Friday, April 17, 2026

Headlines

estonia

Latvia’s budget expenditures for sick leave are five times higher than Lithuania’s and 90 million higher than Estonia’s

Latvia spends 350 million euros per year on paying employees’ sick leave, while Lithuania uses only 70 million euros per year for this purpose, despite the fact that Lithuania has 40% more inhabitants, according to information compiled by LDDK. Such a huge difference arises due to the sick leave payment model. Thus, in Latvia the employee pays for their own first sick day, then 75% […]

A new exchange in the electricity market promises greater competition

Transmission system operators (TSOs) of the Baltics, together with partners, have implemented a solution that allows multiple power exchanges to operate in the market, informs AS Augstsprieguma tīkls (AST). Competition between power exchanges will provide benefits to market participants by ensuring a wider range of options and better services. On 25 November, a new operator – EPEX SPOT – will start operating in the day-ahead market in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. […]

Investment price: one Estonian is guaranteed timber for ten years without an auction, at the agreed price

The Estonian company Fibenol, which plans to build one of the most modern biorefinery plants in Europe in Valmiera, promising to invest up to 700 million euros in it, is trying to reach an agreement with the Latvian government on more favorable conditions for purchasing pulpwood. The company wants to buy 300 thousand cubic meters of birch pulpwood per year from “Latvijas Valsts meži” without an auction and at an agreed price. This fact was reported this spring […]

Latvian forests owned by Swedes are being bought up by other Swedes – a company linked to IKEA

The investment and forest management company Ingka Investments has reached an agreement with Sweden’s largest forest owners’ association, Sodra, on the acquisition of 135,000 hectares of land in Latvia and 18,000 hectares in Estonia. Approximately 89% of this land consists of forest areas. The completion of the transaction is still subject to the approval of the relevant supervisory authorities. Ingka Investments is part of Ingka, the largest store operator of IKEA […]