The degree of economic development last year in Latvia was the lowest of the 25 member and candidate countries of the European Union and the European Free Trade Assocation, according to figures released June 3 by the EU’s Eurostat service. Luxembourg scored the highest.

In its analysis, the Eurostat survey found that Latvia’s per capita gross domestic product was just 42 percent of the average in the 25 EU member and candidate countries. Estonia’s per capita GDP was 48 percent of the average, while Lithuania was at 46 percent of the average.

The numbers don’t speak to the actual income of households in the countries, Eurostat said in a press release.

Luxembourg topped all nations by recording a per capita GDP that was 208 percent of the average. But Eurostat noted that Luxembourg’s figure “tends to be overestimated, due to the large share of cross-border workers in total employment.” While those workers add to the GDP of the country, they are not considered in the calculation that leads to the per capita GDP. In others words, Luxembourg’s figure most likely is lower than reported.

The three Baltic states and seven other countries officially became members of the EU on in May, expanding the organization from 15 to 25 nations.

Although Latvia’s per capita GDP was low, it was not the lowest in the Eurostat survey, which also included three other countries being considered for EU membership. Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey all scored lower, with Turkey recording a per capita GDP just 27 percent of the EU average.

The Eurostat service is based in Luxembourg.

Legislation that would forbid persons with dual citizenship from holding high Latvian government posts has been sent for review by four parliamentary committees.

On a 61-29 vote, the Saeima on June 2 sent Bill 832 (titled “Par ierobežojumiem personām ar dubulto pilsonību ieņemt augstākos valsts amatus”) to the Legal Affairs Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee, and the Public Administration and Local Government Committee, according to the parliament’s Web site.

The proposed law offers 23 categories of high government posts in which dual citizens could not serve, including such posts as the president, members of parliament, the prime minister and other ministers, the president’s chief of staff, the head of the Bank of Latvia and members of its board of directors, the director of the state anti-corruption bureau, members of the National Radio and Television Council and Latvia’s ambassadors. Under the Latvian constitution, only the president is not allowed to be a dual citizen. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga had to renounce her Canadian citizenship in order to become president in 1999.

The bill does not prohibit dual citizens from being candidates for high government positions, but stipulates that if elected or appointed to such a position, he or she would have one month to renounce their non-Latvian citizenship.

After the renewal of independence in 1991, Latvia until 1995 allowed persons to reclaim citizenship based on pre-World War II documentation. As a result, thousands of Latvian exiles and their descendents became dual citizens, including many who had not been born in Latvia.

If approved, the law would go into effect July 1, 2005. Approval of the bill could affect several current officials, according to the LETA news agency, including Latvian and U.S. citizen Nils Muižnieks, who is minister for special assignments for society integration affairs; members of parliament Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš and Uldis Mārtiņš Klauss, both of the Jaunais laiks (New Era) party and both holding Latvian and U.S. citizenship; MP Liene Liepiņa of Jaunais laiks, who holds Latvian and German citizenship; and Jānis Kažociņš, head of the Constitutional Defense Bureau, who holds Latvian and British citizenship.

The legislation was proposed May 28 by members of Tautas partija (People’s Party). Members of Jaunais laiks, led by former Prime Minister Einars Repše, have suggested the proposed legislation is an effort by Tautas partija to replace Kažociņš as head of the Constitutional Defense Bureau or to throw a wrench in the effort to have Kariņš become prime minister.

To become law, the legislation would need to be approved through three readings in parliament and be promulgated by the president.

How Latvia is struggling to break with its Russian-dominated past is the subject of an episode of “Up Close,” a Canadian television documentary program, airing this week on the Newsworld International channel. The program should be available to cable and satellite television subscribers across North America.

Hosted by Helen Mann, the episode features interviews with Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and Nīls Muižnieks, an American-born Latvian who now serves in the government as minister for special assignments for society integration affairs.

“Memories of the Soviet occupation are seared into the soul of every Latvian,” say the program notes posted on Newsworld International’s Web site. “To Latvians they are what the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the expulsion of the Acadians have been to generations of French Canadians. Here, though, these are not remembrances of a distant past. They’re the painful experiences of this generation of Latvians.”

According to the program schedule, “Up Close” is to air June 2 at 3:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST; June 3 at 12:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EST; June 4 at 3:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. EST; June 5 at 10 p.m. EST; June 6 at 1 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST, and June 7 at 2:30 a.m. EST.

Further information is available from the program’s Web site.