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Latvia and Estonia to start planning Saaremaa-Kurzeme ferry route

BC, Riga, 07.11.2019.Print version
A scheduled meeting of the joint Estonia-Latvia intergovernmental committee in Riga on Wednesday agreed that the planning of a legal and financial framework for maritime transport between Saaremaa and Kurzeme will be launched in transnational cooperation, informed LETA/BNS.

"This means that an informal team of experts will start preparing for the opening of the ferry route. A representative of the Saaremaa rural municipality government who attended the meeting confirmed that their municipality is still interested in establishing a ferry route and that a more detailed action plan is about to be completed in the near future," Minister of Public Administration Jaak Aab told.


After that, the rural municipality government of Saaremaa is planning to organize an information day for potential operators in order to raise their awareness of the possibilities of the route, including from the perspective of increasing tourism attractiveness.


It was also agreed in Riga that next year, the countries will continue to work on improving cross-border healthcare and service provision in border regions, mapping cross-border rail traffic possibilities on the Tallinn-Riga route, identifying and coordinating high priority cross-border sections of road requiring reconstruction and coordinating procedures and plans for cross-border rescue operations.


In addition, cooperation is to continue in preparing the analysis of a common packaging deposit system and the development of a joint geodetic motive for the entire Estonian-Latvian border area.


"It was agreed at the joint sitting that these are issues that were added to the agenda of next year's meeting of the joint Estonia-Latvia intergovernmental committee. These issues will be further addressed by informal working groups operating under the intergovernmental committee. How these common agenda items can be implemented in a targeted manner will be determined next year as a result of the work of the working groups," Aab said.


The joint Estonia-Latvia intergovernmental committee is tasked with intensifying cooperation between the countries, development of regions and resolving of common challenges, including through supporting free cross-border movement of people and workforce, goods, services and capital.






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