Nordic-Baltic cooperation
The Nordplus Education Programme of the Nordic Council of Ministers aims to promote and strengthen cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic Countries in general, higher and adult education. The programme supports learning mobility, projects and networks and focuses on institutions and organisations involved in education and lifelong learning.
The programme is open for applications from educational institutions and organisations from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Åland Islands, Denmark, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Estonia joined the Nordplus programme in 2008. Nordplus includes five sub-programs.
Baltic Sea cooperation
Council of The Baltic Sea States
The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) was established in 1992 with the aim of strengthening and deepening cooperation between the Baltic Sea countries. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Poland, and the European Commission participate in the work of the Council (Russia participated until spring 2022).
The Ministry of Education and Research is participating in the CBSS and European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region’s common flagship project Baltic Research Network, which aims to develop a better environment for international scientific cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.
European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region
The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is the first macro-regional strategy in Europe. The strategy was approved by the European Council in 2009. The strategy has three main objectives: protection of the Baltic Sea, integration of the region and enhancement of prosperity. The strategy is divided into 13 political areas, of which the Ministry of Education and Research participates in the fields of education and innovation.
Baltic cooperation
The intergovernmental cooperation between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania takes place within the framework of the Baltic Council of Ministers (BCM), which works on the basis of the statute signed in 1994. Within the framework of the BCM, a meeting of Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian education and research ministers takes place each year to discuss topical questions in the field. The meetings generally take place once a year.
The latest success story of Baltic cooperation is the conclusion of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Estonia, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Government of the Republic of Latvia on the automatic academic recognition of higher education qualifications, which entered into force on 7 January 2019.
Within the framework of the European Economic Area grants, the Baltic Research Cooperation Programme has been launched in cooperation with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, with a total volume of 22 million euros, together with the co-financing of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The objective of the programme is to encourage the emergence of high-level and sustainable research consortia that would contribute to addressing the challenges of development and well-being in the region and have a broader international output. The programme highlights the importance of involving doctoral and post-doctoral candidates, the compilation of joint publications and further cooperation between partners in the application for possible follow-up funding from the various European Union and regional development cooperation programmes.
Estonian language can be taken as a major or minor within the Finno-Ugric curriculum at the University of Latvia and in the University of Vilnius in Lithuania as a joint degree with Lithuanian.
On 30 June 2015, an Estonian-Latvian and Latvian-Estonian dictionary was presented in cooperation with the Estonian Language Institute and the Latvian Language Agency (Latviešu valodas aģentūra). Each has more than 40,000 keywords. In addition to the paper versions of the dictionaries, an electronic dictionary was published, free to use for everyone.
Last updated: 21.10.2022