Experts: Dynamic and sustainable EU regional development is decisive for ensuring competitiveness of Europe at global scale

On 11-12June, during the Latvian Presidency an informal meeting of the Structural Actions Working Party took place in Riga. During the meeting, experts from Member States and representatives from the European Commission discussed the main challenges for the Cohesion Policy and shared experience of reducing regional inequality across Europe through effective implementation of EU funds.

“The Cohesion Policy should definitely be flexible enough to react to different economic and social challenges while focusing on the strategic European priorities. For all of us together it is a great challenge to ensure it,  emphasised Parliamentary Secretary at the Latvian Ministry of Finance Arvils Aseradens in his address to the participants of the meeting.

On the first day of the meeting experts of EU Member States were informed about the Cohesion Policy in Latvia, including the issues regarding the effective implementation of the EU investment funds, the management and control system and the main areas of EU funds’ investments. Exchange of experience is topical for all Member States to better achieve one of the main objectives of the Cohesion Policy - to provide maximum added value from the investments to the welfare of citizens and economic growth. In a number of thematic working groups, the participants exchanged views also on fraud prevention measures to facilitate fair use of EU funds.

The meeting continued with a presentation of the most successful projects implemented in Latvia with the co-financing from the EU investment funds providing a significant contribution to the welfare of citizens, business and other fields.

During on-site visits, the participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with the Jelgava City Development Strategy and two Latvian success stories: the next generation energy company - “Fortum  biomass co-generation plant and the Veterinary Clinique at the Latvia University of Agriculture of which is a core unit of training and research of the University. The experts also visited “TechHub Riga  information technology co-working space to get acquainted with start-up companies that have successfully developed their business thanks to the EU funding.