Vaidere: EU is not exercising its geopolitical influence

"The European Union is not making enough use of its geopolitical weight, which comes from its position as the world's largest single market. This includes insufficient pressure on the world's position towards Russia. The EU is the world's largest single market, and this enables it to negotiate favourable trade agreements with the rest of the world. This gives our consumers a wide choice of goods that are both affordable and meet the EU's high safety standards," said MEP Inese Vaidere, member of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee (INTA), also representing the European Parliament at the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) annual public forum in Geneva this week.

Inese Vaidere, MEP, EPP group

"EU membership of the World Trade Organisation allows us to defend the trade interests of EU Member States and Latvia more effectively than we could on our own. However, the EU does not make sufficient use of the opportunities provided by the willingness of other countries to trade with us. For example, to convince them to give more support to Ukraine in its war against the aggressor Russia, to urge third countries to respect the sanctions they have imposed, or to achieve a better human rights situation in those countries," said Vaidere.

At the WTO forum in Geneva, Mrs Vaidere will discuss favourable trade conditions for the EU and Latvia as part of the EP delegation meeting with high-level international officials. Support for Ukraine will also be a priority. The visit will include a meeting with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the WTO, to discuss the current state of world trade, trade policy perspectives, including increasing the WTO's influence and effectiveness.

Inese Vaidere, MEP, EPP group

"It is essential for the EU to strengthen our strategic autonomy and ensure domestic production while developing trade relations with trusted countries. This will open up more and more growth opportunities for our companies in the global market, where I see great potential for Latvian companies," said Vaidere.

The Public Forum is the WTO's largest annual event, where all stakeholders from around the world can discuss the latest developments in world trade and how to improve the multilateral trading system. More than 2,000 representatives from academia, business, governments, international organisations and the media attend the event each year. This year's theme is "Re-globalisation: Better Trade for a Better World".