But critics contended membership will result in higher prices and uncertainty for the country's residents, warning that the country would be accountable to another faraway capital, Brussels, as it was under Soviet rule to Moscow.
Latvia is also slated to join NATO next year.
That, combined with being part of the EU, is expected to give the country the upper hand -- for the first time in its history -- in dealing with Russia, said Atis Lejins, head of the Latvian Institute for International Affairs.
Russia "will have to realize they've lost us forever," Lejins said. "We will be part of the bigger EU-Russia relations and, since the EU is bigger and more powerful, it is a different story all of a sudden."
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