September 21, 2003	Sunday	Rajab 23, 1424

BRUSSELS: The EU’s biggest ever enlargement is due to be completed on Saturday when the people of Latvia vote to join the EU and put their Soviet-dominated past behind them.

Barring last-minute surprises, the Baltic state is expected to endorse EU membership and remove the last barrier to the accession of ten new member states next May. Latest polls this week have shown a majority of 50 per cent to 60 per cent for a yes vote, with the no side trailing at 25 per cent to 30 per cent. Turnout is expected to be around 80 per cent. But undecided voters could produce a shock result.

Trust in the EU has been a significant issue in Latvia, a country of 2.3 million people which was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, regained its independence in 1991, and where some see Brussels as the distant capital of a new empire.

It also joins Nato next year.

“I would like to see the last traces of the second world war and its injustices to my people done away,” President Vaira Vike-Freiberga told Reuters news agency.

“And the best way to do it is to join the EU.” Today’s vote is being presented by the pro-European camp as an historic choice.

“I will drink champagne if it’s a yes, and vodka if there’s a no,” said Oskars Kastens, deputy leader of the parliamentary EU committee.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.