Liepaja celebrated its 400th anniversary on March 18. The main event of the celebrations was the concert performance "Personal Code: Liepaja", followed by the path of light "Illuminated Liepaja". Liepaja Mayor Gunars Ansins (Liepaja Party) told LETA in an interview that preparations are also needed for the European Capital of Culture in 2027 and the freshly earned rights to host the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2031. Ansins and the Liepaja Party are ready to run for the upcoming municipal elections. The mayor of Liepaja supports the state becoming a shareholder in the Liepaja Regional Hospital, but is not ready to present shares as a "gift" to the state. In his opinion, the state should buy them. The current mayor is also convinced that it is time to re-evaluate the way the local government financial equalization fund works.

Liepaja is celebrating its 400th anniversary, and so I would like to ask, what are the city's long-term achievements at the moment?

Liepaja as a city is quite young compared to many other cities, but I often say that we are only one year younger than New York. Each resident probably sees Liepaja's bloom in a different period. Personally, I think that Liepaja's blooming time was the second half of the 19th century. I also have a symbolic portrait of the mayor of Liepaja at that time, Karlis Ulihs, in my office. I associate this time with the city's strength, power and going beyond local decisions. Ulihs spent a lot of time outside Liepaja, fighting and proving that Liepaja could develop as a port, as an industrial center and also as a resort town. In a way, this was a turning point in the city's development.

What are some of the things you are doing now that will be remembered in the future?

What I have tried to promote in my position as the chairman of the city council is Liepaja's place not only as a state city in Latvia, but to some extent beyond the borders of Latvia. For example, Liepaja has been nominated as the European Capital of Culture in 2027. This means that we are players not only at the national level, but also at the European level. Just recently, in Frankfurt, the European Olympic Committee decided that Liepaja will be a possible location for the 2031 European Youth Olympic Festival. This is also placing Liepaja on the European map. It is worth mentioning everything that has to do with innovation and green industry, as we have been selected as one of the 100 European Union (EU) cities moving towards climate neutrality. This means that Liepaja is open to innovative solutions and projects that will also save the city budget. Even if it is just simple things, because we have replaced the entire street lighting system, created an energy efficiency program and are proud to have the highest number of insulated apartment buildings in the city.

How will you prepare for the municipal elections?

The Liepaja Party has always worked very carefully and deliberately on the party's election program, which then turns into an action plan, which we offer to our partners and, when forming a coalition, discuss the projects and programs we would like to implement in the city of Liepaja over a four-year period.

We are currently in the debate phase with the party members, so that we as the Liepaja Party have discussed all sectors and have also understood the mood, positions and opinions of the members.

The Liepaja Party list will be fully completed and all sectors will be represented at expert level. All current members of the City Council are also ready to continue their work.

Speaking on the national level, how do you see your cooperation with the United List?

The decision to join the United List was taken before the parliamentary elections because the country needs to think more about economic benefits and defend regional interests, because politics does not end only in Riga. Liepaja or any other city is also part of Latvia's development story. The election results were good enough for a newly established list and the representation in the Saeima is quite large. At the moment, the United List is in the opposition, which is, of course, a certain challenge to achieve the objectives, but let us see how the situation develops.

The Health Ministry has announced that it would like to see state participation in regional hospitals. Have you had any discussions about this?

We have had discussions on this issue with both the minister and the responsible officials of the Health Ministry. My personal opinion is that I would be very much in favor of a greater presence of the state in the capital of the Liepaja Regional Hospital, because the Liepaja Regional Hospital is a serious enough player in the healthcare system, not only locally in the city of Liepaja. Also, when we debated the participation of Riga Stradins University with a small shareholding, we saw only advantage. This has resulted in both the program for attracting young doctors and the research program.

