RIGA – The Latvian Cabinet agreed Tuesday to make tackling unemployment one of its top priorities in the coming years.

“This meeting will be on how to better manage the country,” President Valdis Zatlers said at an an emergency Cabinet meeting that he called.

The Cabinet agreed to make unemployment a priority after hearing a report from the Strategic Analysis Commission that found employment would be one of the most important issues, both economically and socially, next year.

The report called for better unemployment benefits, simplified social protection measures and linking benefits and services, TVNET reported.

The report also highlighted increasing discontent among the population.

Commission head Roberts Ķīlis said the situation “is developing very painful way, and we can come to a deep crisis and protests.”

The Commission pointed to a recent SKDS poll that found more than 45 percent of the Latvian population would be willing to stage violent protests if they failed to see other ways of improving their self-interests.

The president also said that would need to clearly explain the consequences of any reforms.

“Only if the reform will be completely open and transparent and will be explained to officials, teachers, and nurses – if people know that government services will be higher quality in the future, if operators know that it is easy to start a business, and that there are no unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles –  onlythen can reforms happen,” he said.