Strengthening the Barents Regional Council
The Barents Regional Council should become a much stronger political body than it is today, Council Chair Pauli Saapunki highlighted in a council session this Wednesday. He believes the council, which includes political leaders from 13 Nordic and Northwest Russian regions, should have a bigger say in High North cross-border issues.
“The Regional Council needs to become a much stronger political body than it is now. It needs to be ready to actively discuss and make political decisions, Council Chair Pauli Saapunki underlined in the meeting, a press release from the International Barents Secretariat reads. He believes the council will have to take more pro-active action particularly towards national governments.
“ Only then can the 13 Barents regions exercise its full potential and fulfill its responsibilities to the inhabitants and the enterprises in the Barents Region”, Mr. Saapunki added.
The Barents Regional Council unites politicians from 13 counties and federal subjects in the northern parts of Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden. The council is part of the Barents Cooperation structure, which also includes the national government level Barents Council.
In the course of Pauli Saapunki’s and his Finnish Oulo County’s chairmanship in the council, new initiatives have been taken on multilateral cooperation in the region. Among the initiatives is the project Barents 2010+ which aims at stimulating the regional council with additional resources and a set of new activities. As BarentsObserver previously reported, that project has however stranded following the failure to sign the Baltic Sea CBC, the financial instrument which was to help finance the initiative.
The council meeting this week also called for enhanced transport connections in the region. “Transport of goods and travelling in the Barents Region is extremely time consuming, complicated and expensive. We need to rapidly find a solution to the poor road conditions and the lack of railroads and air-routes in the east-west directions in the Barents Region. This is crucial for the future of the region as well as for the international markets to get access to the natural resources in Barents Region”, Mr. Saapunki underlined.
