EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Funds, Latvia, Legislation

Finance Ministry's Deputy State Secretary Aleksandrs Antonovs informed that the Commission's main objections are related to the current monitoring system. The Commission believes that the Finance Ministry cannot rely only on other ministries' assessment and must monitor them much more actively. Latvia in turn believes that this would only slow down the absorption of EU funds, require additional resources and increase bureaucracy, writes LETA.

The current monitoring system is decentralized. The Commission, however, wants to return to the centralized one, which could be assessed only during the next planning period. Even though the ministry will try to convince the Commission that the current system is efficient, it will hire five additional employees to improve cooperation and project assessment. The ministry's internal audit system will provide three more spots for cooperation with other ministries.

At the same time, the Finance Ministry will propose several regulatory changes, which will halt the programs with shortcomings and violations faster and much more efficiently, informed Antonovs.

At the moment, the Commission has suspended EUR 259 million (LVL 180 million) worth of repayment for the implemented projects. Other Baltic states are experiencing similar issues as well.

As reported, the European Commission has suspended EU fund payments to Latvia, informing that the Finance Ministry, which deals with the allocation of the funds, lacks a mechanism of influencing decisions made by ministries and government agencies in the distribution of the EU funding.