The #futureEstLat is on its way!
In January 2019, the national responsible authorities of Estonia (Ministry of Finance) and Latvia (the Ministry of the Environmental Protection and Regional Development) agreed to initiate the programming process of the Interreg VI-A – Estonia-Latvia Programme 2021-2027. Throughout 2019 the task force - representatives of the national responsible authorities, the managing authority and the joint secretariat - carried out preparatory activities and discussions for launching the programming in 2020.
Joint Programming Committee (JPC)
It is the main engine for the programming - a body, establiched in the beginning of 2020, that includes the representatives of the ministries and regions of both countries, responsible for the programming and related decisions.
The JPC has came together five times in 2020-2021 to discuss and agree on the procedures and thematic focus of the new programme. In addition, the JPC has decided that the State Shared Service Centre (SSSC, Riigi Tugiteenuste Keskus) will continue as managing authority for the new programme 2021-2027. The dicussions in the JPC and in a form of task forces continue actively in 2021.
Thematic focus
As for the thematic concentration, the European Commission has provided a limited list of Policy Objectives (PO-s) and Specific Objectives (SO-s) that the programme can choose from to build its strategy.
NB! UPDATED on 10 March 2021: The JPC has decided that the Interreg VI-A Estonia-Latvia programme 2021-2027 will include the following PO-s and SO-s:
PO1 - A smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation
(iii) enhancing sustainable growth and competitiveness of SMEs and job creation in SMEs, including by productive investments.
PO2 - A greener, low-carbon transitioning towards a net zero carbon economy and resilient Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation and risk prevention and management.
PO2 (vii) enhancing protection and preservation of nature protection, biodiversity, and green infrastructure, including in urban areas, and reducing all forms of pollution.
PO3 - A more connected Europe by enhancing mobility and regional ICT connectivity
PO3 (iii) developing and enhancing sustainable, climate resilient, intelligent and intermodal national, regional and local mobility, including improved access to TEN-T and cross-border mobility.
PO4 - A more social Europe implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights
PO4(v) enhancing the role of culture and sustainable tourism in economic development, social inclusion and social innovation.
Interreg Specific Objective 1 - A better Interreg governance
SO (ii) enhance efficient public administration by promoting legal and administrative cooperation and cooperation between citizens, civil society actors and institutions, in particular, with a view to resolving legal and other obstacles in border regions.
SO (iii) build up mutual trust, in particular by encouraging people-to-people actions.
Consultations with stakeholders
The member states involved the regions and municipalities very early on in the programming process to identify the cooperation areas and ideas. Since the first discussion the JPC has reached out and consulted the stakeholders in the programme area. We have conducted 2 web surveys over the spring and summer 2020 to gather the proposals for the programme focus, challenges, solutions and cross-border project ideas. As we could not get together in a form of meetings and seminars, we sent the questionnaires to the vast amount of public, private and non-profit organisations, state and municipal institutions, businesses and sectoral umbrellas. Here is the overview of the organisations by their experience, type and location:
Stakeholder statistics 2020{0.9 MB}
As the JPC discussions proceeded in parallel, and the programme focus become clearer, there were held several targeted discussions from August to November with sectoral experts on tourism (PO4), business development (PO1), environment (PO2), governance (ISO1) and connectivity (PO3).
Preliminary estimate of the strategic environmental assessment
The programme commissioned the contract with Hendrikson & Ko (EE) and Baltic Environmental Forum-Latvia (LV) as the sub-contractor to carry out the Preliminary estimate of the strategic environmental assessment of the Programme 2021-2027.
The overall goal of the Preliminary Estimate was to give an initial assessment (screening) whether the implementation of the Programme has potentially significant environmental impact and to enable to make a decision to initiate or to refuse to initiate the strategic environmental assessment in accordance with the 27 June 2001 European Parliament and Council Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (SEA Directive) as well as of the requirements of Latvian and Estonian statutory regulations relative to Strategic Environmental Assessment.
The report was approved by the JPC in December 2020 and updated according to the observations by the relevant EE and LV national authorities in January 2021. According to the report: based on the features (the strategic level, type of activities included and available resources) of the Estonia-Latvia programme, it will not have adverse effects on the integrity of Natura 2000 areas and it is unlikely to cause significant impacts to the environment.
Interreg VI-A Est-Lat SEA Preliminary Estimate 18012021_ENG {2 MB}
On 10 March 2021 the SSSC took the decision not to initiate the strategic environmental assessment. The decision can be challenged in the Tallinn Administrative Court within 30 days of notification.
KSH algatamata jätmise otsus 10 märts 2021 {290 KB}
KHS algatamata jätmise teade Ametlikes teadaannetes
The draft programme document is being still supplemented, and the discussions on some matters related to the content continue. It is expected to launch public hearings accomanied with virtual introductions in Estonian and Latvian in May 2021. By that time the draft programme document will be available in English, Estonian and Latvian.
We will keep you up to date of the process in this section of our webpage, you are much welcome to revisit. In case you have questions, please contact the head of the joint secretariat, Helena Järviste: helena.jarviste@estlat.eu, GSM: (372) 528 1971.