114 Swider and den Heijer the EU are ethnic Russians in Latvia and Estonia who have often resided there since birth but who lack easy access to the nationality of these countries. Even though Latvia consistently defends the position that these former USSR citizens cannot be equated with stateless persons and excludes them from acquiring the status of stateless person in its national law, they meet the definition of a stateless person of Article 1 of the 1954 Convention.46 They are treated under specific regimes for ‘non-citizens’ (Latvia) or ‘undefined citizens’ (Estonia) and enjoy inter alia permanent residence, an aliens passport, diplomatic protection and equal treatment in the sphere of socioeconomic rights. Their special status bars them from political participation, however, and from practicing certain professions.47 Although their position is rightly identified as problematic for a range of reasons, their status compares favourably to many other categories of stateless persons in Europe. We do not expect that our proposal will have a substantial impact on their legal position, although they should be able to have their status as stateless person properly identified. This is particularly important if such a person establishes residence in another country. For example, if a Latvian non-citizen has been residing in another State and wishes to naturalise, his or her status as a stateless person may expedite access to that State’s nationality, as is illustrated by the Irish case of Spila v Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.48 Likewise, if a child is born to two ‘noncitizens’ in another State Party to the 1961 Convention, the recognition of statelessness of such a child would lead to access to the nationality of the state of birth. A significant development is that the Estonian parliament passed a law in January 2015 which opens up Estonian nationality to all stateless (i.e. ‘undefined citizen’) children born in Estonia.49 Legislative amendments of 2011 and 2013 in Latvia had also eased children’s registration as Latvian citizens 46 According to Section 3(2) of the Latvian law on stateless persons: ‘The status of a stateless person may not be acquired by a person who is the subject of Law On the Status of Those Former U.S.S.R. Citizens Who do not Have the Citizenship of Latvia or That of any Other State.’ This was confirmed by Latvia Constitutional Court 7 March 2005, no. 2004–15–0106. 47 On the position of non-citizens of Latvia extensively: Kruma, K. ‘Checks and balances in Latvian nationality policies: National agendas and international frameworks’, in R. Bauböck, B. Perchinig, W. Sievers (eds) Citizenship Policies in the New Europe (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2009), pp. 63–88. 48 Irish High Court, 31 July 2012, Spila v Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform [2012] IEHC 336. 49  U NHCR Press release 21 January 2015, ‘Estonia makes milestone changes to its citizenship act’. European Journal of Migration and Law 19 (2017) 101–135