Latvia's Dombrovskis has reputation for clean politics

(BRUSSELS) - Latvia's Valdis Dombrovskis, named European Commission vice-president with responsibility for the euro Wednesday, is a basketball-loving physicist whose squeaky clean brand of politics enabled him to be the country's longest-serving premier.

The mild-mannered, bespectacled 43-year-old stepped down in November 2013 after nearly five years in office, after a supermarket roof collapse killed 54 people in the capital, Riga.

While there was never any suggestion he was in any way responsible, Dombrovskis tendered his resignation saying he felt "political responsibility" for the country's largest peacetime loss of life.

The move saw his popularity soar, and paved the way to his successful bid for a seat in the European Parliament this June, before his successor, Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, then tapped him as Latvia's candidate for the new EU commission.

As premier he applied deep austerity measures to steer the former Soviet country of two million through the worst of the recession as the global financial crisis struck in 2008.

That stringent fiscal discipline meant that he kept Latvia on track to join the eurozone this January -- a moment that was set to crown his tenure, but that he ended up witnessing in a caretaker capacity.

Dombrovskis also won international plaudits for using the austerity drive to put Latvia on top of the European Union's growth charts for three years running between 2011 and 2013.

He will now be responsible for overseeing France's Pierre Moscovici who has the role of economic affairs commissioner, despite reservations from Germany about France's ability to meet tough EU deficit targets.

The centre-right technocrat first came to power in a March 2009 reshuffle. He was recalled from the European Parliament where he was serving as one of Latvia's first nine members after the Baltic state joined the EU in 2004.

With the country on the brink of bankruptcy many thought it political suicide, and he was widely expected to last only a matter of weeks.

But he forged a reputation as a safe pair of hands and, after a string of colourful but corrupt leaders, the prospect of a relatively uncharismatic man who happened to be good at organisation and chairing meetings came as a pleasant change to Latvians.

Besides his native Latvian, he speaks English, German, Russian and basic Spanish.