Latvia has begun preparations for the new funding period of the European Union for 2028–2034. It is already clear that there will not be enough funds to implement all proposed projects, so the government will have to set priorities. On preliminary proposals from the European Commission, the Ministry of Finance informed representatives of non-governmental organizations on Wednesday. The new financial period will be the first in which the system of distributing European funds will change. Previously, funding was allocated through separate programs and funds — for example, for regional development, agriculture, or internal affairs — but now it is proposed to consolidate them into a single state and regional partnership plan. This means that Latvia will have to consider European funding as a common investment budget and independently determine which areas to prioritize. However, there will not be complete freedom in the distribution of funds: part of the funding will still remain targeted and will be regulated at the EU level. According to the current proposal, Latvia is allocated 9.3 billion euros in European funding for the period 2028–2034. Of this amount, 2.67 billion euros are intended for direct payments in agriculture and fisheries, about 700 million euros for the internal affairs sector, and approximately 400 million euros for the Social Climate Fund. The most intense competition is expected for the remaining 5.6 billion euros. These funds will need to be distributed among various state priorities. However, it is already evident that demand significantly exceeds the budget's capabilities. The ministries submitted investment requests totaling 27.1 billion euros — almost three times the amount of funding currently proposed for Latvia. The largest request was prepared by the Ministry of Transport — about 5.6 billion euros. This is followed by the Ministry of Agriculture (about 5 billion euros), the Ministry of Smart Governance and Regional Development (3.9 billion euros), the Ministry of Economics (2.7 billion euros), and the Ministry of Climate and Energy (more than 2 billion euros). In fact, this means that many projects will not be able to receive full funding, and some of them will likely have to be postponed or abandoned altogether. In the coming years, the government will need to determine which investments are considered most important for the country's development, as the final distribution of European funds will depend on these decisions.
