The Finance and Administrative Affairs Committee of the Riga City Council, among the working bodies of the capital's municipality, is the first among equals, as it is traditionally headed by the mayor. Currently, Viesturs Kleinbergs ("Progressives") is assisted by all three of his deputy mayors.
On January 8, the first meeting of 2026 took place in such a company, where trends emerged that precede the new budget of the city council.
All in the name of Europe
According to the estimates approved under our mayor, one cannot say that we are being particularly frugal. Thus, the Committee approved the city's participation in the program "Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values". "The goal of the project is to share examples of good practice, promoting the involvement of residents in society and active participation in the democratic life of the European Union, improving activities in the field of youth policy, and enhancing the competencies and knowledge of decision-makers, youth workers, and youth. The total budget of the project is 261,495 euros, with the budgetary part of the project being 38,000 euros."
In general, to address the issues arising from globalization, a new youth space will be created in Riga. The deadline for completion is by the end of 2027. This initiative was approved by the acting head of the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports of the Riga City Council, Ivars Balamovskis.
For its part, the Interreg Europe program for interregional cooperation on "developing an integrated and long-term urban development strategy" has a budget of 163,300 euros, of which 16,330 euros will come from the funds of the Riga city municipality.
The Finance Committee also made a conceptual decision — to allocate a subsidy of up to 300,000 euros for events in Riga that will be attended by more than 30,000 people. A condition was specifically stated — "at least 20% of foreign visitors."
It is likely that this is already laying the groundwork for sponsoring a large-scale, loud show at Lucavsala, where scandals involving drug discoveries and intoxicated individuals regularly occur. Last summer, the organizers were upset by the lack of attention from the city council and hinted that they would look for a new location. But what, for example, will they check the audience's passports at the concert? In any case, each visitor to the mass event will receive 10 euros from taxpayer funds.
To determine whether the clientele falls under the goal of "Riga — an internationally recognized, significant, and competitive metropolis of Northern Europe." "This also strengthens the economic growth of Riga and its presence in the international media space..." These formulations were signed by the mayor himself!
The agency received two million
The Riga Investment and Tourism Agency is the favorite project of the city council, according to the Committee's plan. Its tasks for 2026 include a 5-7% increase in the number of travelers to the capital.
It is expected that such an increase will "help restore the tourist flow to pre-crisis (Covid-19 pandemic) levels." Marketing campaigns will be held in Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands.
Riga intends to promote itself in preparation for its 825th anniversary this year. Moreover, advertising articles are planned to be placed in "global top media," alongside such grand cities as Rome, Barcelona, Berlin, and Stockholm. In total, the agency will receive an additional 2 million euros. These funds will be sourced from "additional revenue grants from the Riga municipality."
Here, in the opinion of your author, the city fathers have somewhat altered their sense of scale. With all due respect to heritage and cultural traditions, our city is still much closer to the more modest representatives among European capitals. Therefore, it would be wise to look to the experience of Bratislava, for example.
What the Center for Outskirts Residents wants to pay for
The aforementioned structure is supposed to improve the situation in the neighborhoods of Riga. In fact, we are doing so well with residential areas that even the modest funding for the "Outskirts Development Program" for 2026 — at the suggestion of this very Center! — is being redirected to provide electricity to Dome Square (100,000 euros) and new trading modules on the streets (121,875 euros).
As they say, at the request of the working people.
Total digitization
The increase in funding for the Riga Digital Agency is also significant — by 3,880,618 euros, or up to 20,379,895 euros. However, no special development in the computer field for Riga residents is expected — this is "necessary materials, fixed assets, inventory, repairs that exceed the control figure...".
For just the payment of legal Microsoft licenses, Riga will spend 2,818,040 euros. It is worth noting that in the world of computers, "free software" has been established for many years — i.e., programs that do not require payment of a cent and perform all the same functions as the praised overseas products! But apparently, this is unknown to local computer gurus. Or, for some reason, paying a company from the USA is advantageous.
But it is not only Americans who charge fees simply for the brand. For example, the Latvian state requires Riga to pay 12,000 euros — as a fee for the right to use the unified municipality number — 1201.
In addition, in 2026, part of the municipality's databases will undergo "migration to the cloud." Thus, physically, this collection of information will no longer be stored in Latvia, but on remote servers somewhere in the West. So, if, say, another cable break occurs in the Baltic Sea — it will be unfortunate. In monetary terms, this will cost Riga again 125,000 euros for 2 databases.
Electronic Riga is trying to keep up with the times, so we will spend 124,005 euros this year on data analytics and artificial intelligence services. The capital of Latvia will soon have a "digital twin." But we won't forget the good old telephone either — 99,000 euros have been allocated for the "fixed communication platform."
Passwords and access
Among other things, we should note the concept of "privileged users (administrators)." The Riga Digital Agency also manages the computers of the deputies elected to the municipality. Accordingly, it sends constant requests for rebooting workstations, setting new passwords, and similar actions, without which participation in the activities of the city council is simply impossible.
After all, to legally be considered a participant in a meeting of the Council or Committee, one must connect through the ELISS system and personal authorization. So that later all votes are recorded by impartial electronics.
However, perhaps it is for the best — after many years, it will be possible to accurately determine who and how distributed taxpayers' money in the conditions of declared savings.
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