Highlights 1 61 applications received in the 3rd call 1 Interview with MEP Olejniczak on macro-regional strategy 1 Strategic project: TransBaltic 1 Review on the latest events
Newsletter March 2010
61 applications received in the 3rd call: assessment started The 3rd call for project applications was closed on 22 March 2010. The Joint Technical Secretariat received 61 project applications. The total budget of the projects would be approximately 172 million EUR. Most of the Lead Applicants come from Finland and Sweden (both 14) and Germany (12). Around 720 partner organisations were involved in preparing the project applications. 30 projects applied in Priority 1 “Fostering innovations”, 6 in Priority 2 “Internal and external accessibility”, 13 in Priority 3 “Baltic Sea as a common resource” and 12 in Priority 4 “Attractive and competitive cities and regions”. The Monitoring Committee (MC) will meet twice to decide which projects will receive funding. The Committee is going to decide about part of the projects, divided by priorities, in its next meeting in Helsinki,
Finland, on 9-10 June 2010. In its second meeting in September, the Monitoring Committee will decide about the remaining applications. At the next MC Task Force “Programme Strategy” meeting, taking place on 19 and 20 April in Hamburg, it will be agreed which priorities will be decided upon in each of the two MC meetings. All Lead Applicants will be informed accordingly afterwards. The Secretariat will assess the project applications from March to July. The process starts with an admissibility check. In this phase the Secretariat will verify whether a project application meets the formal requirements (e.g. date of submission, signatures), the minimum requirements on transnational approach and if the Lead Applicant organisation fulfils the formal requirements. The second phase of assessment is based
Applications per priority
on the quality criteria. You can find more information about the assessment in chapter 9.3 of the Programme Manual. Finally the Monitoring Committee of the Programme will make the funding decisions taking into consideration the results of the quality assessment.
Lead Partners per country 61
60
DE 12
SE 14
50 40 DK 4
30
30
PL 3
20 10
EE 1
NO 2
13
12
6
LV 7
0 Priority 1 Priority 2 Priority 3 Priority 4
Total
FI 14 LT 4
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Newsletter March 2010
Baltic Sea Region: a showcase for Macro-Regions? Interview with MEP Wojciech Olejniczak post-2013 reform, the idea of an integrated approach should be supported and developed, together with the creation of strategies for macro-regions as strategies for the whole of the European Union.
You can find the document for download on our website eu.baltic.net
The Polish Member of European Parliament Wojciech Olejniczak is responsible for the report on the “European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the Role of Macro-Regions in the Future Cohesion Policy”.
In your opinion: is the Baltic Sea Region a well chosen show case for the development of macro-regional strategies? Yes. On the one hand the Baltic Sea Region has common culture and history. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, the Baltic Sea has become the EU’s internal sea, which unites countries On the other hand the Baltic Sea Region presents its own challenges. The countries of the Baltic Sea Region demonstrate interdependence and share the same problems. We can observe in the Baltic Sea Region two different types of social and economical systems. It is a big challenge for the cohesion policy.
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Which impact does the multi stakeholder approach have on the development of macroregional strategies? The essence of macro-regional development is diversity. Using regional resources is connected with integration and cooperation for the whole territory. Therefore, every stakeholder has impact to the strategies. This is evidenced for example by consultations with different groups. Which influence can the civil society have on macro-regional strategies and how is civil society influenced by it? Macro-regions will require the involvement of societies. Deeper integration, which is necessary to development, will has an impact in building and consolidating civil societies behaviours, for example involvement in the process of discretion and implement concrete solutions. But what needs to be some plan of cultural, social and science in macro-regional policy.
Can the macro-regional strategy approach change the future cohesion policy of the European Union? We should elaborate the idea – is the macro-regional programme an independent being or is it a part of cohesion policy. In my opinion, macro-regional policy will have a significant impact on the cohesion policy and will meet the challenges.
Which topics will define the character of the Baltic Sea Region region in the future? There are four issues, which are the foundations of strategy [the European Union strategy for the Baltic Sea Region] and this issues will define ways of regional development. These are: environmental protection, development and prosperity in region, increase accessibility and attractiveness of the region and ensure the safety and security in the region.
