The Czech Republic is the richest, with 65% of the EU average, while Latvia is the poorest, with 37%.

BBC: The EU's spending challenge

The first, comprising the poorest eight new members - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Malta - will have a fifth of the EU population but on average just 42% of the GNP per capita.

BBC: The EU's spending challenge

Since then, the nonprofit has taught in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Latvia, and they have also done work in South Central Los Angeles.

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He visited Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic as part of the congressional trip.

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It has been closely involved with preparations for membership by the five most developed Eastern European countries - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia - and the three Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who are all expected to join the EU in 2004.

BBC: EBRD attacks migration backlash

After being artificially cut off from Europe by the dead hand of state socialism, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, and (my ancestral homeland of) Lithuania had regained their rightful place in the world and taken a very large step away from their troubled history of Russian and Soviet domination.

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In 2010, Wales was the lowest ranked UK nation for reading at joint 38th of 67 nations, also lagging behind former Communist states such as Latvia and the Czech Republic.

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