The European Cooperation Day is designed to celebrate the success of the European Territorial Cooperation and tell about the benefits of this kind of cooperation in the regions to more and more people. Estonia-Latvia programme is celebrating European Cooperation Day every year since 2012 by organizing various events.
Treimani – Ainaži in 2015
For the first time the cross-border kick-bike ride was organized from Treimani (Estonia) to Ainaži (Latvia). The day was marked with joint clean-up of the shores of the Gulf of Riga and making sand sculptures.
Lilli – Ķoņi in 2016
Already many more fans joined the kick-bike ride. This time from the Estonian border to Ķoņi mill. The programme also made a good use of the restored Seda river – Karksi-Nuia road, which also is the Baltic Way. Great improvements were done at the Lilli Nature Centre (Estonia) and inspiring workshops, like bread baking, were organized in Ķoņi Mill (Latvia).
Ape – Vastse-Roosa in 2017
"Tour de LatEst" on kick-bike gathered the fans for the 3rd time. We exploited the veloroute “Tour de LatEst” and the Ape-Mõniste road, that was restored with the support of the programme. Estonians and Latvians worked jointly for the revival of the Ape manor park (Latvia) and then moved to Vastse-Roosa (Estonia) for workshops and celebrations.
Participants of the Heritage Road Trip explored four routes - Coastal, Hansa, Industrial and Green. The routes and whole event was built on the routes and offers developed by our heritage tourism projects Coastal Hiking, Green Railway, Industrial Heritage, Livonian Culinary Route and UNESCO tourism. The final destination - Sangaste castle, which served as a place for joint celebrations, was a partner in the project Garden Pearls. Everybody could enjoy a fantastic concert by the ethnic groups of Livs, Suiti, Seto and Kihnu.
Participants at the Green Space Tour were engaged in attractive workshops, like waste sorting, preparation of the wrap cloth from the beeswax, making magnets from the wool and candle holders from reused glass jars. Partners of the WasteArt project organized them in the Tipu nature school, Mooste guest studio, Daibe polygon and Tartu nature house. The tour concluded in the Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu, on the Tõravere hill (20 km from Tartu).
30 trees for Interreg30 in 2020
To celebrate the 30 years of Interreg and the European Cooperation Day we planted 30 trees in the joint Valga-Valka twin city centre on 19 September 2020. The invited representatives of the programme authorities, guests and Valga-Valka local authorities met in the newly constructed centre and contributed to the greening plan of the new urban and cross-border space. In total 155 trees are planted on the Estonia-Latvia border and its surrounding area.
Book launch "Estonia-Latvia stories II" in 2021
To celebrate the EC Day 2021 and our 55 projects that have been implemented since 2017 by 109 Estonian and 118 Latvian organisations, we have once again gathered the stories about people, partnerships, solutions and places. This time the compilation captures the achievements of the Estonia-Latvia programme 2014-2020. The launch of the book took place in 30 September in the Estonian National Museum in Tartu.
Information about European Cooperation Day events all over Europe: www.ecday.eu