In order to increase the effectiveness of regional policy, in particular in terms of its
How important do you perceive the involvement of non EU member states (in the Baltic
Sea Strategy namely Russia) in the development of Macro regional strategies? The strategy envisages the strengthening of cooperation with neighbouring countries which are not members of the European Union, but have a stake in the region. It is very important to develop better forms of cooperation, coordination and management. Macroregions are a novelty in the European Union, which is why it is difficult to predict the impact of non-EU countries. The most important is the will to work together, because the benefits will cover the entire region, not only the EU Member States. What impact can a transnational Programme like the Baltic Sea Region Programme with its limited budget have on the implementation of a macroregional strategy? The question concerning the financing of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is one of the most important ones that I raise in the report of the European Parliament. That is why we call on the European Commission, and the Member States to answer the questions of what nature macro-regional policies should take and how they should be programmed (separately or as part of cohesion policy), who should implement them (what perhaps is the most important in this point) how, and with what sources of funding they should be financed. To assess the effectiveness of how the money is spent the European Commission will have to carry out an interim analysis of the implementation of the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. That is why the European Parliament calls on the European Commission to prepare concrete instruments and criteria for evaluating projects based on indicators that allow comparisons to be made.
Mr Olejniczak, thank you very much for this interview.
by the EU
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Newsletter March 2010
Programme conference on 30 Nov-1 Dec in Jyväskylä, Finland
Mark the dates in your calendar: the Baltic Sea Region Programme conference will take place in Jyväskylä, Finland on 30 Nov-1 Dec 2010. Stakeholders, politicians, project partners and many others will
meet to discuss EU macroregional strategies and future EU cohesion policy, learn about results of the projects and the funding opportunities for 2011.
The event is organised in co-operation with the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Regional Council of Central Finland and the City of Jyväskylä.
Support to the Applicants and Lead Partners: review on the latest events The interest of potential applicants was very high in the 3rd call for applications in the Baltic Sea Region Programme. The Secretariat organised Lead Applicant Seminars in Riga and Malmö on 2-3 December 2009 and on 13-14 January 2010. More than 200 participants attended the seminars and gathered information about the
programme. The JTS provided the participants with knowledge about the establishing project partnership, project strategy and the proper calculation of project budgets. In addition the JTS also organised two events in the far North and in the far East of the programme area:
Around 30 project developers came together in Oulu, Finland on 9 December 2009 to discuss quality expectations for the projects in the Baltic Sea Region Programme as well as specific project ideas. This seminar was especially designed for project owners from the northern part of the Baltic Sea Region. Almost 200 participants met for an information and partner search forum in Minsk, Belarus on 18 February 2010. The majority of the potential applicants came from Belarus. EU Member States were also represented by participants from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Germany. The main concerns of the participants were how to find partners, financial issues and the Belarusian national approval procedure. Around 30 project ideas were received. The forum was arranged by JTS together with the Regional Capacity Building Initiative.
Lead Partner Seminar, Rostock, Germany
Continued on Page 4 Part-financed by the EU
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Newsletter March 2010
It was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and the Coordinating Unit of Belarus for the EU Tacis Programme.
Continued from Page 3
In addition to the seminars, 92 project promoters received individual consultations from the JTS. On 27-28 February 2010 a Lead Partner Seminar was organised in Rostock. 17 Lead Partners approved in the 2nd call were present. Reporting, cost sharing and changes in of the project set up were raised. The Lead Partners presented their projects and used the opportunities for networking with other project owners.
Partner Search Forum, Minsk, Belarus
Communication seminar in Berlin Communication and project managers will meet in Berlin on 14-15 April. The aim of the seminar is to help projects to prepare communication strategies and to improve communication and PR skills. The first day of the seminar will be dedicated to discussing the draft communication plans. Communication aims, messages, target groups and communication tools will be scrutinised.
On the second day participants will attend working sessions on writing skills, media relations, organising events and internal communication. The seminar is organised by the JTS in co-operation with Pinnacle PR. Pinnacle will provide training on media relations and writing skills and will give feedback to the draft communication plans during plenary session on 14 April.
