HELSINKI (AP) - Latvian lawmakers have elected Egils Levits, a judge with the European Court of Justice, to become the Baltic nation's head of state. Incumbent Raimonds Vejonis declined to seek another four-year term in office.

Latvia's 100-seat legislature, the Saeima, elected Levits, a 63-year-old lawyer and political scientist educated in Germany, on Wednesday.

The clear favorite, Levits received 61 votes already in the first round of voting, well above the 51 needed to win the election.

Two other candidates, lawmaker Didzis Smits and human rights ombudsman Juris Jansons, were also in the running.

The president is Latvia's formal figurehead, representing the European Union country of 1.9 million abroad and acting as the supreme commander of the armed forces in this small NATO nation neighboring Russia. </s> HELSINKI — Latvian lawmakers on Wednesday elected former dissident Egils Levits, a judge with the European Court of Justice, as the Baltic nation’s new president.

Levits, a 63-year-old lawyer and political scientist educated at the University of Hamburg, received 61 votes in the Saeima, Latvia’s 100-seat legislature, well above the 51 votes needed to win the election.

Incumbent Raimonds Vejonis declined to seek another four-year term in office.

Two other candidates, lawmaker Didzis Smits and human rights ombudsman Juris Jansons, were also in the running.

The president is Latvia’s formal figurehead, representing the European Union country of 1.9 million abroad and acting as the supreme commander of the armed forces in this small NATO nation neighbouring Russia. The head of state also signs bills into laws, ratifies treaties, appoints the prime minister and has the right to dissolve the parliament.

Levits, a member of the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice since 2004, is a former Soviet-era dissident who was a key figure in Latvia’s independence movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was also a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

Addressing the Parliament in Riga, the Latvian capital, Levits pledged to be “the president of all people — those living in Latvia, those living abroad, the poor, the rich, the marginalized, as well as those living good lives.”

Tens of thousands of mostly young Latvians have left since the country’s 2004 EU membership, leading to a continuously shrinking population and a shortage of skilled workers, among other issues.

Levits, who will assume office in July, said Latvia should actively try to attract people to return. </s> Latvian members of parliament were meeting on Wednesday to elect a new president for the Baltic country.

Three politicians are in the running to succeed outgoing President Raimonds Vejonis. The candidate with the best odds is Egils Levits, a 63-year-old judge at the European Court of Justice who was nominated by the coalition government.

An absolute majority of 51 votes out of 100 lawmakers in the Saeima parliament is required for the largely ceremonial job as head of state.

If no candidates meet that threshold, the vote will go to a second round.

Following a recent change to the constitution, the president will be elected in an open vote, instead of a secret ballot. </s> Latvian newly elected President Egils Levits speaks at front of the Parliament in Riga, Latvia May 29, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia’s parliament elected former European Court of Justice judge Egils Levits as the Baltic country’s next president on Wednesday, a largely ceremonial role that also brings with it limited political powers.

Levits won the support of 61 lawmakers in the 100-seated parliament. He will serve four years starting on July 8, when incumbent president Raimonds Vejonis’ term comes to an end.

The president of Latvia has mostly ceremonial functions but can propose new bills and nominate candidates for prime minister. The president is appointed through the parliament votes rather than popular elections. </s> Latvia’s parliament has elected former European Court of Justice judge Egils Levits as the next president on Wednesday, a role that brings with it limited political powers.

Levits won the support of 61 lawmakers in the 100-seat parliament of the Baltic country, Reuters said. He will serve four years starting on July 8, when incumbent president Raimonds Vejonis’ term comes to an end.

The president of Latvia performs mostly ceremonial functions but can propose new bills and can nominate candidates for prime minister.

The president is appointed through a parliamentary vote rather than by popular election. </s> RIGA, May 29 (Reuters) - Latvia's parliament elected former European Court of Justice judge Egils Levits as the Baltic country's next president on Wednesday, a largely ceremonial role that also brings with it limited political powers.

Levits won the support of 61 lawmakers in the 100-seated parliament. He will serve four years starting on July 8, when incumbent president Raimonds Vejonis' term comes to an end.

The president of Latvia has mostly ceremonial functions but can propose new bills and nominate candidates for prime minister. The president is appointed through the parliament votes rather than popular elections. (Reporting by Gederts Gelzis, writing by Johan Ahlander; editing by Niklas Pollard) </s> WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's president signed legislation Monday that reinstates Supreme Court judges who were forced into early retirement despite the European Union condemning the removals as a violation of democratic standards.

