Financing for the development of the sectors under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport in the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework amounts to EUR 903.51 million. The funding for the projects in the transport sector amounts to EUR 870.60 million and for the projects in the communication sector – EUR 32.91 million. EU investments in the transport and communications sector will be targeted towards three objectives set at the European level - "A smarter Europe", "Greener Europe" and "More connected Europe".
"The priorities set by the Ministry of Transport in the 2021-2027 planning period of EU funds are the transition to sustainable and smart mobility, creation of sustainable TEN-T infrastructure and provision of digital connectivity. Latvia is bound by the Europe’s common climate and digitization goals, while the problems to be solved in the transport sector are reduction of GHG emissions, high demand for fossil fuels, provision of environmentally friendly electric charging, as well as improved quality and safety of internal and external accessibility. Although the situation in Latvia is gradually improving, the internet coverage and its quality in the country's rural areas must be improved", indicates Ligita Austrupe, Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Transport.
Ensuring sustainable mobility is one of the most important challenges of the transport industry at this moment. To ensure convenient and integrated connectivity of different types of transport, regional accessibility and enabling behaviour change of the population towards transport, the Ministry of Transport has earmarked investments in the EU 2021-2027 planning period towards development of multimodal public transport hubs (mobility points) and micromobility infrastructure, as well as construction of high-capacity ETL charging points within the TEN-T core network and acquisition of emission-free trains.
During the EU investment funds 2021-2027 planning period in order to improve mobility opportunities, reduce GHG emissions from transport and improve environmental quality, it is planned to rebuild the country's main highways in the TEN-T network, build new sections of the country's main highways, modernize and develop new railway infrastructure of the TEN-T network and modernize the railway passenger infrastructure. It is also planned to build, rebuild and restore the transport infrastructure of Riga, to develop integrated transport system, to develop the main streets and existing routes of the state cities, as well as to develop the public infrastructure of the large ports.
In order to promote the transition to very high-performance electronic communication networks, which are capable of providing end-users with Internet access services with a data transmission speed of at least 100 Mbit/s in both cities and rural areas, it is planned to develop high-performance network infrastructure in the 2021-2027 planning period of EU funds for providing last mile connections. It is also planned to build the medium-mile optical network infrastructure, to create the passive infrastructure of the electronic communication network for the deployment of 5G connectivity along the land transport routes of the TEN-T network, as well as to ensure cyber security of the state electronic communication service centre.
It is expected that the investments of the EU funds for the planning period of 2021-2027 will improve the well-being of the population, ensuring accessible, safe, environmentally friendly and sustainable movement for the citizens of Latvia. Investments will also promote sustainable and balanced development of regions, improve the quality of life of residents living in the regions and increase the competitiveness of companies.
In total, EU fund investments of EUR 4.7 billion are available to Latvia during the programming period 2021-2027. It is intended to channel this investment to six main objectives: “A smarter Europe”, “A greener Europe”, “A more closely connected Europe”, “A more social and inclusive Europe”, “A Europe closer to citizens” and “Transition to climate neutrality”.