“Most experts on organizations, management and leadership, assert that effective communications is the foundation for effectiveness in any type of organization. They assert there can’t be too much communication.� Carter McNamara, Authenticity Consulting Part-financed by the EU
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Newsletter March 2010
Strategic project: TransBaltic – towards an integrated transport system in the Baltic Sea Region The transport business is suffering a lot from the financial and economic crisis. Nevertheless, interactions between Baltic Sea countries and other global actors are going to increase on the long run. In the future it will be much more important for the whole industry to rely on a sustainable common multimodal transport system. The existing transport performance deficiencies in the region are regarded as a bottleneck for the economic growth in the region. The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region adresses this problem: it aims to reduce the remoteness by improving links within the region and to the rest of the EU. This is seen as a challenge to overcome the infrastructure shortcomings of the eastern and south-eastern sides of the sea. The project TransBaltic aims to enhance the gateway function of the Baltic Sea Region. One of the tools will be the development of a pan-Baltic traffic forecast and scenarios. Moreover partners will elaborate a priority list of investments in infrastructure, logistic and transport capacity. Together with two other projects co-financed by the
Baltic Sea Region Programme - SCANDRIA and EWTCII and facilitated by the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, TransBaltic is going to take initiative in testing and verification to establish a ‘green transport corridors for freight’ in the Baltic Sea region. In this alliance, TransBaltic will study implications of the EU transport policy and the development of sustainable transport in the BSR. The project TransBaltic acts as an umbrella for the partner projects by providing inspiration for their investigations and generalizing their specific findings - in order to implement sustainable transport modes in the future Baltic Sea Region. On 17-18 March this topic was addressed at a TransBaltic Conference “The New Geography of Freight Flows in the Baltic Sea Region” in Malmö, Sweden. Politicians and transport and logistic stakeholders from the whole region were discussing the way to materialize new geography of freight flows in the Baltic Sea Region.
Project in Keywords: Joint actions towards enhancing the transport gateway function of the Baltic Sea Region
Partnership: Regional authorities, universities and competence centers from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden Number of partners: 21 Lead Partner: Region Skåne, Sweden Approximate total budget: 5,5 million € ERDF funding: 4 million € Norwegian funding: 0,1 million € ENPI funding: Duration: 36 months (September 2009 – September 2012)
TransBaltic Conference, 17-18 March, Malmö, Sweden
Contact person: Mr Wiktor Szydarowski Tel.: +46 768 54 20 20 wiktor@szydarowski.com Part-financed by the EU
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Newsletter March 2010
News
Updated calendar of the programme events Date
Place
Communication seminar (2nd call, projects approved in Sept 2009)
14-15 April 2010
Berlin, Germany
Meeting of the Task Force Programme Strategy
19 April 2010
Hamburg, Germany
Financial seminar for projects approved in 2nd call
03 May 2010
Hamburg, Germany
DEEP - 7th User Group Meeting
18 May 2010
Turku, Finland
Meeting of Monitoring Committee
9-10 June 2010
Helsinki, Finnland
Project Idea Café at BSSS Annual conference
12–14 October 2010
Tallinn, Estonia
Meeting of Monitoring Committee
September
tba.
Baltic Sea Region Programme Conference
30 November – 1 December 2010
Jyväskylä, Finland
New colleagues in the JTS Joel Kook Finance Officer
Airi Roots Finance Officer
Subscribe to the Baltic Sea Region Programme newsletter at eu.baltic.net
New brochure: Cooperation continues. 22 new transnational projects
Airi and Joel, both from Estonia, took up work as JTS Finance Officers in January . Both are mainly responsible for the monitoring of the progress reports from the projects. They also provide assistance and information to the projects regarding the reporting and budgetary issues.
In this brochure 22 projects approved in the second call of the Baltic Sea Region Programme are presented. It is also highlighted how these projects contribute to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. You can download the brochure at: http://eu.baltic.net/Approved_projects.4589.html? If you would like to order the printed version, please contact Alke Voß (alke.voss@ eu.baltic.net.)
As from January projects can add their news and events at eu.baltic.net. Many projects made already use of the possibility to communicate about their events, publications and other important topics.
… contributing to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region
Joint Technical Secretariat Rostock/Riga
Part-financed by the European Union
Project news on eu.baltic.net
Cooperation continues. 22 new transnational projects
Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein Grubenstrasse 20 18055 Rostock, Germany Phone +49 381 45484 5281 Fax +49 381 45484 5282 email info@eu.baltic.net eu.baltic.net
State Regional Development Agency Ausekļa iela 14-6 Riga, LV-1010, Latvia Phone +371 6 735 7368 Fax +371 6 735 7372 email info@eu.baltic.net eu.baltic.net
European Union
eu.baltic.net
For Further Information please go to eu.baltic.net
feel free to contact the Joint Technical Secretariat.
Rostock office Phone +49 381 45484 5281 Email info@eu.baltic.net
Riga office Phone +371 67357373
The Baltic Sea Programme 2007-2013 is investing in Europe’s future by fostering sustainable growth of the region.
Part-financed by the EU
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