Public administration and governance : Latvia, 2023

Overall, government effectiveness in Latvia remains below the average among the European Union Member States (EU‑27) and has decreased since 2019 (before the impact of COVID‑19). The significant government reforms initiated before COVID‑19 were slowed down during the pandemic. Now, the government faces multiple challenges to further digitalising the public sector, including requests for tax reforms, pressure to expedite an increase in the remuneration for health care and education professionals, and to review public expenditures. The general trend of public administration reform over the last decade was to reduce operational and administrative costs in the Latvian public sector with the support of measures such as e-services, better regulation, and reassessing public expenditures. Even though the reform speed was negatively affected by COVID-19, Latvia has still been able to proceed with necessary reforms, where e-services and digital government are the key factors.