EU Regional Policy, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania

During the meeting today, Kucinskis and Merkel discussed matters concerning information security, changes in the finance sector, and the EU multi-annual budget, the premier's office told.

While speaking about the EU budget, Kucinskis emphasized that EU member countries should have more freedom in deciding how to use the EU financing allotted to them. Furthermore, Latvia is not satisfied with cohesion funds under the EU multi-annual budget project, the premier said.

"The European Commission's proposal to reduce Latvia's cohesion funding 13 percent is not acceptable to us. On the national level, we have been working to foster Latvia's progress to the EU average level. And the OECD has a high opinion of the reforms implemented in Latvia," said Kucinskis.

The meeting also focused on information security matters, and Kucinskis confirmed that Latvia wished to continue cooperation with Germany in strengthening Latvia's media environment.

"We wish to see joint practical action on the EU level in the fight against misinformation. We are prepared to avert disinformation attempts during the upcoming Saeima elections in October," said Kucinskis, also confirming to Merkel that the Latvian government would continue to pursue policies based on European values.

Kucinskis also informed Merkel about the ongoing measures to "cleanse" the financial sector from shell companies and improve the sector's transparency.

Merkel congratulated Kucinskis on Latvia's centenary and said that Latvia and Germany's relations had traditionally been sound and would remain so in the future. Kucinskis said in turn that Germany was a close strategic partner of Latvia in the EU, NATO and other cooperation formats.