About grants

In order to continue a close co-operation between European countries in trade area the European Economic Area (EEA) was established. The EEA Agreement entered into force on 1 January 1994. The EEA comprises of 25 EU Member States and three EEA European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

The ten new Member States were eligible for assistance from new EEA Financial Mechanism and Norwegian Financial Mechanism (Financial Mechanisms). The EEA Financial Mechanism’s assistance was also granted to Spain, Portugal and Greece. The objective of the assistance was to contribute to the reduction of social and economic disparities within the EEA, and to support the new European Union Member States in their efforts to participate fully in the enlarged internal market. The Financial Mechanisms’ commitment period was 5 years – from 1 May 2004 to 30 April 2009, but the project implementation period – till 30 April 2011. The EEA Financial Mechanism’s assistance was provided by Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The Norwegian Financial Mechanism’s assistance was provided by Norway.

In order to ensure the implementation of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and the EEA Financial Mechanism two Memorandums of Understanding – between the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Latvia (on the subject of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism) and between the Republic of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Latvia (on the subject of the EEA Financial Mechanism) have been signed in December 2004.

Priority sectors

Latvian EEA Financial Mechanism’s priorities are set in the Annex B of the EEA Financial Mechanism’s Memorandum of Understanding and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism’s priorities – in the Annex B of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism’s Memorandum of Understanding. The specific forms of grant assistance are mentioned in Annex C of Memorandums of Understanding.

Financing

19 740 000 Euro from EEA Financial Mechanism was allocated for Latvia in period of time 2004 till 2009, from which 4% was deducted for the management costs of the donor states, and then 1,5% was deducted for the approval, monitoring and post – evaluation carried out by donor states.

34 020 000 Euro was available from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, from which 4% was deducted for the management costs of the donor states, and then 1,5% was deducted for the approval, monitoring and post – evaluation carried out by donor states.

Wherewith 18 666 144 Euro from EEA Financial Mechanism was available for implementation of individual projects, programmes and block grants, but 31 834 215 Euro from Norwegian Financial Mechanism, and 50 500 359 Euro in total from both mechanisms.