The EU Commission and the County Administrative Board of Stockholm hosted the first official Stakeholder Conference
in relation to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, in Stockholm 30 September. The Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt were one of the speakers at the conference.
The stakeholder conference in Stockholm was the first official consultation process in relation to the preparation of the EU Baltic Sea Strategy. The programme consisted of presentations on the ongoing process with the strategy and workshops. The Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt gave his address at the conference.
During the workshop sessions opportunities were given for stakeholders to present view-points and/or suggestions regarding the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The consultation process will be finalized in February 2009 with a corresponding stakeholder conference. In the period between, four thematic consultations will take place, one of them being the upcoming BDF Summit in Copenhagen and Malmo 30 November – 2 December.
The strategy would be complementary to existing cooperation, and its purpose would be to coordinate already existing policies and instruments, to align funding in a more efficient way, to identify common priorities, and to promote new initiatives. The strategy should work towards increasing the level of ambition in different fields, aiming for a deeper integration and a more cross-sectoral approach . In order for the strategy to be as effective as possible, it is foreseen that an action plan will be attached with suggestions on concrete actions.
The interest in the ongoing work with the strategy is extensive. It is important that as many stakeholders as possible have the possibility to make their voices heard during this process. There will be several conferences and roundtables regarding the strategy during the autumn 2008 and winter 2009 to gather as much input to the strategy as possible.
Baltic Development Forum has produced a non-paper with regard to the EU Strategy together with a number of other regional organisations.
To read/download the non-position paper, follow this link.