Of course, the model that is now being proposed by the Health Ministry is perhaps insufficiently discussed. I find it rather strange that the municipality, as the shareholder, should give the state the shares. It is a strange offer, to say the least. The share capital of Liepaja Regional Hospital is almost EUR 40 million. It seems to me that it is only fair that, if the state wishes to be a shareholder in the company, it should purchase the shares and that these funds should be further channeled into the growth and development of the hospital, giving the hospital even more opportunity to develop and improve. A more detailed offer has not yet been received, but it would not be acceptable to me or to my colleagues if the municipality simply gave the shares to the state. I do not see how this is legally possible either.

What happens next?

I trust and hope that the health minister will consult further with the finance minister on the next steps. The Liepaja hospital is radically different from the Daugavpils hospital system. Both are powerful and important enough, but the financial situation is very different. We must not think that if Daugavpils has one offer, then it must simply be copied in the case of Liepaja. I do not think that would be the right direction in principle.

The benefit of the state participation in the capital would be logical enough, as closer cooperation with Riga Stradins University and Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital is being established. I see this as very positive, because we cannot be an expert in absolutely all fields, and the state has to choose which is the leading research hospital in Latvia.

Also, if we look objectively at the state, national security and the whole health care system as a whole, then the state is the largest financier of health care, and I am convinced that the state must then also be one of the shareholders in order to strengthen this synergy. That would be positive, it is just a question of the forms in which the state enters the capital company.

Speaking about education, before the last municipal elections you promised two new kindergartens and a strong school network. Is the number of kindergartens now sufficient, given the drop in the birth rate? Is the school network optimal for the current situation and for the next four years, or will some schools still have to be closed?

If we start with pre-school education, a brand new kindergarten has been built with municipal funds. For the second kindergarten, a technical project has been drawn up, a tender for construction has been issued and construction is now under way. This means that all the promises made four years ago are being kept. When the new kindergarten is finished, I think we will be able to wait a while to build new kindergartens, because the demographic situation shows that there will be no need for additional kindergarten places in the foreseeable future. In the next four-year period, we will definitely have to focus more on the improvement and technical equipment of the existing kindergartens.

As for improving the school network, we have done our first homework and the city's school network is now optimal. We have made a very detailed study of each school, of the pros and cons of merging or not merging them.

How is the transition to teaching only in Latvian going? Or have teachers who found it too difficult left Liepaja schools?

Of course, every resident of Liepaja and every resident of Latvia expects to see a high quality and professional teacher who is able to teach subjects in Latvian. Here we need to think together how to help the country, because we do see that there are a large number of teachers in pre-retirement age.

There were similar problems in health care. As a city, we launched a special support program for young medics. We are doing the same in this case, we are offering both a housing program and also an education program for teachers. At this point in time, we can see from the data from the education authority that we will have vacancies in a number of subjects in the future and we are consciously thinking about how to attract young professionals.

If we talk specifically about language issues, then schools go through an accreditation process where some of the issues are about the language, but no such blatant cases have come to light in the city of Liepaja. Of course, there are some teachers who have not passed the language exam at the appropriate level, but there are not many such cases.

What about refugees from Ukraine - have they settled and found their place in Liepaja?

Here is some history. Seven or eight years ago, when Liepaja was moving towards a different industrial situation, linked to the bankruptcy of Liepajas Metalurgs, we offered quite good opportunities for industrial development in the city. We made political promises of ten new factories and we were wrong with our forecasts, because now there are more than 20 new plants in the city. It also made us think about how we can attract new employees. Given that Liepaja is specifically metalworking, high-end welders have always been associated with Ukraine. This means that even before the war, Liepaja was home to a large number of Ukrainian citizens working in our industry. This means that we already understood a little better how to involve the Ukrainian population in our training programs and in our social life before the war.

At the outbreak of the war, Liepaja was also used as a transit city, as the ferry operator Stena Line offered fully paid trips for Ukrainian nationals to other European countries. It was also a new situation, but we coped with it successfully enough, from the very first day mobilizing NGOs that helped Ukrainian nationals with economic issues, such as food, clothing, but also, when the war started, the people of Liepaja opened their hearts and the doors of their homes very wide to complete strangers.

If we look at the situation today, I am very happy about the number of Ukrainians who have integrated very well into the life of the city of Liepaja, attend symphony concerts, go to sports classes, and I must say that some of them already speak Latvian well enough.

