To align the Interreg Baltic Sea Region funding Programme with the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) is one important asset for the funding period 2021-2027. How to make sure that funded projects contribute to the implementation of the strategy? How to secure support to the governance of the strategy? On 5 February 2020, the Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat organised a meeting of the Joint Programming Committee of Interreg Baltic Sea Region with the National Coordinators of the EUSBSR to address these questions.
The Baltic Sea region – an environment for working together (©Raimond Klavins/stock.adobe.com)
35 international decision makers of the EUSBSR and the Programme joined the discussions about aligning the Programme to the strategy. They represent the eight EU countries involved in the Programme and the EUSBSR, the European Commission and Belarus, Norway and Russia as partner countries of the Programme The officials updated each other on the state of the recently started programming for 2021-2027 and its time plan as well as on the revision of the Action Plan for the EUSBSR, which is currently ongoing. The representatives also exchanged on the types of support needed for the governance of the EU Strategy, such as financial support to policy area and horizontal action coordinators, Annual Fora, and communication work for the strategy.
By end of February, the national coordinators compile a written statement on the Strategy’s needs in terms of support to the governance, which feeds into the programming process. Once a draft of the updated Action Plan is in place for the EUSBSR, the National Coordinators share it with the Programme. In April, the Joint Programming Committee of Interreg Baltic Sea Region builds on these documents, among others, to jointly discuss outlines of the future funding priorities..
Meetings of the Joint Programming Committee of Interreg Baltic Sea Region and the National Coordinators of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region are a way to ensure continuous communication during the programming and to align the Programme and the strategy. By cooperating closely, we want to jointly create an environment for working together to let great solutions become common practice in the Baltic Sea region.
