ABSTRACT
Latvia is a rather atypical country of the European Union (EU) seen from a territorial or spatial planning perspective. The constraints and challenges that she faces in relation to regional development and spatial planning stemming from its peripheral location in the north-eastern part of the EU are exacerbated by the legacy of having to address close to few years of Soviet rule. The legislation facilitated the amalgamation of town and village administrations to form a new structure called novads and it was hoped at the time that this would lead to a reduction in the number of administrations. The transition of the former socialist countries poses a major challenge for regional policy and spatial planning, because central control mechanisms have been abandoned in favour of market mechanisms, and also because the countries' macro-geographical position has changed. Regional planning in Latvia has undergone a transition of its own in parallel with the economic and institutional transition since the early 1990s.