A year has passed since the University of Liepaja has been taken over by the Riga Technical University. At that time, you cherished the hope that it would be the forge of the region's young workforce. What is the situation?

Four years ago, I was convinced that we could do wonders in Latvia and build strong, stable universities in the regions. The dream was that we could consolidate with Riga Stradins University, which has value in health care, which we need very much, consolidate with the University of Latvia, which has its own professional niche in education and other sectors, and of course the city needed a technical education direction, which is at Riga Technical University. Unfortunately, this concept that we proposed failed, and the Education and Science Ministry, and then the Cabinet of Ministers, pushed the issue of Riga Technical University being the institution that would take over the University of Liepaja, as well as the Maritime College. Of course, it is a pity that it was not possible to bring all three universities at the same table and agree on a stable cooperation partner in the region. But it was also a question of legislation, because it could not be that the founders of the new university were three state institutions.

The cooperation with the Riga Technical University is, I would say, at an early stage, because every project needs a familiarization phase. I am very much looking forward to the moment when we have a fully-fledged director, and I hope that the captain will be able to steer the ship that has been entrusted to him. We need new specialists, and not only in the industrial sector, but also in teaching, the arts, culture and other sectors, because Liepaja is, after all, a multifunctional city. At this point we are waiting to hear from the management of Riga Technical University how we are going in this direction. I also, of course, understand that it takes time and very serious thought to go into each of the programs. I believe and hope that in the near future we as a municipality will receive a development strategy with concrete steps and directions on how we will transform the University of Liepaja for the needs of the region.

How are you doing with the development of the Liepaja Industrial Park?

I think we are one of the most powerful cities in Latvia at the moment. 75 percent of what is produced in Liepaja is exported, and the country should definitely be proud of Liepaja's place in industry. It is evident that industry is transforming, we have more and more companies that require a completely different kind of attitude.

Of course, as the city mayor, I would like to see higher wages for people working in all sectors, but I also think that entrepreneurs should be given time to complete this transformation. We see that robotics is already playing an important role in the industry, several companies are already doing this, and of course this is also increasing wages a little every day, but this process cannot be very rapid either, it needs a transition period.

So, looking at our investments in the Karosta area, it is clear that this has already had a very clear effect on the economic development of the city. In an area where there were no production plants, we now have Jensen Metal with three plants and a fourth one under construction. There is Intersipro Production, which supplies NATO with quality diving equipment and manufactures fire extinguishers. We also want to convey the message to other businesses that the territory of the former Liepajas Metalurgs is undergoing a process of transformation. With the support of the European Structural Funds, we have already started to clean up the first streets. At the same time, we have to admit that this area is problematic not only in terms of development, but also in terms of historical pollution. We will therefore invest quite a lot in environmental clean-up measures.

When will you become a donor to the Fund for the Equalization of Local Government Finances?

I have always said that we need to look at this donor issue from a completely different perspective. At the moment, there is a whole formula for determining which municipalities are donors and which are recipients. This formula includes the number of orphans, the number of pensioners, the number of pre-school children and so on. It seems to me that this formula is inherently wrong. I think the issue is slightly different. In order to motivate municipalities to work more on investment issues, a part of the budget should also be made up of income from new production facilities, from new development projects. It is not only wages that make up the Latvian economy. So, a debate with the Finance Ministry is, I think, inevitable. If the Latvian state wants to have cities that build the Latvian economy, this financing system must also change.

Where have we gone with the current system? We have ended up with a number of municipalities that exist solely on the fact that people in their areas live in their private homes, while next door there are cities that take care of cultural infrastructure, sports infrastructure and other infrastructure. Consequently, some municipalities have no incentive to promote the economy or any added value in their territory. This has become a problem to some extent. The model needs to be revised so that a part of the municipal budget is not only personal income tax, but there is also an economic component, whether it is corporate income tax or something else. It seems to me that this would then change the situation substantially. If we look at it from that point of view, the picture is completely different. Liepaja is also a young enough city and we have more potential than we might believe.

