On 16 July 2024 at 9.20 am, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, will meet with participants of a development cooperation project, “Friendship Bridge Riga–Nizhyn”. Joining the conversation are the Chairman of the Riga City Council, Vilnis Ķirsis, and the Riga City Council’s team involved in the project implementation.
This is one of the development cooperation projects in Ukraine, financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The objective of the project is to help Ukrainian people cope with the consequences of the Russian military aggression through fostering long-term bilateral contacts and organizing the visits of Ukrainian representatives to Latvia, including the provision of informative and psycho-emotional support to Ukrainian educators and municipal employees from the city of Nizhyn in Chernihiv Region. The delegation from Nizhyn has arrived in Latvia to participate in the kick-off events of the project, as well as to hear a course of lectures on mentoring for psychological support.
About the “Friendship Bridge Riga–Nizhyn” project
The project envisages preparing employees of educational institutions and local government authorities for submission of EU projects. Overall, the project makes it possible to provide essential support to educators of the city of Nizhyn and local government employees through organizing training in the field of eurointegration and drawing up EU projects. It also fosters building new contacts between Nizhyn and Riga, as well as exploring the potential for new projects to be implemented in the future.
The project is coordinated by the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency.
Total financing for the project amounts to EUR 66 817.55 (EUR 56 197 as a grant; EUR 10 620.55 – as co-financing from the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency).
Ukraine is Latvia’s priority in development cooperation: a half of projects approved in 2024 are related to Ukraine. Particular focus is placed on assistance to Ukrainian regions.
Latvia’s support to Ukraine
According to data collected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Latvia’s total support to Ukraine amounts to 1% of GDP, or approximately EUR 770 million (figures for June 2024).
Development cooperation
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under bilateral development cooperation with Ukraine, is supporting 13 grant projects in 2024 for a total amount of EUR 643 751.69 (36.15% of the total bilateral development cooperation budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Projects will be carried out in the following areas: psycho-emotional support to women; rehabilitation; microsurgery; financial supervision; forensic expertise and war crimes documentation; the development of small and medium-sized enterprises; European integration and EU law; agriculture; auditing; and human rights.