Since July 1st, 2023, Latvia has taken over the presidency of EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. During this period, Latvia chairs the meetings of national coordinators and determines the agenda. During the presidency the responsible ministries take over chairing their respective Policy Area Steering groups. Latvia is taking over the presidency from Sweden and continuing the work they started: implementation of the strategic action plan, improvement of internal and external communication and working on support for Ukraine.
EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is the first EU macro-regional strategy based on an innovative and integrated long-term approach to the implementation of EU policy in the Baltic Sea Region. It covers eight countries of the region - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
The Strategy is divided into three main objectives: saving the sea, connecting the region and increasing prosperity. Each objective relates to a wide range of policies and has an impact on the other objectives. The implementation of the strategy is based on its action plan, which defines 14 policy areas and makes up a total of 44 actions, with specific goals and indicators until 2025.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs defined as essential the Baltic energy market interconnection plan and its implementation, the coordinated development of the trans-European transport network and its connections with EU neighboring countries, increasing the competitiveness of logistics services and ensuring the throughput capacity of the EU's external border, joint regional education and research field development, cross-border cooperation in environmental pollution assessment and prevention.
The Ministry of Agriculture is taking over the chair of Policy Area Bioeconomy steering group, where, together with the other seven countries' responsible ministries, they will lead the meetings of the steering group and assist the coordinators of the policy area in the implementation of the action plan.