Liepaja will be the European Capital of Culture in 2027. Are the preparations going according to plan, and what will you offer Latvia and the world in two years? Are there any difficulties you are facing?

I am very honored that the President of Latvia has decided to become the patron of the European Capital of Culture project. It symbolizes that this is not just a story about Liepaja, but also about the whole country.

What we expect from the European Capital of Culture story is not only about culture, but also about the economy. One of our objectives is to increase the number of tourists in Liepaja by 15 percent, which also brings additional synergies to our hospitality sector, to our urban sector. It is also very important that something of the whole process of what we call the European Capital of Culture remains afterwards. We need to have a greater impact on a number of international projects that will add value in the future. That means joint projects with cultural people from different countries, whether it is theatre, concert hall programs or community initiative programs. That is why the European Capital of Culture team is working a lot with international projects at the moment.

Of course, it does not come easy. Especially in this period of time, when the war is at the door, when more funding will have to be found for national security. These financial issues are very important, and we meet with the European Capital of Culture team almost every other week to see what we can afford, what we cannot afford, how we can consolidate the program. I would like to believe and hope that 2027 will be a breakthrough year for Liepaja's culture. The period until 2027 also shows the international value of Liepaja's cultural life. For example, if Liepajas Symphony Orchestra performs in the Liepaja concert hall, we see that many spectators come from Riga and from Lithuania. This alone shows that Liepaja can afford to present itself as a city that is interesting not only to me or to one of my colleagues, but is also a sufficiently important player on the national and Baltic level. And the Liepaja Music Awards ceremony in Liepaja proves that Liepaja can and is a suitable venue for events of this scale. The European Capital of Culture project has also given a certain mandate of trust not only to the people of Liepaja, but also to Latvia.

What else will you offer to attract tourists to Liepaja?

If we look at the strategic goals, the first international goal is the European Capital of Culture in 2027, and in 2031 we have a sports year, when Liepaja will host the European Youth Olympic Festival. To prepare for this, we need to do our homework.

Well, for example, Liepaja is a major magnet for travelers in the summer months, and we took the decision four years ago to invest quite heavily in improving the city's beach, which we will continue to do this year. In September this year, the access points to the beach in the historic center will be fully upgraded and improved, which in a way is a signal that it is safe to swim at Liepaja beach and that it has all the necessary infrastructure. We continue to invest and we believe and hope that Liepaja beach is a magnet in itself. We have also invested in the Madame Hoyer’s Guest House, which has been recognized as one of the best new museums in the Baltic Sea region. Next, we are moving towards the full completion of the reconstruction of the Museum of the Occupation. We have already opened the part dedicated to the Jewish genocide, which was created in cooperation with the Uniting Foundation, which has researched very thoroughly both the history of the Liepaja Jews and the impact of the Holocaust on the life of the city. Next, we are moving towards the harbor, and there will be a new exhibition on Liepaja's oldest lighthouses, which has already received funding from both the municipality and external financial resources.

We are also gradually reaching out to the hotel and catering sector to make it ready for 2027 and 2031.

The race and the desire to be the second most visited city in Latvia is still on. The incentive is there because we have beaten Jurmala two years in a row in terms of the number of visits. Our main tourists are Lithuanians, and I think that this will remain the case at least in the short term.

Will new infrastructure also need to be built to host the European Youth Olympic Festival?

The Congress of European Olympic Committees voted recently and 48 countries voted in favor of Liepaja's candidacy, or currently all the countries represented at the Congress, as Russia and Belarus are now absent. The next step is to agree on the specific sports in which Liepaja will host. I can be proud of Liepaja's sports infrastructure, because there are not many cities in the Baltic Sea region that have an athletics arena, a basketball arena, a tennis arena, the best skate park in the Baltics and several football fields. But at the same time, of course, there is one issue on which we need to fight and agree on a partnership. That is a swimming pool of the right class. There is still a debate to be held with the Latvian Olympic Committee on how best to deal with this issue.