Regional Project on Labour Relations and Social Dialogue Annual Review 2013 Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ­Labour Relations and Social Dialogue Author: Aija Lulle 1 , PhD candidate and researcher at the University of Latvia Executive Summary Baltic States entered the EU in 2004. Estonia also joined the euro zone in 2011; Latvia will join on 1 st Janu­ary 2014, while in Lithuania will join a year later, on 1 st January 2015(EC EFA). At the macro level, all three Baltic States continued to demonstrate recovery from economic and financial crisis in 2013. Emigration is still among the most pressing issues in Latvia and Lithuania, in Estonia, though, to lesser extent. Although there have been improvements, shadow economy was still staying relatively high in the Baltic States: In Estonia 19.2% and Lithuania 18.2%, whereas in Latvia it was 21.1% of GDP in 2012. Non-taxed wages, usually paid in cash, constitute with 40% the largest proportion of all shadow economy. In 2013 all three states had GDP growth and employment rate increase among the highest in the EU. Ac­cording to the UNDP Human development reports in 2012 Estonia was placed among a Very High Human Development countries’ group giving a 33 th place(up from 34 th in 2010) among 42 most developed World economies in 2011-2012. Lithuania remained in a High Human Development group, occupying 41 th (but up from 44 th in 2010), while Latvia was at 44 th place in the same groups with Lithuania. Trade unions(TU’s) remain rather weak in the Baltic States despite being involved in social dialogue and international cooperation, including access to competitive funding for various projects. TU’s are still in par­ticularly difficult situation in Estonia. The main obstacle are lack of funding, however, there are slow im­provements thanks to resources available from EU funds and other sources apart from membership fees. 1 Aija Lulle, born in Latvia in 1975, is the PhD candidate and researcher at the University of Latvia, depart­ment of Human geography. She has studied also at the Stockholm University(2011) and was a visiting re­searcher at the London Metropolitan University, Working Lives Research Institute(2012). She strongly sup­ports interdisciplinary approach and has an extensive research background in Latvia and Europe. She coop­erates with the Working Lives Research Institute, the International Organization for Migration, and others, as a national expert on migration and labour market issues. 1