Row as observer MEP lays charges of discrimination

By Martin Banks

Date: 13/11/03

A LATVIAN observer in the European Parliament has been ordered to return to Riga after circulating a letter to MEPs about alleged discrimination against minorities in his country.

Martijans Bekasovs, a Socialist national parliamentarian since 1991, was forced to stand down after a vote last week in the Latvian parliament, the Saeima.

He says the decision is "anti-democratic" and plans to challenge it in the Latvian courts.

In the circular, Bekasovs claimed that non-Latvians, the majority of them Russian, suffer discrimination in the jobs market in Latvia and that Russian is not recognized as a second language in the country, even though it is spoken by approximately 60% of the population in the capital, Riga.

His comments caused an outcry in the country and the Saeima voted by 64 to 22 to remove his mandate as an observer MEP.

The national assembly has asked the country's Socialist party to nominate another observer, but 52-year-old Bekasovs told European Voice he still intends to continue with his job in Brussels.

One of nine observers from Latvia, he said: "According to the European Parliament's own rules, an observer can only have his mandate removed if he resigns or dies.

"I haven't resigned and I'm definitely still alive.

"I have been victimized simply for expressing an opinion and this decision is illegal."

Bekasovs is one of 162 observers from the ten accession countries set to join the EU next year.

He has not yet decided whether he will be a candidate in June's European elections.

The vote to sack him was condemned by several MEPs, including Swedish deputy Per Gahrton, a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance group, who branded it "unacceptable". He said: "Should people who have opposed membership of Latvia in the EU not be allowed to be observer MEPs of Latvia?

"If that were the common principle of the EU, quite a number of present MEPs would have to leave the European Parliament.

"And should those who oppose their "state" be disqualified?

"Sorry, but if these are the main motives for the majority of the Latvian parliament to exclude a person from being an observer MEP, the Saeima has quite a lot to learn about democracy."

Francis Wurtz, leader of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE) group, has written to European Parliament President Pat Cox criticizing the decision to remove Bekasovs' observer status.

"He just said what he thinks. There was no misdemeanour involved," said the veteran French deputy

Cox, meanwhile, expressed his "concern" over the issue when he spoke to the speaker of the Latvian parliament this week.

His spokesman said the matter may now be referred to the Parliament's constitutional affairs committee.

However, another Latvian observer MEP, Juris Dobelis, defended the decision and accused Bekasovs of "misrepresenting" the situation in Latvia.

He said: "Bekasovs" claims that Latvia's non-citizens are required to have a certain command of the state language to be employed, and they cannot learn the language because it costs them too much.

"In reality, non-citizens are employed in the same way as Latvian nationals and only some restrictions similar to those found elsewhere in Europe are applied.

"His comments are a slanderous attack on Latvia. It is unacceptable that a member of a national parliament acts against the interests of the state he represents."

Martijans Bekasovs, a Latvian observer in the European Parliament has been ordered to return to Riga after sending a circular to MEPs claiming discrimination against non-Latvians, mostly Russian, in his country.