CULTURE POLICY NEWS: LATVIA
Budget
2009 has seen a drastic drop in public financing for culture. This year the budget of the Ministry of Culture has been cut by 19.45% compared to the year 2008 (the budget includes the construction costs for the Latvian National Library and EU project funding, which means that the reduction for other expenditure is more than that: at –34%). The majority of cultural operators are concerned with the critical reduction of the budget allocated to the State Culture Capital Foundation, which is a grant-giving body whose aim is to secure the diversity of cultural activities all over Latvia. Its budget has been reduced by 45.9% in comparison to 2008.
The budget of 2010 has not been adopted yet; however, in one of the drafts there is already mention of an indicated reduction of the budget for the Ministry of Culture of almost 30% compared to the year 2009.
DEVELOPMENTS
Riga – European Capital of Culture 2014
In September 2009 an international jury chose Riga to be nominated as European Capital of Culture in 2014. Riga was selected because of its capacity and its potential to develop the European dimension of the programme. The nomination, however, of one of the candidate cities from the regions – Liepaja and Cesis – could have been a strategic input into the development of the country, which is becoming more and more centralised.
CULTURE AND ECONOMY
Remuneration in the cultural sector
Over the last few years there was a significant increase in the salaries of employees working in the public cultural sector: from 171 LVL (244 EUR) in 2005 to 504 LVL (720 EUR) in 2008 (average salary). Indeed, it almost reached the level of the average monthly salary for public administration employees (LVL 564 /EUR 806 in 2008).
In 2009, due to the economic crisis salaries have decreased and although precise data is not currently available, it is clear that they will be even further cut in 2010. Other conditions have also aggravated the situation of employees in the cultural sector. The Parliament decided that as of July 1st 2009 pensions would be cut by 10% for pensioners and 70% for working pensioners. The same reduction refers to self-employed pensioners who earn more than 180 LVL (257 EUR) per month. Due to this government decision, in July 2009 the number of working pensioners decreased by 42.4% compared to June 2009.
Remuneration for public lending to copyright owners is calculated as a certain share from the amount that libraries spent on buying new books in the previous year. In 2009 this share decreased from 10% to 5%. This would influence the incomes of freelance writers and translators. The total amount paid to copyright owners for public lending in 2009 has decreased by 70.7% compared to the year 2008.
REGIONS
Survey: Development of regions in Latvia 2008
Since the establishment of the State Regional Development Agency, a survey on the development of the regions in the country has been drawn up on an annual basis. This year the survey concludes a series of six publications, in which social economic development in Latvia is described prior to administrative territorial reform.
The conclusions indicate significant disparities in regional development. These disparities in the quality of life between the different regions continue to widen.
The course of development conflicted with regional policy objectives in Latvia, and, therefore, it necessitates a search for new and more effective instruments for promoting the growth of territorial cohesion and towns as regional or urban-rural development centres.
The survey is available as a pdf file in English.
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=20558
http://www.vraa.gov.lv/uploads/BSR%20INNOREG/Regionu%20attistiba%20Latvija%202008%20ENG.pdf