Today, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Dr. Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital Infrastructure and Transport of Germany. Egils Levits and Dr. Wissing discussed potential Latvia-Germany cooperation on digital innovations and common standards, as well as progress with Rail Baltica project.
Federal Minister for Digital Infrastructure and Transport of Germany praised Latvia, other Baltic and Nordic countries for achievements in digital sector and offered to create a multilateral task force or ‘Innovation Club’ that would develop common legal standards for European digital sector. President of Latvia confirmed that challenges of digital transformation are best solved through cooperation between states and creation of task force would be a welcome step. He also confirmed Latvia’s interest in Innovation Club and outlined key areas that these standards should cover – government communication with public, digital design and digital privacy.
Both officials agreed that a well-functioning, modern and integrated transport system in the European Union is more important than ever. Both President Levits and Minister Wissing said Rail Baltica, which also has a strong security dimension, must be fully resolved without hesitation to ensure smooth implementation of the project.
Egils Levits thanked Germany for its strategic support to the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) that aims to strengthen the cooperation and regional infrastructure connectivity between EU member states.
President of Latvia and Federal Minister for Digital Infrastructure and Transport of Germany discussed the need to start planning reconstruction of Ukraine after the war and use platforms like 3SI to rebuild country’s transport and digital infrastructure.
Meeting also focused on EU’s climate policy and CO2 reduction targets in the context of mobility.
