EU presented Baltic Strategy
Just two weeks before Sweden takes over the presidency of the EU Council, the Commission yesterday adopted its Communication on a Baltic Sea Strategy, the first ever comprehensive union strategy for a EU macro-region.
The EU Communication for the Baltic Sea Region, which has been under elaboration since late 2007, could be a major contribution to enhanced cooperation the Baltic Sea region. It could also become a model for similar strategies for other European regions.
Eighty flagship projects are listed in the accompanying Action Plan, which will be reviewed regularly, the EU Commission informs.
However, as confirmed by EU Commission DG-Regio representative Ann-Kerstin Myleus in a recent seminar in Brussels, no extra funding will follow the new strategy. That could possibly hamper the ambitious activity level outlined in the Action Plan.
The strategy is a strategy of the European Union. At the same time, however, it highlights that many of the strategy issues can only be addressed in constructive cooperation with external partners in the region, and first of all Russia.
It will be the Northern Dimension initiative, where both Russia and Norway are equal partners, which will continue to provide the main frames for the EU’s cooperation with Russia in the north.
Interestingly, the adoption of the new strategy comes only two weeks before Sweden takes over the presidency of the EU Council. It also comes less than a week after the this year’s ministerial session in Council of Baltic Sea States, the first after last year’s adoption of a council reform declaration.
For Sweden, both the EU Baltic Strategy and the CBSS are likely to constitute key priorities in the country’s upcoming EU presidency.
