Latvia, the last of the prospective new members to vote on joining the European Union, today celebrated a resounding "yes" at a weekend referendum to crown the bloc's historic enlargement.
With all votes counted in the ex-Soviet republic, supporters led nay-sayers by 67 per cent to 32.3, with 0.7 per cent of ballots invalid. Turnout was 72.5 per cent, way over the 35 per cent to make yesterday's vote binding.
Many of Latvia's pro-Brussels voters hailed EU membership as the crowning achievement of the ex-Soviet satellite's "return to Europe" after more than a decade of painful reforms since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and five decades behind the Iron Curtain before that.
"For Latvia this is putting the final full stop to the sequels of the second world war, and wiping out forever the divisions on the map of Europe that the odious Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 had placed there," President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said yesterday as she voted in the small Baltic nation of 2.3 million people.
The final "yes" marks a success for the EU enlargement from 15 to 25 member countries and gives Brussels something to celebrate after Sweden rejected the euro last weekend.
"We welcome a country that naturally belongs to us and we trust, that Latvia as the other future member states will enrich and strengthen the European Union. Welcome home, Latvia!" said European Enlargement Commissioner Mr Guenter Verheugen.
Malta, Slovenia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia have already voted to join the EU. The 10th nation to join, Cyprus, is not holding a referendum.