The opening ceremony of the fifth session of the Advanced Programme in Law and Economics took place on 26 September at RGSL premises. Opening speeches were delivered by RGSL incoming Rector Professor Mel Kenny, RGSL director Karīna Kulberga, programme director Peter Gjortler and programme coordinator Justīne Elferte. Later in the evening the official reception of the Advanced Programme took place, with welcome speeches by representatives from donor states and the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Advanced Programme lasts for 12 weeks. This autumn, the 17 participants are from Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine, financed by the governments of Latvia and Norway. The programme is funded by the Latvian government together with the governments of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
At the official opening ceremony, incoming RGSL Rector Professor Mel Kenny congratulated all participants on their selection, wished them well for their studies and encouraged them to make full use of the resources and networking opportunities at RGSL. Fundamentally, the Rector added, the Advanced Programme is all about facilitating cooperation and collaboration in an incressingly interconnected world.
The Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica welcomed the Advanced Programme participants and noted that the aim of the Advanced Programme is to forge closer links between the participating countries and the European Union, as well as to provide support for reform. This is achieved through the training programme in European law and economics, as well as the sharing of Latvian experience with integration into the European Union. The Parliamentary Secretary congratulated the incoming Rector and wished him success in implementing RGSL future goals.
Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden to Latvia Henrik Landerholm stressed that Latvia has experience to share and that participants have many upcoming events that will improve their knowledge. In particular, he emphasized, that the Swedish government had earlier supported the establishment of RGSL, but now the school has full legal and financial autonomy. However, cooperation with RGSL continues because the Swedish government continues to support civil servants and academia from the European Neighbourhood Countries, Central Asia and Western Balkans who have an opportunity to study here.
Currently, 94 participants have already graduated the programme. They represent 17 countries: Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The objective of the programme is to provide training useful with regard to relations between on the one hand the international community and the European Union and on the other hand the European Neighbourhood Countries, Central Asia and the Western Balkans. Delivery of the programme is supported by the European Institute for Public Administration (EIPA), the Latvian Institute for International Affairs, the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and the University of Latvia.