A hopeful piece of news has emerged for entrepreneurs in the eastern border area: the European Union may soon provide financial support to businesses that are literally fighting for survival today. Work is currently underway in Brussels on a new multiannual EU budget, which may include assistance for ensuring vital services in the eastern border area, reports 360 Ziņas.
The owner of the store, Dzinta Sprudžane, does not hide the fact that the number of customers is decreasing, and the business is operating almost at a loss. The store's doors remain open mainly not for profit, but at the request of local residents, because without this retail outlet, the village would essentially be left in complete isolation.
Local residents admit that it is hard for them to imagine daily life if the store closes. For Antra, Dainis, and Maria, it is not just a place to buy bread, but the only social point where they can meet, talk, and not feel disconnected from the world. For pensioners who do not have their own transportation, a trip to a larger center is an expensive and complicated ordeal.
The owner herself says that in the current situation, she has no means even for the most basic repairs, such as replacing the roof: all funds go towards just staying afloat. The store has been operating for twenty years, but during this time, the number of employees has decreased from three to one saleswoman. Now Santa performs several functions at once: she orders goods, cleans the premises, and even heats the stove to ensure that residents have all the essentials.
The store in Briežuciems stays afloat only thanks to the resourcefulness of the owner and the support of other properties she owns — a café and a store in Balvi. Local residents and representatives of the municipality are convinced that the regional policy being implemented in Riga is only draining the villages: schools and post offices are closing, bus routes are being canceled, which directly reduces the number of customers for small rural entrepreneurs. The head of the Baltic Region Association Management, Sarmīte Tābore, emphasizes that support for border entrepreneurs has been needed for a long time — to keep families in place and prevent villages from completely dying out.
The news that the European Parliament intends to support entrepreneurs on the brink of disappearance in the eastern border area has become almost a lifeline for the store manager Dzinta. She admits that such assistance would give her the strength to continue the fight. But local residents remain cautious and do not harbor any false illusions: fifteen years ago, it was in this building that the then leaders of the country promised support for the border area, yet those promises remained on paper.
Now residents are waiting not for new words, but for real actions — and hope that European assistance will reach Briežuciems before its last residents decide to pack their bags and leave.
