Aldis Austers
Researcher
Biography
Graduated from Vienna University and Vienna Diplomatic Academy with a degree of Master of Advanced International Studies (in 1998). I graduated also from the Doctoral Programme of Riga Stradiņš University (in 2017). My professional carrier began at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia (1995-2002), later I moved to the Bank of Latvia (2003-2011). During these both tenures, my duties were mostly linked to Brussels. I was posted there initially as a member of the Mission of Latvia to the EU with the task to coordinate the accession negotiations and economic relations between Latvia and the EU, and later as a member of the Permanent Representation of Latvia to the EU in charge of issues linked to financial services regulation and preparations for the euro adoption in Latvia. Between 2007 and 2015, I was active in non-governmental sector where I was directing several projects linked to migration of people in general and the Latvian diaspora in particular. I was involved as expert in the research project “Energising mobile citizens’ participation” (between Feb. 2015 – Nov. 2016), funded by the grant from the European Commission. I was also a co-director of a high-level expert conference “How to Improve Intra-European Mobility and Circular Migration? Fostering Diaspora Engagement” (in May 2015), funded by the Government of Latvia and the European Commission in the framework of the Presidency of Latvia in the Council of the EU. As of 2013, I have been actively involved in the research work at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, and as of 2018, at the Institute of European Policies Research of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. I have published numerous papers and edited several collections of papers on political-economic aspects of the development of Latvia, on the EU developments, and on people’s migration. Along with my work in the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, I am a guest lecturer at Riga Stradiņš University and Riga Graduate School of Law. My academic and teaching interests are related to international trade and finances, political economics, institutional economics, European integration and migration of people.