EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Legislation

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In the Declaration, members of the Open Government Partnership express their commitment to take advantage of open government as a tool to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Special importance in this work is attributed to public access to data on government activities and close cooperation between government and civil society.

The Open Government Partnership was launched in 2011 on the initiative of the United States and Brazil. The OGP brings together 66 countries, which draw up national open government action plans and undertake specific commitments to improve the functioning of their public institutions, thereby facilitating governance that is more effective and more open, and with a civic society that is more involved in political processes and has greater trust in government institutions.

Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica, the Latvian Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary State Secretary for EU Affairs, is on a working visit to Mexico City on 27-30 October at the invitation by the Mexican Government to participate in the Open Government Partnership’s Global Summit and discuss the relations and prospects for cooperation between Latvia and Mexico in meetings with Mexican officials.

During the visit, in a meeting with Alejandro Negrin, Director General for Europe at the Foreign Ministry of Mexico, the Parliamentary State Secretary noted that the present opportunities should be seized to deepen relations between Latvia and Mexico. Latvia is prepared to actively contribute to bringing of the strategic cooperation between the European Union and Mexico in line with the current circumstances and conditions.

The Parliamentary State Secretary outlined the very positive prospects for cooperation between both countries in the area of education and training. Latvia’s institutions of higher education could be good places for Mexican students to earn their degrees. Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica highlighted the cooperation of Riga Technical University with Mexican universities as an example. Referring to the promotion of economic cooperation, the Parliamentary State secretary invited the Mexican Foreign Ministry to assist in the organisation of visits by business delegations.

Director General Negrin emphasised that within the current framework of Mexico-EU relations, there is an obvious need for Mexico to advance active and diverse cooperation with every EU Member State. In this context, Mexico sees good opportunities for the development of relations with Latvia. The Parliamentary State Secretary and the Director General were in agreement that bilateral contacts and visits should be made more dynamic.