Report first step in better cooperation

TALLINN - At a meeting in Riga, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis discussed future cooperation between the two countries. The discussion was based on the Report on Future Estonian-Latvian Cooperation, which was presented on June 11. Ansip also acknowledged the success of the management exercised by his Latvian colleague during the economic crisis.

“The activity of the Latvian government in coping with the economic crisis deserves to be credited. The situation in the country was extremely complicated, but it was stabilized as a result of difficult decisions being taken,” said the prime minister. He added that both the Latvian and Estonian governments have done everything in their power to allow their countries to recover as quickly as possible and continue their development.

Ansip believes that it’s time to speak about the opportunities that the future provides. The Report was ordered by the foreign ministers of both countries in order to get a thorough overview of the cooperative potential of the two countries. The task of preparing the future cooperation report for this summer was assigned to two independent rapporteurs - Anvar Samost from Estonia and Andris Razans from Latvia. The recently completed report includes 65 proposals in nine fields of activity.

Ansip thinks that the work that has been done is praiseworthy. The report includes many ideas and proposals, the implementation of which could strengthen relations between Estonia and Latvia, as well as increase the global competitiveness of the two countries. “Many thanks to the rapporteurs for the work they have done,” Ansip said.
According to the prime minister, Estonia’s primary interest in implementing the report is the promotion of human relations. Among other things, this would result in closer integration of the border areas, for example, by marketing these areas as joint tourism regions, as well as the joint planning of vocational education in the border areas. At the same time, Estonia is also interested in the development of cross-border infrastructure. In the field of transportation, this would include repairing old border crossings, as well as advancing the progress of the Rail Baltica project.

“Human relations are the basis for various forms of cooperation and this is also true of the implementation of the Report on Future Estonian-Latvian Cooperation. The report is not confined to intergovernmental activities. At government level, the relations between Estonia and Latvia are very good. In order to put the report’s ideas into practice, it is also important to involve universities, local governments, business partners, and all those Estonians and Latvians who have mutual interests,” Ansip explained.

Moreover, in order to involve nongovernmental organizations and take the discussion to a broader audience, an Estonian-Latvian cooperation seminar will be organized this autumn. The objective of the seminar is to find expression for the ideas in the report in specific cooperation projects. “We can only put the proposals in the report into practice through working together,” Ansip stressed.

According to the prime minister, resources from the EU Regional Development Fund, among other things, can help to implement the ideas presented in the report - the amount available for the Estonian-Latvian cooperation program until 2013 is 580 million kroons (37.1 million euros).

In the course of the visit, Prime Minister Ansip also met with members of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce operating in Latvia. Before the presentation of the report on Estonian-Latvian cooperation, the prime ministers of the two countries also met with an Estonian business delegation.