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From Adriatic to Baltic Sea: read how to achieve clear waters through cooperation and use #MadeWithInterreg smart ideas to save the seas from pollution.

Active pharmaceutical ingredients are found in our environment at concentrations that pose a risk to wildlife. Pharmaceuticals are used to treat humans and animals, and we cannot stop using them. Instead, the overall consumption of pharmaceuticals tends to increase with an aging population. “We must find applicable solutions to decrease the emissions of pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea region, and we need to work together.”, states Noora Perkola, a leading researcher in Finnish Environment Institute and leader of the project “Clear waters from pharmaceuticals” (CWPharma).

At any moment in the Baltic marine area, about 2,000 ships are transporting people, goods, but also stowaways: marine organisms from distant places, like Harris mud crabs, that colonise the Baltic Sea waters. The Interreg project COMPLETE brought together people with smart ideas how to translate the existing regulations into a working system to prevent alien species from invading the Baltic Sea.

A common challenge for the countries in the Baltic Sea region is how to produce green and climate-neutral energy. In fact, as much as 75% of the EU greenhouse gas emissions still come from energy use and production. Cooperation and sharing good practices in Interreg projects, such as LowTEMP, Baltic Integrid and Area 21, can be a game-changer in accelerating the energy transition in the region.

One of our Interreg Baltic Sea Region projects, EcoDesign Circle, reached the finals of the RegioStars Awards last year in the category of circular economy. What did the process look like? What did the project like most? And, most importantly, what was the gain for the project? Read the interview below.

There’s a story behind every project: a story of people from countries around the Baltic Sea who team up to exchange good practices or find a new way to tackle a joint challenge – together. In Interreg Baltic Sea Region, there are 140 such stories. And for the Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat staff, it is very rewarding to assist project partners from the moment their project idea starts to sprout to harvesting the achievements. Like in the case of the project cities.multimodal.