On November 8, the Cabinet of Ministers supported the informative report developed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Affairs (MoEPRD) on support investment for strengthening the capacity of local governments to improve the efficiency and quality of their operations in the context of the administrative territorial reform. Support of 3 million euros will be provided.
In order for municipalities to be able to ensure the performance of autonomous functions defined by law in a high-quality manner and accessible to residents, as well as for services provided to residents to be at reasonable costs in accordance with current demographic trends, MoEPRD, in cooperation with planning regions, will implement investments as project grants. The total amount of funding is 3,025,000 euros, of which 2,500,000 euros are the funds of the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility and 525,000 euros are state budget funds for covering VAT.
As a part of the support, MoEPRD plans to implement evaluations of municipal public services, train 1,300 specialists of municipalities and planning regions to improve the efficiency of their operations and provided services. It is also planned to develop methodological recommendations for local government specialists for the improvement of service provision, as well as to provide support for testing new ways of providing services.
The report was developed in accordance with the implementation and monitoring procedure of the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility plan, which stipulates that MoEPRD ensures the appropriate implementation of reforms and investments determined within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility plan and carries out the development, implementation, monitoring and improvement of the internal control system in accordance with the requirements of the implementation of the plan, as well as achieving the reforms and investment indicators set within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility plan.
At the same time, the support will be provided in accordance with the Latvian Guidelines of the Regional Policy for 2021-2027, where one of the directions of action to achieve the goal of the regional policy is the efficiency of the administration of planning regions and municipalities.