On 16th of June 2021, by remote video conference, during the 7th Cooperation Committee meeting EEA Grants 2014–2021 programme “International Police Cooperation and Fight against Crime” (Programme) recent developments and achievements were discussed with key Programme stakeholders, as well as a renewed plan of Bilateral Cooperation Fund initiatives was approved.
The Ministry of the Interior, as the Program Operator, informed the Cooperation Committee about the newly concluded project agreements, project progress during the last six months and a risk-based monitoring approach of the Programme. Work is currently underway to start implementation and to sign an agreement for the project “Improvement of Employees’ Knowledge in the Fight against Money Laundering in Latvia” implementation by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Latvia in cooperation with Financial and Capital Market Commission in the second half of 2021 and to start the planned reserve funding project “Forensics strengthening the system and scene inspection capacity ”, which, thanks to additional reserve funding from the Donorstates, will improve the speed of forensic examinations and the support of forensic specialists at the crime scene. It would be the seventh and final project of the Programme to be launched.
For the first time, representatives of the Project Promoters were invited to participate in the Cooperation Committee meeting to present to the Donors’ representatives what has already been achieved in their respective projects. The State Revenue Service presented the achievements and further activities of projects “Prevention and Combating of Economic Crimes at the Border Crossing Point “Terehova”” and “Promotion of Law Enforcement Cooperation in Prevention and Combating of Economic Crimes in Latvia”.
When discussing bilateral cooperation issues, the Cooperation Committee expects the first activities in this field to be implemented in 2022. Currently, the Programme Cooperation Committee has already approved ten initiatives within Bilateral Cooperation Fund, the implementers of which are the State Police, the Ministry of Welfare and the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau. The Ministry of the Interior aims to create an opportunity for all Project promoters to strengthen cooperation with EEA countries, therefore the Ministry of the Interior along with the State Revenue Service and with the help of the Donor representatives is currently working on developing bilateral cooperation between Latvian and Norwegian/ Icelandic customs authorities. The next meeting of the Programme Cooperation Committee is to take place in December 2021.
Subscribe to news
Receive notifications of the latest contests, news and news events in programs that are important to you!
Report Irregularities
Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway have a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and mismanagement in the EEA and Norway Grants. We strongly encourage you to share your concerns and report suspected irregularities.