On 17 December 2021, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, delivered a video address to congratulated the graduates from the Intensive Programme in European Law and Economics at the Riga Graduate School of Law. Training programme financed by the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United States of America was acquired online by 100 young professionals from 20 countries and territories of the European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood Policy region, Central Asia and the Western Balkans.
In her remarks to the graduates, the Parliamentary Secretary underlined that “investment in young people and young leaders is a vital contribution to a prosperous and sustainable future”. As Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica accentuated that the programme’s success story was its graduates and their input to the promotion of development in their home countries, she called on the participants of the programme to become change agents, since “sustainable solutions call for new ideas, energy and creativity”.
Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica thanked the Riga Graduate School of Law and its partners for long-term cooperation on the implementation of the programme.
The online Intensive Programme ran for 12 weeks. It brought together professionals representing public administration, civil society and the academic sector from 20 countries and territories in the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy region, Central Asia, and the Western Balkans – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine.
Background information
The Riga Graduate School of Law has been successfully implementing its interdisciplinary programmes in European Law and Economics in priority regions designated by Latvia since 2014 in partnership with the University of Latvia, the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, and the European Institute of Public Administration.
The programmes are financed from the development assistance policy funds earmarked in the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with contributions attracted from the USA. Besides, courses under the RGSL programmes have previously been supported by Sweden, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland.