OREANDA-NEWS. On October 4-5, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis will leave for Bratislava – the capital city of Slovakia, in order to participate in the summit "European Union Friends of Cohesion" where Prime Ministers of 16 EU Member States or their representatives together with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Parliament will discuss the Cohesion Policy funding in the new EU's multi-annual budget for 2014-2020. Within the framework of the visit, the meeting of the Prime Minister and Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia on bilateral relations and current EU issues is scheduled.

The Prime Ministers of the two countries plan to discuss the key issues in relation to the political dialogue, economic cooperation, cooperation in international organizations and Latvia's candidacy in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the context of current EU issues, the strengthening of the Economic and Monetary Union, future of Europe, as well as the euro area and the introduction of the euro in Latvia will be discussed.

The meeting of the Heads of State of the Member States will take place in the crucial phase of negotiations because the Member States have agreed to make the final decision on the EU's multi-annual budget, incl., provision of the cohesion funding, by the end of this year. During the discussions, Valdis Dombrovskis, Prime Minister of Latvia, will defend Latvia's position – at least the current level of the Cohesion Policy funding should be maintained to ensure that Latvia could sooner approach the EU's average development level and create favourable conditions for economic growth and infrastructure development.

About Latvia's interests in the multi-annual budget:

Latvia pays particular attention to two key priorities in negotiations on the EU's multi-annual budget for 2014-2020: to ensure sufficient Cohesion Policy funding, as well as to achieve fair and equal conditions of competition for Latvian farmers in the Single European Market. In addition to the priority interests, Latvia is interested to actively engage in discussions about all major budget directions and policies. More detailed information about Latvia's priorities: http://www.mfa.gov.lv/lv/Arpolitika/eu/daudzgadu-budzets/