On March 22, 2024, Latvia and 20 other EU member states signed the European Declaration on Quantum Technologies at the “Shaping Europe’s Quantum Future” conference in Brussels, organized under the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The declaration, first launched in December 2023, committed signatory states to collaborating on the development of a world-class quantum technology ecosystem across Europe.
Jānis Paiders, Deputy State Secretary for Human Capital, Science and Innovation Development at the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science, stated that quantum technologies cover a wide range of industries and that cooperation across sectors and between countries was essential. Signatory states undertook to coordinate European, national, and regional R&D programs, support quantum competence clusters, build pan-European quantum infrastructures on Earth and in space, and strengthen the EU’s economic security through quantum encryption technologies.
Professor Andris Ambainis of the University of Latvia noted that Latvia had already established excellence in quantum algorithms, quantum nanoelectronics, quantum sensors, and communication, and was collaborating with Europe’s leading quantum computing centers through the virtual European Quantum Software Institute and the EuroHPC joint undertaking.