On May 22nd, in Brussels, following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and discussions within the framework of the European Civil Preparedness and Resilience Coalition meeting, Latvia's Minister of the Interior, Rihards Kozlovskis, together with his counterparts from Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden, signed a joint commitment on the immediate need to strengthen civil defense preparedness and resilience.
The signed commitment envisages improving horizontal crisis management among the resilience coalition countries. This includes fostering information exchange, strengthening intelligence analysis capabilities, and coordinating emergency response. It also provides for strengthening the protection of critical infrastructure, including critical entities, communications, underwater infrastructure, and cybersecurity, as well as the coordinated and strategic provision of national material reserves to enable countries to assist each other in a crisis.
The introduction of new and innovative solutions in the context of EU civil protection is also planned. As an example of good practice, Rihards Kozlovskis highlighted Latvia's multi-sectoral approach to developing its shelter network during the discussions. In a very short time, Latvia has managed to create and agree with the European Commission (EC) on a unique program that provides €22.2 million in EU funding for adapting over 500 shelters across the country.
During the meeting, the Minister of the Interior also pointed out that, as of today, every resident in Latvia has access to a Latvian shelter map in the modern "112 Latvija" app. This is another significant step towards educating the public on civil defense and preparing for crises.
On March 26, 2025, the EC presented the European Union (EU) Preparedness Strategy, which includes a series of measures aimed at improving member states' ability to prevent and respond to new threats. This European Civil Preparedness and Resilience Coalition meeting also reviewed the strategy and discussed measures to combat increasing hybrid threats, foreign manipulation and interference, terrorism threats, and other threats caused by natural or human-made disasters.
As previously mentioned, the Minister of the Interior has set the development of civil defense in Latvia as one of his priorities for 2025.
