17 Facts About Artis Pabriks

Artis Pabriks was born on 22 March 1966 and is a Latvian politician.

Artis Pabriks has co-authored one book: Latvia: Challenge of Change, which was re-published together with volumes on Lithuania and Estonia under the title The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Artis Pabriks was one of the founding members of the People's Party in 1998 and became a member of the Saeima in March 2004.

Artis Pabriks served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission.

Artis Pabriks was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs on 21 July 2004.

Artis Pabriks resigned from his position in October 2007 due to disagreements with the leadership of the People's Party, which he subsequently left.

In September 2008, Artis Pabriks was one of founding members of the Society for Political Change.

In 2010 Artis Pabriks challenged the incumbent general secretary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Spencer Oliver for his position.

Artis Pabriks, supported by the Latvian delegation, called the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's rules "quite shocking from the perspective of an organization that's monitoring elections".

In early 2014, Artis Pabriks was Unity's first nominee to replace incumbent Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis; however, he was rejected by President Andris Berzins who argued that he lacked economic credentials.

Artis Pabriks was elected to the European Parliament at the European election in 2014.

Artis Pabriks has since been serving on the Committee on International Trade.

In 2015, news media reported that Artis Pabriks was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the European Union who are not allowed to enter the country.

In 2016, Artis Pabriks was the Parliament's lead negotiator on a proposal to set up a new EU border force and coast guard.

Artis Pabriks was nominated as the prime ministerial candidate of this electoral alliance and was elected member of the Saeima in the 2018 parliamentary election.

Artis Pabriks has a daughter from a previous marriage and two children from his wife Undine, an ethnic German.

Artis Pabriks speaks fluent Latvian, Russian, and English, as well as some German and Danish.