"The Foreign Minister expressed the conviction that Latvia has gathered competence in science, and in high-energy particle physics in particular... Government decisions demonstrate long-term political support for CERN. By fulfilling those conditions, we are prepared to join the organisation as an Associate Member State, Edgars Rinkēvičs said," according to a ministerial press release.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is an international organisation operating for the most part in research on particle physics. It was established in 1954 by 12 European countries. CERN currently has 23 Member States – Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Cyprus and Slovenia are in the pre-stage to Membership; Croatia, India, Lithuania, Pakistan, Turkey and Ukraine are Associate Member States.
In 2019, the Latvian Government supported Latvia becoming an Associate Member State of the organisation from 2021 onwards. President Egils Levits recently paid a visit to CERN, too, as previously reported by LSM.
