Barents Regional Council looking for funds

The EU-Commission and the Russian Federation did not managed to reach a solution regarding terms for the Baltic Sea Region Program by the deadline of 31 December 2008. That brought the projected Barents cross-border programme into trouble.

The members of the Barents Regional Committee in a meeting this week still underlined that other sources of funding will be sought and that the programme initiative will not be abandoned, a press release from the International Barents Secretariat reads.

The Barents Regional Council admits however that the Russian failure to sign the agreement has seriously complicated the further progress in the programme initiative.

-This has unfortunate effects on the prerequisites for the cooperation of the 13 Barents Euro-Arctic regions in Norway, Sweden Finland and Russia. Throughout 2008 the 13 regions have worked to come together on a common application to the Baltic Sea Region Program. This work has support from the highest political levels of all the regions and it is the most important implementation tool for the cooperation program of the regions; Barents Program 2009-2013, says the chair of the Barents Regional Committee, Kari Aalto representing the Oulu region.

The Baltic Sea Region Program is now open for only very marginal Russian participation. But the committee chair hopes a solution can be worked out.

-This shows our cooperation is highly effected by big politics but we are now looking at some alternatives on how the Russian regions could be involved although they are not formally part of the project. This is especially important since we are really talking about finding a way to implement the Barents Program which is the core of the cooperation between the regions for the period of 2009-2013, explains Kari Aalto.

Read more about the Barents Cooperation at Beac.st