Latvia's European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs warned yesterday that the brain drain of young qualified people moving to Ireland from Latvia is hurting its economy.
He said the huge amount of migration since Latvia joined the EU was "worrying" and a clear wake up call for the Latvian authorities to try to attract people back from the Republic.
"I personally have fears even if it is 15,000 and not 40,000 people, it is still a huge number of people," Mr Piebalgs told The Irish Times. "The difficulty is these are generally people with initiative and it is a significant number of people out of a population of just 2.3 million."
Latvian authorities estimate that up to 100,000 people have emigrated since the Baltic state joined the EU in May 2004. It is estimated that somewhere between 15,000 and 40,000 Latvians are currently living and working in the Republic.
Mr Piebalgs, who is the EU energy commissioner, said the emigration of Latvians to Ireland was a cause for real concern because the numbers living abroad had not reduced since EU membership. Migration involved the most economically active people in the state and the young. Latvians do not have big families so migration to Ireland does not result in large amounts of money transfers back to the Latvian economy, he added.
"I could congratulate Ireland," said Mr Piebalgs. "But I would definitely prefer that most of these people, especially those that are not doing very specific qualifications [ in Ireland], return to Latvia because they are needed." The commissioner's comments followed the publication of a report by the Finnish government yesterday on the free movement of workers within the EU.
The report on the impact of the transition period for the free movement of labour from eastern European states in the EU highlighted that the "Irish phenomenon" was one of the most central issues for social debate in Latvia at the moment.
"The political leaders and authorities in Latvia are concerned for the decline in the labour force due to emigration and its impacts," says the report.
"The labour situation in Latvia is made worse by the ageing of the population."
The report says the principal reasons for the emigration from Latvia are low wage levels, widespread knowledge of English and the inexpensive travel between Latvia and Ireland supplied by budget airlines.
Mr Piebalgs said the Latvian government needed to cut red tape to allow Latvians to return home and set up their own businesses.