Estonian Minister of Public Administration Mihhail Korb will next Thursday visit the city of Pskov in Russia, where an agreement on cross-border and interregional cooperation between Estonia and Russia will be signed.

The agreement will establish a legal basis for cooperation between ministries and institutions in various fields of activity, from socio-economic development and environmental issues to culture and education, the Ministry of Finance told. In addition, the agreement will support cooperation in preparing and launching interregional and cross-border cooperation programs and projects funded by the Estonia-Russia cross-border cooperation program of the European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI).





Activities connected with the agreement would be directed towards the regions of Estonia and Russia -- both the regions situated next to the border as well as those further away.





Finland has signed a similar agreement with Russia. In the framework of the same forum, Latvia is scheduled to hold the third meeting of the regional cooperation group of the Russian-Latvian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific, Technical, Humanitarian and Cultural Cooperation.





The Estonian delegation will include Minister of Public Administration Mihhail Korb, MPs Dmitri Dmitrijev and Deniss Borodits, Estonian ambassador in Moscow Arti Hilpus, director of the Pskov consular office Katrin Kanarik, and officials from the Ministry of Finance.





The Estonian Ministry of Finance in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been preparing the agreement on cross-border cooperation between Estonia and Russia since 2006.