Investment and integrated strategies supporting towns Raivis BREMSMITS Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia ESPON Seminar “Territories Acting for Economic Growth: Using territorial evidence to meet challenges towards 2020” Inspire policy making by territorial evidence

Regional development disparities Latvia has the 5 th largest regional disparities in EU-28 (dispersion of regional GDP per inhabitant in NUTS 3 regions) Pronounced monocentric development tendencies – a need for many centres Population decrease Unemployment level, 2014 Number of companies per 1000 inhabitants, 2012 Personal income tax revenue in budgets of municipalities per capita. 2013

ERDF priority “Polycentric development” Activities Growth of national and regional development centres Sustainable development of Riga Growth of amalgamated municipalities Total funding: 323 M EUR

Daugavpils City Fortress infrastructure - improvement of streets and engineering networks Total funding – 5,11 M EUR, incl. ERDF 4,68 M EUR

Valmiera business and innovation center project Total funding – 1,53 M EUR, incl. ERDF 1,29 M EUR

Lessons learned In order to tackle regional disparities more efficiently, there is a need for: 1.Concentration of funding thematically and territorially 2.Territorial programs have to be much more oriented towards investments in business infrastructure in order to promote entrepreneurial activity and increase the number of workplaces and thus address regional development challenges (less investments in leisure infrastructure)

Regulation on ERDF Article 7 The ERDF shall support, within operational programs, sustainable urban development through strategies that set out integrated actions to tackle the economic, environmental, climate, demographic and social challenges affecting urban areas, while taking into account the need to promote urban- rural linkages. At least 5 % of the ERDF resources allocated at national level under the Investment for growth and jobs goal shall be allocated to integrated actions for sustainable urban development Taking into account its specific territorial situation, each Member State shall establish in its Partnership Agreement the principles for the selection of urban areas where integrated actions for sustainable urban development are to be implemented and an indicative allocation for those actions at national level. Sustainable urban development

Polycentric development: 9+21 Balanced network of centres Latvia 2030 – Long term development strategy Defines balanced network of centres: 9 national level development centres (ITI) 21 regional level development centres

Urban development – ITI investments Urban challenge Specific Objective ERDF including 9 cities Economical and demographical Attracting investments for regions Revitalisation of deprived areas Infrastructure for general education Infrastructure for vocational education Climate and environmental Energy-efficiency of municipalities Revitalisation of deprived areas Social Social services ,6%

Integrated approach Integrated or complementary projects – a set of projects from several specific objectives, where investments and results are interrelated – Business projects - municipalities and entrepreneurs – Service projects – municipalities and state For these projects it is necessary to ensure synchronized project implementation: – Synchronized decision project proposals (evaluation of projects is taking into account interrelatedness of investments ) – Synchronizes decision making time on project proposals Central element – Local development program

Local Development Program. Integrated investments Revitalization of territories, development of deprived areas (Ministry of Regional Development) Attracting investments for regions ( Ministry of Regional Development) Energy-efficiency of municipal buildings (Ministry of Regional Development) Needs analysis Roads ( Ministry of Transport ) Entrepreneurship (Ministry of Economy) Rural development (Ministry of Agriculture) Infrastructure of social services (Ministry of Welfare) Infrastructure of general education (Ministry of Education) Infrastructure of vocational education (Ministry of Education ) Natural and cultural heritage (Ministry of Culture/Regional Development) Other invest- ments

Development Program Investment Plan Priority project ideas: 1.Project idea 2.Project idea 3.Project idea Alternative project ideas: 1.Project idea 2.Project idea Regional Development Coordination Council Cabinet of Ministers Approves: Indicators and funding (in total for each municipality regarding each SSO) Time frame of SSO implementation Municipality Municipal commission Performs selection of project proposals: According to SSO terms According to funding amount approved by Cabinet of Ministers VERIFICATION According to Article 7 it is verified if project selection has been performed in compliance with regulations and criteria of SSO Approves or rejects project proposal (after verification) Drafts project proposal for SSO Municipality Implementation of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI)

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