Depopulation of the Baltic states in the сontext of European integration

The Baltic countries, which have become donors of labor resources for the prosperous countries of the European Union, are experiencing the phenomenon of depopulation. It shows a significant and a stable decrease in the population of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia from the late 1980s to the present day in comparison with other catching-up EU countries. The inattention to the depopulation problem of catching-up countries is interpreted as a major miscalculation of the supranational level of EU power and a test for the fundamental principle of European integration – freedom of movement of people. It is proposed to consider the loss of well-being caused by depopulation among the reasons for the steady lag in the development of the peripheral countries as compared to the core countries of the EU. Brussels is not coping with the task of smoothing territorial imbalances; stimulating the economic growth of catching-up countries requires a more significant inflow of capital and transfers from the EU Budget; part of them goes to compensate for losses from population outflow. Special attention is paid to the discussion at the national and supranational levels on the prospects of the EU. It has outlined a turn towards setting goals for demographic transition, which, taking into account depopulation, has reason to become another driving force for the transformation of the EU, along with the green and digital transition.