The discussion cycle about the fields to be supported by the EU Cohesion Policy in Latvia after 2013 has been completed
On Thursday, December 8, the discussion cycle organized by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) about the fields to be supported by the European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy in Latvia after 2013 was completed. The Baltic International Centre for Economical Policy Studies (BICEPS), which carried out a pre-research on the fields to be supported by EU funds, presented and discussed with the representatives of the discussion the opinions summarized by regions. Results of the research will be submitted to the Ministry of Finance in the next week.
Overall five regional discussions were held in the time period from November 16 till 25 – in Riga, Valmiera, Jelgava, Saldus and Daugavpils, where approximately 200 participants took part – representatives of municipalities, companies, NGOs and public institutions.
Discussion were held because in contrary to current EU funds acquisition period in the programming period 2014–2020 the number of financed priorities will be smaller – instead of current 13 priorities a smaller number of priorities will be set for Cohesion Policy funding in order to focus limited financial resources and achieve a more visible result.
A presentation of proposed priorities was given by representative of BICEPS Alfreds Vanags, who told about the developed methodology underlying the choice of the fields to be supported in the next period and criteria.
A.Vanags explained that criteria must follow from policy goals – the Cohesion Policy should also be in line with “Europe 2020” strategy. Also the Latvian national policy must be taken into account; therefore the research is based on currently available programming documents, namely, National Reform Programme and Latvia’s Sustainable Development Strategy till 2030.
The following criteria have been set for the reduced number of priorities – influence on the GDP, influence on inequality, influence on employment and sustainability, as well as the principle of market incompleteness, which means that investments must not be made where the private market already provides sufficient amount of resources.
BICEPS presentation is available on the EU funds homepage.
Research results will also be available on the EU funds homepage next week.
Information prepared by:
Agnese Belkevica
Deputy Head of the Communication Division
Phone 67083938
Agnese.Belkevica@fm.gov.lv
