’s delegations to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly and for relations with the countries of Central America. In 2015, news media reported that Pabriks was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the

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who are not allowed to enter the country. In 2016, Pabriks was the Parliament’s lead negotiator on a proposal to set up a new EU border force and coast guard.Jacopo Barigazzi (June 22, 2016)
Parliament and Council agree on the EU border, coast guard
''

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''.

Leader of Development/For! since 2018

In June 2018 Pabriks left the Unity party and joined the liberal movement Development/For!. He was nominated as the prime ministerial candidate of this electoral alliance and was elected member of the

in the 2018 parliamentary election.

Defence Minister (2019-2022)

Between January 2019 and 14 December 2022 he was the Minister for Defence and Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia in the First Kariņš cabinet.

Other activities

* ''Baltic Review'', Member of the Editorial Board (since 2002)

Personal life

Pabriks has a daughter from a previous marriage and two children from his wife Undine, an ethnic German. Pabriks speaks fluent Latvian, Russian, and English, as well as some German and Danish.

References

External links

PABRIKS, Artis
International Who's Who. accessed September 1, 2006. * Pabriks A
Occupational representation and ethnic discrimination in Latvia — Rīga: Nordik, 2002.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pabriks, Artis 1966 births Living people People from Jūrmala People's Party (Latvia) politicians Society for Political Change politicians New Unity politicians For Latvia's Development politicians Ministers of foreign affairs of Latvia Ministers of defence of Latvia Deputies of the 8th Saeima Deputies of the 9th Saeima Deputies of the 10th Saeima Deputies of the 11th Saeima Deputies of the 13th Saeima MEPs for Latvia 2014–2019 University of Latvia alumni Rectors of universities in Latvia Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 2nd Class Aarhus University alumni