Partnership Agreement for the EU Funds 2014-2020 Programming Period Has Been Approved
On Tuesday, 3 June, the Partnership Agreement for the EU Funds 2014-2020 Programming Period updated by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) was examined and approved at the Cabinet meeting, and the Agreement includes Latvia’s strategy, priorities and a procedure regarding the efficient and expedient use of the EU funds in the new programming period.
“Priority directions defined in the Partnership Agreement are focused on the attainment of a definite result that will provide the largest return to economic development as well as will facilitate the attainment of the Cohesion policy objectives. There has been a considerable work of involved parties invested in the elaboration of the Partnership Agreement, and currently it is important to find the common denominator for the remaining issues as soon as possible so that we could progress purposefully and could approve officially the agreement with the EC on June,” specifies Minister for Finance Andris Vilks.
On January this year, the Partnership Agreement was officially submitted to the EC after an approval by the Cabinet, and on March there were official comments received from the EC. In cooperation with responsible line ministries, at the same time consulting with the EC, the comments received were evaluated accurately and were included in the updated document of the Partnership Agreement. After the Cabinet’s approval of the updated Partnership Agreement, it had to be submitted to the EC for an approval.
Currently, Latvia has reached an agreement on the official comments expressed by the EC concerning the planned amount of investments in the transport sector. The amount of investments is increased the field of research and innovation as well as there has been a very positive evaluation received from the EC about the elaborated strategy framework in the field of research and innovation. At the same time, an agreement has been reached on funding for implementing the requirements of environmental Directives (in the field of waste water) as well as in the field of environmental monitoring.
Similarly, not implementing a distribution of funding and supporting the anticipated investments in energy efficiency of buildings in the planned amount, an agreement has been reached in the field of energetics and energy efficiency. Latvia has also successfully defended the planned amount of investments in the field of health as well as there has been mutually acceptable agreement achieved on funding in the field of social inclusion and also in other issues.
The Partnership Agreement for the EU Funds 2014-2020 Programming Period is the hieratically highest planning document that shall be harmonised with the EC and that includes all support of the EU funds in Latvia. In the Agreement, there is Latvia’s strategy presented regarding the efficient and expedient use of the EU funds in order to implement the EU 2020 strategy. The main purpose of the Agreement is to provide the coordination of all investments and their mutual synergy. A significant section of the Partnership Agreement is an integrated approach to a territorial cooperation, indicating the mechanisms of state and regional level for a coordination among the EU funds and other EU and state financing mechanisms.
Information prepared by:
Ieva Raboviča
Senior Expert of Communication Division
Tel.: 67095880
Ieva.Rabovica@fm.gov.lv
