ABSTRACT
For over a decade prior to the Zolitd tragedy the Latvian government had been concerned to improve the climate for businesses and reduce the burden of regulation. This deregulatory emphasis had taken the form of an intensive program of reform of various Latvian agencies of regulatory oversight, spear-headed by a Government Action Plan to Reduce Administrative Barriers, primarily intended to stimulate incoming foreign investment. Inspectorates in Latvia were explicitly admonished by external advisors from the World Bank to concentrate on achieving a shift in focus from punishment for violations to compliance-based activities aimed at meaningful observance of safety and other rules. The post-communist EU member states of the Baltics, and doubtless elsewhere in the new Europe, therefore pose an ongoing dilemma of regulatory policy in the backwash of crisis and continuing austerity. The rule of law is weak and the criminal justice system operates at best in a selective manner while protective regulation is politically permeable.
