Brussels, 23/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - José Manuel Barroso personally congratulated the Baltic States' prime ministers for their respective partnership agreements concluded with the Commission on the use of structural and investment funds. The president of the European Commission was in Tallinn on Saturday 21 June to meet Tavy Roivas (Estonia), Laimdota Straujuma (Latvia) and Algirdas Butkevicius, after they had signed the agreements creating the basis for investment strategies in these countries between 2014 and 2020.
Barroso welcomed the excellent cooperation between these three countries and the Commission, which had ensured that the partnership agreement was adopted without any delay. He said that he was convinced that the future European investment through this agreement would “help to boost growth and create lasting jobs through support to innovation, training and education as well as a low carbon, resource-efficient economy”.
He pointed to the good absorption of structural funds in these countries during the previous period (2007-2013) and underlined the enthusiasm in the Baltic, particularly as the three countries are now more competitive than before, adding: “I think that it's fair to say that this also was helped to a large extent by our Union”. (MD)