Jānis Reirs
Jānis Reirs (born 23 September 1961 in Riga) is a Latvian politician who has been serving as Minister of Finance in the government of Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš since 2019. He previously served as Minister for Welfare in the Kučinskis cabinet from 2016 to 2019[1] and Minister for Finance in the second Straujuma cabinet.[1]
Education
Reirs holds a master's degree in Economics from the University of Latvia (LU).[2]
Career
Reirs was active member of Communist party (students organization). While progressive part of Latvian nation was talking about declaring independence from USSR, Reirs was still defending ideals of the comunism. Reirs was a Member of the Board of Trasta komercbanka PLC from 1996 to 1999.[2] He chaired the board of JSC Spodrība, a Latvian producer of detergents and maintenance products. He was also a partner at Prudentia, one of Latvia's largest investment banks.[3]
Together with Einars Repše, who later served as Latvia's prime minister from 2002 until 2004, Reirs was one of the founders in 2002 of New Era, which in 2010 merged into the centre-right grouping Unity.[3]
Reirs became a member of the Latvian Parliament in the 2002 national elections and later served as Minister for Information society from 2004 until 2006. From 2010 until 2014 he chaired the Budget Committee.[3]
In 2019, Reirs joined forces with his counterparts of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands in pushing for the establishment of a new EU supervisory authority that would take over the oversight of money laundering at financial firms, which had been the responsibility of member states.[4]
Other activities
European Union organizations
- European Investment Bank (EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019)[5]
- European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019)[2]
International organizations
- European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019)[6]
- Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019)[7]
- Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors[8]
- World Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2019)[9]
References
- "Jānis Reirs". State Chancellery of the Republic of Latvia. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- Board of Governors: Jānis Reirs European Stability Mechanism.
- Nicholas Hirst (December 18, 2014), Jānis Reirs: Latvia’s finance minister European Voice.
- Francesco Guarascio (November 9, 2019), EU heavyweight states push for joint supervisor against money laundering Reuters.
- Board of Governors European Investment Bank (EIB).
- Board of Governors European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
- Board of Governors Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group.
- Board of Governors Nordic Investment Bank (NIB).
- Board of Governors World Bank.