Jānis Reirs (born 23 September 1961 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 ...

) 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 who served as Minister of Finance in the first Kariņš cabinet from 2019 until 2022, as well as Minister for Welfare in the Kučinskis cabinet from 2016 until 2019 and

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

in the second Straujuma cabinet.

Education

Reirs holds a master's degree in economics from the

University of Latvia University of Latvia (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

(LU).Board of Governors: Jānis Reirs

European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was ...

Career

As a student, Jānis Reirs was an active Communist Youth activist, ready to climb the ladder of a Communist career. At a time when the progressive part of the Latvian population was founding organisations for the restoration of independence, Janis Reirs defended and praised the ideals of communism. Reirs was a Member of the Board of Trasta komercbanka PLC from 1996 to 1999. He chaired the board of JSC Spodrība, a Latvian producer of detergents and maintenance products. He was also a partner at Prudentia, one of Latvia's largest investment banks.Nicholas Hirst (December 18, 2014)
Jānis Reirs: Latvia’s finance minister
'' European Voice''. Together with Einars Repše, who later served as the Prime minister of Latvia from 2002 until 2004, Reirs was one of the founders of the

New Era Party The New Era Party (, JL) was a centre-right political party in Latvia. Founded in 2002, the party merged with Civic Union and Society for Other Politics to form Unity in 2011. New Era was a member of the European People's Party (EPP), and ...

in 2002, which merged into the centre-right grouping Unity in 2010. Reirs became a member of the Latvian Parliament after the 2002 national elections and later served as Minister of Special Tasks in electronic administration from 2004 until 2006. From 2010 until 2014 he chaired the Budget Committee. In 2019, Reirs collaborated with his counterparts from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands to advocate for the establishment of a new EU supervisory authority that was intended to assume control over the regulation of money laundering activities within financial institutions, a responsibility previously held by individual member states. He is mentioned in the so-called builders' cartel criminal case, although he denies any involvement. The case was dropped in 2021. Reirs participated in the 2022 Latvian parliamentary election under the

New Unity The New Unity (, JV) is a centre-right political alliance in Latvia. Its members are Unity and four other regional parties, and it is orientated towards liberal-conservatism and liberalism. History Before the 2018 Latvian parliamentary ele ...

list, but did not receive enough votes to make it into 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 ...

Other activities

European Union organizations

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

(EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019) *

(ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019)

International organizations

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019) *

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. These guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against ...

(MIGA),

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019) * Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019)Board of Governors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reirs, Janis 1961 births Living people Politicians from Riga New Era Party politicians New Unity politicians Ministers of finance of Latvia Ministers of welfare 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 12th Saeima Deputies of the 13th Saeima University of Latvia alumni