The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) should be allowed to include the Baltic countries in a new real estate investment fund, staff members have recommended to the Sacramento, Calif.-based retirement system’s investment committee.

At present, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are not among countries listed as acceptable emerging markets for CalPERS investments, the Reuters news agency reported. If approved, CalPERS could invest as much as EUR 7.5 million in the three countries combined through its Nordic Investment Fund.

The Nordic Investment Fund is expected to invest up to EUR 50 million in Scandinavian and Baltic real estate properties, according to a CalPERS staff memorandum posted on the retirement system’s Web site.

The staff recommendation to include the Baltics takes note of the three countries’ improved economic, human rights and political climate, as well as their pending admittance to the European Union next May.

“Investment activity is expected to increase in the Baltic property markets as the countries become more integrated with Western Europe,” the staff memo states.

CalPERS’ investment committee is expected to take up the staff recommendation at its Dec. 15 meeting.

CalPERS serves more than 1.4 million public employees in California and has assets of more than USD 154 billion.