Outlining Basic Principles for the EU Baltic Sea Region Strategy
During the two-day seminar on the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, arranged by Sida’s Baltic Sea Unit and Baltic Development Forum at the Almedalen “Political Week” in Gotland, Sweden, some 56 speakers and more than 400 participants debated the goals and practicalities of the European Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Documentation from the seminars now available here!
The main conclusions from the discussions were:
- For the European strategy for the Baltic Sea Region to be successful, it is of fundamental importance that it is backed by a strong and shared political vision.
- Another fundamental factor is that it builds on clear self interests for all parties involved, complementing the national and European levels of cooperation.
- The strategy should aim at prioritizing and coordinating the vast number of activities undertaken in the Baltic Sea Region, leading to a better and more efficient use of the collective resources available and earmarked for the region from national, EU and other relevant sources.
- For the strategy to work, it will be imperative to attract appeal from throughout the EU and serve as a generic macro-regional growth and efficiency model for the EU as a whole.
- The areas defined by the European Commission; Environment, Growth/Competitiveness, Accessibility/Attractiveness and Safety/Security were deemed as central.
- For the strategy to be convincing, it must have a credible and multidimensional implementation mechanism open to several societal actors from politics, business, academia, NGO’s etc.
- It is important that the strategy is compatible with the Northern Dimension and thereby not excluding cooperation with Russia in relevant areas.
In the course of the day, the Baltic Sea Region’s future economic potential and growth, labour mobility and transport solutions were discussed by Dr. Christian Ketels, Harvard Business School, Alf Vanags from the organisation BICEPS in Riga, Professor Pontus Braunerhjelm, Chaiman of the Globalisation Council, Confederation of Swedish Industries Chief Economist Dr Stefan Fölster, and Stockholm County Governor Per Unckel as well as representatives from the Baltic Sea Region.
For further information please contact Dr Mikael Olsson, at Sida, phone 46-732-572511, or Hans Brask, Director for Baltic Development Forum, tel: +45 602 18581.
Download slides and summary about/from the event.