On 8 June, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Zane Petre, Head of the European Commission (EC) Representation in Latvia, at the Riga Castle. President congratulated Mrs Petre on the appointment and discussed the future of Europe and economic recovery of the European Union (EU).
Meeting opened with a discussion on national recovery and resilience plan of Latvia, which it had to submit to EC to access funding of EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. The new and improved plan now meets the requirement of supporting projects that enhance national sustainability, in particular the green transformation and digital advancement. EU intends to support Latvia’s economic recovery by granting 1.8 billion euro, and that will be a major boost for the economy, stressed the President.
Meeting then moved its focus on to Rail Baltica investments and their positive impact on the economy. It is important to start building an economic growth belt around the envisaged Rail Baltica corridor to facilitate various kinds of business activities around the railway connection in the long run.
One of the key focuses of the meeting was future of Europe and the so-called green transformation. Both officials agreed that the EU has set quite ambitious goals when it comes to reduction of emissions by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050, and a lot of effort is required to meet these goals.
President of Latvia also pointed out that Latvia needs to come up with a very precise roadmap where specific targets are delivered every year. That way it will stay on track in the long run. ‘Green economy is a strategic objective: it is often less than convenient, requires additional investments, but it is also integral for sustainability and quality of life our country desires to achieve,’ said Egils Levits.
Agriculture, energy, including energy efficiency of buildings, and transport are among those sectors that should step up their efforts to be able to achieve the identified sustainability standards. It is important to support the disadvantaged groups of society in, for example, making their homes more energy efficient, both officials concluded. EC is also planning to provide Latvia additional support of 300 million euros for the greening of the economy.
President and Head of the EC Representation talked about the potential of digitalisation to boost EU’s growth. ‘It is important to not only support digitalisation, but also make sure such development gives tangible results. Digital design is also crucial. Interaction between the state and individual, which is increasingly being migrated to digital platforms and tools, is a human rights issue. Digital services must be universally understood and accessible,’ President underlined.
President Levits and Mrs Petre also touched upon the subject of the Conference on the Future of Europe, a dialogue with EU citizens aimed to collect people’s thoughts about the future course of the Union. According to Zane Petre, EU has created a digital platform in all official languages where EU citizens can discuss future of Europe and get themselves heard across the EU.