Inspiring days at the 2nd Annual Forum/13th BDF Summit in Gdansk!
More than 700 people participated in the Second Annual Forum organised jointly with the Baltic Development Forum's 13th Annual Summit and in cooperation with the Polish EU Presidency, the Pomorskie Region and the City of Gdansk on 24-26 October 2011 in Gdansk (Poland). 14 parallel sessions on the various thematics covered by the Strategy were offered, alongside an impressive networking and project village with exhibitions by some 40 Flagship Projects, key businesses and regional institutions. Evaluations of the event have been very positive, and the EUSBSR team at DG Regional Policy would like to thank everyone who contributed to making the Annual Forum successful!
In his opening address, Commissioner Johannes Hahn thanked the stakeholders for their impressive work on the Strategy, while also reminding participants of the continued importance of ensuring political support and adequate administrative engagement, as well as the alignment of policy and funding with the Strategy.
Director General Dirk Ahner presented the state of play concerning the setting of indicators and targets for the Strategy. This work will make it possible to clearly track the Strategy's contribution, and enable decision-makers to make informed policy choices. National Contact Points, Priority Area Coordinators and Horizontal Action Leaders are currently working actively on this topic.
Professor Ketels from the Harvard Business School presented the 2011 State of the Region Report, stressing that the EUSBSR had been a greater cooperation success than anticipated. Its emphasis on implementation was a key strength, but it still needed to be more imaginative and appeal more strongly to the business sector.
The Third Annual Forum will take place in Denmark in June 2012, in close cooperation with the upcoming Danish EU presidency.
Indicators and targets for the Strategy
A meeting was organised by Interact on 9 November 2011 in Arlanda (Sweden) to invite Priority Area Coordinators (PACs) and Horizontal Action Leaders (HALs) to work closely with National Contact Points on the design of indicators and targets at Priority Area/Horizontal Action level. It was agreed that PACs and HALs will submit a proposal to the Commission by Mid-December, whatever the progress of their reflection is at that stage.
General Affairs Council Conclusions
On 15 November 2011 the General Affairs Council (GAC) adopted conclusions on the review of the EUSBSR. The Council recognised the contribution of the EUSBSR towards achieving common EU goals as well as towards addressing the shared challenges of the macro region. The conclusions, which utilised the Commission's Report of 22 June 2011, offer a broad list of recommendations to the Commission and the Member States on issues such as intensifying political commitment, applying an integrated approach through the coordination of policies and alignment of funding, introducing targets and indicators as well as cooperating with third countries. The Conclusions call on the Commission to review the EUSBSR in the light of these recommendations by early 2012.
Taskforce on roles and responsibilities
A key recommendation of the Commission's Report on the implementation of the EUSBSR and of the Council Conclusions concerns the need to strengthen implementation structures. Consensus on roles and responsibilities is needed to ensure an effective implementation of the Strategy. In response, a Task Force on the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders and on developing the Flagship Project concept was established in June 2011. There will be a handbook on the roles of the European Commission, High Level Group, Member States, National Contact Points, Priority Area Coordinators, Horizontal Action Leaders and various funding sources (including Operational Programmes); and guidelines on the concept of Flagship Projects and the system of labelling.
Throughout the implementation of the EUSBSR, a dialogue between the Commission and the Russian Federation has been taking place on how to intesify cooperation on joint priorities in the Baltic Sea Region. The Northern Dimension policy and the Council of Baltic Sea States have assisted. By relying on these structures, where Russia is an active member, a number of joint priorities has been identified. The next step is to develop these into pilot projects, thereby taking the cooperation to a more concrete level.
Analysis of needs for financial instruments
SWECO's Analysis of needs for financial instruments in the Strategy was delivered to DG Regional Policy in October. The report looks at the financial, non-financial and structural gaps against the background of existing instruments. The report underlines a lack of available seed money, and that project funding with respect to certain sectors, smaller investments and SME support is also scarce. In terms of non-financial needs, a detailed database for projects and partners should be developed, targeted advice drawing on the experience of EU programme secretariats should be made availabe and networking should be given a boost. Moreover, clustering of projects to ensure synergies should be encouraged. It is now up to all relevant stakeholders to ensure good follow-up!
All Priority Area Coordinators have applied for the EU technical assistance for implementation of their actions. Most PACs requested the maximum 120.000 EUR. By 15 December 2011 all the grant agreements will be signed. It is hoped that similar assistance can be made available to PACs and HALs in the future.
Swedish Minister for EU Affairs paid a visit to Flagship Project of Priority Area 13
Being an EUSBSR Flagship Project offers high-level visibility! On 9 November 2011, the Swedish Minister for EU Affairs Birgitta Ohlsson visited the "EfficienSea" project in Copenhagen. The project, whose Lead Partner is the Danish Maritime Authority, is a Flagship Project under Priority Area 13 on maritime safety and security. The EfficienSea project contributes to the Strategy´s ambition for the Baltic Region to become "a leading region in e-Navigation". The project is co-financed by the Interreg IV B Baltic Sea Region programme.
During her two-hour visit, the Minister was given a broad presentation of the project, which includes 16 partners in 6 countries, among these four Swedish partners. She was also briefed on the project´s efforts for e-Navigation, which aims at developing safer and more user-friendly navigation systems. The Minister saw a demonstration of an e-Navigation prototype system, which is currently being tested onboard 20 vessels and ashore. This includes a number of services, such as Maritime Safety Information presented as symbols in the chart compared to today´s text messages, as well as on-route forecasts of meteorological and oceanographic information, and new possibilities for vessels to exchange route information.
In this context, the Minister was briefed on the project´s efforts to make a regional contribution to a future, global standard for e-Navigation as developed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
On 18-20 January 2012, EfficienSea will hold an international conference entitled "e-Navigation Underway" onboard a cruise ferry, which is a part of the project´s test-fleet. More information about this conference and the project can be found at www.efficiensea.org.
Christmas wishes!
The EUSBSR team at DG Regional Policy would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We would like to thank you for the good cooperation on implementing the Strategy in 2011, which we are looking forward to continuing in 2012!
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