Latvia a liberal economy and its re-orientation toward Western Europe, Latvia is one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union. In 2014, Riga was the European Capital of Culture, the euro was introduced as the currency of the country and a Latvian was named vice-president of the European Commission. In 2015 Latvia held the presidency of Council of the European Union. Big European events have been celebrated in Riga such as the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and the European Film Awards 2014. On 1 July 2016, Latvia became a member of the OECD. Latvia lies in Northern Europe, on
The Case for Latvia "The Case for Latvia" is the only book by Jukka Rislakki about Latvia, that has been translated to English. The Latvian language version of The Case for Latvia was reviewed by the Delfi web portal. The review comments on some of the points given in the book: ""The analyses [of the book] also helps to understand, why the small and militarily weak Latvia in different surveys, for so long has been looked upon as Russia's enemy number one"", and:""The Case for Latvia is mainly written for readers in the USA, even though Latvian readers may find new and interesting news"".