For fear of losing Es funding, the reorganization of the Sports Academy is being accelerated

In order to prevent the risks of not receiving grants from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, the reorganization of the Latvian Sports Pedagogy Academy (LSPA) will be completed already on July 1, and not on January 1, 2026, as planned until now, the government decided on Tuesday.

In December 2022, the government adopted the order on the reorganization of LSPA, integrating it into Riga Stradiņš University (RSU). Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) issued an order on the LSPA reorganization plan, which has been coordinated with the reorganization commission. At the same time, as the Ministry of Health claims, the leadership of LSPA has not fulfilled the tasks provided for in the plan, for example, it has not signed the cooperation agreement between Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health, RSU and LSPA on the integration of the academy into the university structure.

The Ministry of Education and Culture draws attention to identified significant risks for receiving funding for the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism grant applications, as the measures provided for in the reorganization plan are not being implemented. The Central Finance and Contracts Agency has received several warnings about significant risks of ineligible expenses in the European Union (EU) fund project.

The goals of the second round of the investment can be achieved by June 2026, but the completion of the reorganization on January 1, 2026 would mean an increased risk for achieving all goals, according to the Ministry of the Interior, stating that in the case of certain deficiencies, their elimination could be impossible within a six-month period. On the other hand, if the reorganization of universities is completed by July 1, the implementation of consolidation grants will be able to be ensured sequentially.

In accordance with the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Culture, a cooperation agreement on the integration of the Academy into the RSU structure was concluded by May 31, having previously been coordinated with the LSPA reorganization commission.