At present, all local governments in Latvia have adopted sustainable development strategies. These are the most important territorial development documents at the local government level. They describe problems and instruments chosen by the local governments, and propose local level solutions for economic, social and environmental issues addressed in the SDGs.

These local government sustainable development strategies have a long-term perspective that is based on Latvia 2030 and the Sustainable Development Strategy of the respective planning region. The strategic section defines the local government’s long-term development vision and main development priorities, while the section on strategic spatial development defines and schematically represents the desired spatial structure of the territory, development priorities and desired long-term changes.

According to the Development Planning System Law, planning regions ensure the co-ordination of development planning documents at local and regional levels and the compliance of development planning documents at the regional level with higher planning documents in accordance with regulations determining the development planning system.

EU linkages

The NSDS was elaborated taking into account goals of the EUSDS as well as development trends at the national and global level. The NSDS priorities are to a large extent aligned with those of the EUSDS. National Development Plan 2014-2020, the medium-term planning document aimed at implementing the NSDS, was prepared recognizing the need to integrate other EU policies, in particular, the Cohesion policy and the Europe 2020 Strategy into the planning process.