Latvia–Lithuania Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2007–2013
Summary of the Thematic Capitalisation Report y of Living Improved Qualit t Public Services through Efficien ion and Administrat
2014
Summary of the Thematic Capitalisation Report
“Improved Quality of Living through Efficient Public Services and Administration” The field includes 43 projects with a total ERDF grant 12 752 055 EUR. Majority of the projects (33 projects) are Small facility projects. The projects have been divided into five thematic pools based on their thematic focus – “Culture” (15 projects), “Education” (11 projects), “Sport” (8 projects), “Safety” (7 projects) and “Transport and Communication” (2 projects). Projects have contributed to increasing the quality of public services in such fields as a culture, an education, sports, a transport, a communication and a safety by the crossborder exchange of the experience and the joint capacity building. The projects have demonstrated innovative approaches and good practises, as well as majority of them have contributed to the achievement of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region objectives and priority areas.
Projects in the pool “Culture” address general regional development problems, such as low economic activity, depopulation and low level of civic participation, and specific challenges in the field of culture as disappearing intangible culture heritage, seasonality of cultural events and a lack of skills and competences in culture management. The projects address also opportunities: an unused potential in the cross-border cooperation and the knowledge exchange in the field of a culture, a traditional culture and a local identity as a tourism asset, as well as the community development via cultural activities. Innovative approaches in the project pool “Culture” focus on the diversification of cultural environment and the creation of new, innovative culture products and events by mixing the contemporary and traditional culture, and using modern technologies and approaches. For example, 15 innovative cultural products have been created and an innovative cultural event - festival “Flying fish” in Kuldiga - was organised during the project “ART SPAWN”. Good practises in this pool include activities with the wider involvement of the community by organising thematic camps and workshops, for example, a children art camp on the puppet theatre performance and the puppet creation in the project “Art Bridge”, a creative cross-border youth camp on the use of new media in the before mentioned project “ART SPAWN”. Also publications for a wider society have been developed, e.g. a recipe booklet of the Latvian and Lithuanian gastronomic heritage in the project “Ziemgala Traditions”, the cultural activities calendar in the project “RADBAU”, the chamber music CD in the project “PRELUDIA” and DVD of the craftsmen training in the project “Crafts and Culture”.
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The “Education” projects solve common problems for both countries – lack of new skills and competencies, the development of reading habits, the sustainable development of values in the environmental education, the exchange of a culture and a history in the music education by development and improvement of existing education programs and implementation of innovative methods within the teaching process. Also projects in this pool include innovative and atypical methods and activities. For example, during the project “Reading-IT-Creation” new IT products were purchased to make libraries more attractive to children and youth, as well as creative cognitive activities with information technologies and art scenic were implemented during the camps. Good practises are demonstrated through an on-going cross-border cooperation established within previous cooperation activities (e.g. “YOUTH FOR NATURE” and “Arts, Ethnic Identity”).
Projects in the pool “Sport” focus on the involvement of youth in active and healthy lifestyle by encouraging participation and organizing joint sport events. Good practises in this pool include not only the organisation of cross-border events, but also the development of methodological materials and websites that contribute to the sustainability of the project results. For example, within the project “Wings for START” a joint strategy was developed on how to attract youth to moto sport and an interactive website created allowing children to interact with one another and learn about a healthy lifestyle.
Projects in the pool “Safety” focus on the risk prevention and management, the development of common actions in response to the environmental emergency and rescue situations as well as the cross-border crime prevention. Innovative approaches in the project pool “Safety” include joint actions and innovative technologies to ensure the disaster management and emergency recovery services in the cross border area.
Projects in the pool “Transport and communication” focus on the lack of joint system of planning of the public transport, an insufficient control of passengers and goods in the ports, as well as underdevelopment and underuse of e-services within this field.
Project synergies and common attempts to solve regional development problems The majority of the projects show a synergy with other projects and EU programmes within the programme regions. For small-facility projects implemented by municipalities or NGOs a clear synergy is visible with the LEADER programme as well as national and local grants. For example, the project “Art Bridge” is complementary with the other projects
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financed from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and Klaipeda City Municipality Administration. Another example is the culture project “Seasons” that has been implemented by two local action groups of the LEADER programme from Latvia (Balvi District partnership) and Lithuania (Kelme Partnership Local Activity group) thus adding a cross-border dimension to local development initiatives implemented within the LEADER programme. Projects have also demonstrated a mutual cooperation, e.g. participants of the project “Cultural Identity” joined the event “Balt’s Day” in Bauska organised within the project “UBUS”. Thus both projects showed the synergy. 6 projects of 7 from the pool “Safety” demonstrate a synergy by the development of common rescue teams and the risk management systems in almost all cross border area. Especially the safety project “CBRM II” should be highlighted, which is continued as a Phase II of the cross border cooperation initiatives developed to facilitate implementation of joint strategy between Jelgava and Siauliai municipalities thus demonstrating a cumulative effects of the supported projects.
Suggestions for the local and regional development Future projects in the next programme should focus on the development of innovative approaches and products by mixing contemporary and traditional ways. Development or joint strategies, methodologies, services and products, as well as the use of modern technologies should be highlighted. Moreover, activities involving the wider community should be encouraged. For the sustainability of project results, the development of web pages and the maintenance with the actual information, publications, videos and CDs are beneficial of such projects. Last but not least, we advise to focus projects on strengthening the capacity of local municipalities to provide financially efficient and innovative services by implementing smart “shrinking” strategies in regions where the number of inhabitants is decreasing. At the same time, municipalities should develop new strategies and services to attract qualified workers to their territories by using their strengths – a peaceful and green environment, lower costs for the housing and more easily reachable services than in the metropolitan areas.
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