On 27 April, during visit to Ludza region, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with local business and community members to discuss the future of the new region from the perspective of education, business environment, security, culture and local identity, local governance and public participation, youth opportunities and overall development of the region.
President commented the situation in the border areas by saying that there needs to be a special policy, which has become even more evident since Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. ‘Balanced development of whole Latvia requires special policy for border areas. Policy addressing the needs of Ludza and other regions on the external border of the European Union and NATO. This is not the final frontier of Latvia, this is where Latvia, and Europe, begins. Regional policy should give a just consideration to that,’ President of Latvia said.
After hearing the opinions of local community about regional reform, President of Latvia reminded that the purpose of the reform was to create bigger regions population-wise to improve the municipal services that are available. Egils Levits also reiterated that he has urged several times already to include the right to democratically elect district and town-level community councils in the new Local Government Law, and thus strengthen the role of local communities in deciding how region should evolve.
President of Latvia met with Chair of Ludza Regional Council Edgars Mekšs, Deputy Chair of Ludza Regional Council Ināra Silicka, Commander of Ludza Division of State Border Guard Valdis Jukšs, Headmaster of Juris Soikāns Art School in Ludza Sandra Vorkale, Art Director of Cibla Folk Collective ‘Ilžas’ Dace Tihovska, Ludza region Business Coordinator Jānis Romancāns and Zilupe Youth Councellor and winner of Ludza region Youth Prize Ladder Valērija Groma.
After reforms of 2021, Ludza region has become an amalgamation of four regions: Cibla, Kārsava, Ludza and Zilupe.