Earlier in the day, the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice, ruled that Poland needed to suspend a law that lowered the retirement age for Supreme Court judges and to put about two dozen justices the law had affected back on the bench.

President Andrzej Duda signed the revisions that removed the early retirement provisions, presidential aide Pawel Mucha said late Monday. The quick response comes amid a broader push by Poland's conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, to ease tensions with the EU.

Monday's ruling confirmed the Court of Justice's interim judgment from October ordering Poland to reinstate justices who were forced to step down when the retirement age was lowered from 70 to 65. The European Commission, which enforces EU law in member countries, had asked the court to review Poland's law.

The commission viewed the forced retirements of the judges as erosions of judicial independence and democratic standards because it gave the legislative and executive branches of government unprecedented control over the courts.

After the interim injunction, Poland's parliament passed the amended legislation to remove the early retirement provisions.

Critics of the government welcomed the backtracking on the issue of the retirement age but argued more must be done to undo what they see as extensive damage to judicial independence under the Law and Justice.

They say the ruling party's overhaul of the judicial system included capturing control of the Constitutional Court and a council that names judges, as well as other steps that increase its sway over the Supreme Court.

Law and Justice came out of local elections this fall bruised in major cities, where many voters rejected the party's previous euroskeptic course. The EU is extremely popular among Poles, who have grown richer and gained unprecedented freedom to travel and to work abroad thanks to their country's EU membership.

The party has given signs it is embracing a comparatively moderate, EU-friendly program as it gears up for elections to the EU's European Parliament in the spring and to the national parliament in the fall. </s> The European Union's top court has ruled Poland must immediately suspend a law that forced some Supreme Court judges to retire, drawing a line under a dispute between Warsaw and Brussels.

Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party had already agreed to scrap the law that lowered the judges' retirement age after the European Court of Justice issued an interim judgement against the legislation in October.

The Eurosceptic and nationalist PiS initially pushed through a range of new powers after coming to power in 2015 that rights groups and EU officials said threatened the rule of law and increased the government's control over Polish courts.

PiS originally argued the changes were needed to improve the efficiency of the courts and rid the country of a residue of communism.

But it has shown signs of softening its position on a number of issues as it prepares for national elections next year.

President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the ruling party, said late on Monday he had approved revamped legislation to reverse the change to the judges' retirement age. </s> The pro-Russia Harmony party has topped polls and the ruling coalition lost its majority in Latvia's national election, according to results from over 80 percent of precincts released.

Latvia, a country of roughly two million, shares a 214km border with Russia.

Its location, along with its membership in NATO and the European Union, places Latvia on the front line of increasingly tense relations between Moscow and the West.

A quarter of Latvia's population is ethnic Russians, bolstering support for the Harmony party, which won 20 percent of the vote.

Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis' party Union of Greens and Farmers got 9.7 percent and populist newcomers KPV LV got 11.5 percent.

There was worry of anti-EU sentiment dominating the polls, but pro-Europe parties registered gains.

Liberal party the Development got 13.4 percent and the conservative National Alliance got 12.6 percent. Both have strongly pro-European stances.

Harmony, which is regularly the biggest party but fails to join ruling coalitions, will hold 24 seats in the 100-seat Saeima, the Latvian parliament.

A coalition will need a simple majority of 51 seats to govern.

The current ruling coalition of Union of Greens and Farmers, the National Alliance and Unity together got 29.2 percent, meaning they would have to find at least one other coalition member to form a majority government.

"Forming a new government will be very difficult," Kucinskis said after the election.

Latvia has long been plagued by corruption and money-laundering issues. The country's central bank governor is currently awaiting trial for accepting a bribe.

"The messages that the voters have tried to send is that we're going to have some new faces in politics," Janis Ikstens, political scientist at Latvia University, told the Reuters news agency.

"And perhaps they're not happy with the neglect of social needs."

A total of 16 parties received votes during the polls, Latvian public broadcasting service LSM.LV said.

Reports from 1,057 of 1,078 precincts show that seven parties crossed the five percent threshold and will hold seats in the 13th Saeima since Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.

Six parties were represented in the previous parliament.
Egils Levits, a Judge of the European Court of Justice, is elected President by the Saeima.