A total amount of maximum 20 862 958 euros is allocated for 41 cooperation project across four Interreg V-A Latvia-Lithuania Programme 2014 – 2020 priorities. These project applications were selected out of 158 projects that were submitted for the 1^st call of project proposals in August 2016.

In the priority 1 for supporting cooperation for sustainable and clean environment 12 projects out of 61 submitted were selected. The total allocated sum for the priority 1 is 6.34 million euros.

New joint tourism routes and other cross-border activities will be developed by eight tourism projects Heritage Gardens, Travel Smart, UniGreen, PPMIH, Balts’ Road, AGRI-HERITAGE, JESLL, AttractiveFORyou. The sum allocated for tourism projects is 3.83 million euros.

Two joint water resources management initiatives will be implemented in ECOFLOW and CATCH POLLUTION projects. Latvian and Lithuanian firefighter services will cooperate to fight together against environmental accidents in projects ATOM and DERMR. The allocated sum for these projects is 2.51 million euros.

No projects were approved in the area for regenerating of public areas with environmental problems, thus 4.9 million euros are still available under this specific objective.

In the priority 2 for the support of labor mobility and employment in the programme territory in total 13 cooperation projects are selected with the allocated sum of around 7.95 million euros.

In six of supported projects Latvian and Lithuanian higher education institutions and municipalities will develop educational programmes to train engineers and improve vocational education. Supported projects are LitLatHV, LatLitNaviPort, GISEDU, Mobility, SalesLabs, CONUS.

Business support organizations and education institutions will cooperate to foster new entrepreneurs in other seven of approved projects. Supported projects are BONUS LT-LV, BUSINESS SUPPORT, BEE, BEE Lab, Business Bag, CREAzone 2.0., ReforB.

In the priority 3 for the support of social inclusion as a precondition to territorial development 2.51 million euros are allocated to seven projects.

Four projects will improve accessibility and efficiency of social services: ADD ME, I See, POZCOPING and Joint smart social services.

Further three projects will improve living conditions in deprived communities and territories of 80 160 km² of programme area: BVENTA, FV and Regenerate deprived communities in the regions.

Nine projects with a total budget of 4.06 million euros were selected in the priority 4 targeted at improvement of efficiency of public services by strengthening capacities and cooperation between institutions. Supported projects are: C-System, Safety First!, COLLAPSE, SYNERGY FOR SECURITY, QUALITY MEDICAL CARE, Self-service libraries for different generations, e-Card, Open Leadership, Open Leadership, Network-DigiHubs.

Funding decisions were made by the Monitoring Comittee during its meeting on January 23^rd – 24^th in Anykščiai, Lithuania.  During the meeting timeframe for the 2^nd call for proposals was also set: launch on 27 March, 2017 and submission deadline 31 May, 2017.

List of approved 41 projects within the first call for proposals can be viewed here.