The European Union and its Member States announced today (7th March), at the 16^th meeting of the Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) being held in Bangkok, that it was tabling a new proposal at the Convention to ensure that polar bears are not threatened by international trade.

Third annual conference on Latvian - Estonian future cooperation was held in Riga on 14th December 2012 to facilitate Latvian - Estonian co-operation in eGovernance and Information Society to strengthen bases for co-operation and benefit from digital economy. Conference was addressed by Edmunds Sprūdžs, Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia, and Juhan Parts, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia.

On September 21st, 2012, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia invites everyone to take part in the European Cooperation Day and to celebrate the success of European territorial cooperation across Europe. More than 70 programmes, including 11 programmes that operate in the Baltic states, are participating in marking this day with special outreach activities that have one simple goal – to tell the people how these programmes have improved the quality of life in their regions.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (hereafter – the Ministry) and the Environmental Investment Fund have signed more than 600 contracts with owners of dwelling houses who will receive a funding of Climate Change Finance Facility (hereinafter-CCFF) for renewable energy use in their households.