Public Hearings that had taken place on 5th November 2013 in St.Petersburg were organized to discuss priorities of Estonia-Russia and Latvia-Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programmes for the period 2014-2020 with involvement of 38 participants from the Russian Federation, including representatives of St.Petersburg, Pskov and Leningrad oblast Administrations, Project partners of the current Estonia-Latvia-Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme and sectoral representatives (education, science, healthcare, ecology, etc).
More than 20 participants had taken active part in discussion, which was built around but not limited to Thematic Objectives proposed in Draft Cross-border cooperation programming concept note 2014-2020 of the European Commission.
Prioritizing voting on thematic objectives was carried out in written form; proposals on Large Scale Projects were also collected in written.
For both Estonia-Russia and Latvia-Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programmes 4 most welcomed thematic objectives/priorities appeared to be the same:
1. Environmental protection, climate change adaptation;
2. Business and SME development;
3. Promotion of local culture and preservation of historical heritage;
4. Improvement of accessibility to the regions, development of transport and communication networks and systems.
Results of the Public Hearings were presented at the 2nd Meeting of the Joint Programming Committee for Latvia-Russia Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020 on 8th November 2013 in Jurmala, Latvia.