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platform selection results
5 March 2025

Operations of Strategic Importance selected!

Written by Anna Gałyga

Selection of eight Operations of Strategic Importance and a decision about a new call for small projects have been two of many highlights of the Monitoring Committee meeting held in Helsinki, Finland, on 4-5 March 2025!​

8th meeting of the Monitoring Committee in action

Representatives of all Programme area countries met for the eighth time in this programming period. Blagoveska Riiser, a desk officer from the European Commission, also attended the meeting to share first-hand information from Brussels. Chaired by Riitta Vartia from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, the meeting of the Monitoring Committee provided a handful of updates and brought several important decisions.

Messages from the guests
©IB.SH
During the meeting, the Monitoring Committee members listened to Markus Stiegler and Sandra Lehwald from the Audit Authority, who shared more information about the audit and answered all the questions. Hosted by the Ministry of Justice, European Affairs, Consumer Protection and Equality of the German Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Germany, the Audit Authority verifies the effective functioning of the management and control system of the Programme and ensures sample audits on projects.
Representatives of the Audit Authority were not the only guests during this meeting: Kirsi Ahlman and Juhani Ailio from the Central Balticum Foundation from the Baltic Sea Strategy Point (BSP), a supporting and coordinating instrument for the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, joined the meeting in Helsinki, too. They had an opportunity to introduce the members of the Monitoring Committee to the main tasks and to-date achievements of the BSP. By the decision of the Monitoring Committee, the Programme’s financial support to the Baltic Sea Strategy Point will continue in the future.

Projects & their great impacts in the focus!

Project platforms are the Programme’s main capitalisation tool. They substantially contribute to the realisation of the Programme objectives, and enable the consolidation of results from projects from Interreg Baltic Sea Region and other funds for a higher impact. These unique chances of creating synergies, boosting knowledge transfer and increasing policy impacts are among the main reasons to label project platforms as Operations of Strategic Importance.

©IB.SH
During the meeting, the Monitoring Committee selected eight project platforms for funding out of 23 submitted applications. By this, EUR 7.6 million from the European Regional Development Fund and EUR 80,000 from the Norwegian National Funding have been allocated to the project platforms.
The project platforms will create a unique opportunity for 71 partners to cooperate across borders, sectors, governance levels and funds – with a nicely balanced representation of partners coming from the Programme area countries. The selected project platforms cover a vivid range of topics: from handling hazardous substances, increasing the resilience of coastal areas through improving mental health and well-being and boosting regenerative tourism and efficient urban transportation, ending up with supporting energy communities as well as creative industries and cultural sectors.

The project platforms will now step into the process of contracting, which would take up to three months. Then the platforms would be ready to start their activities. As Operations of Strategic Importance, expectations towards them as well as their visibility within the Interreg Baltic Sea Region family will be higher when compared to other projects.

A new call for applications is on the horizon

With new project platforms selected, the Programme’s project portfolio has increased to 115 projects. To address unanswered and emerging challenges, a new funding opportunity will open very soon. The Monitoring Committee members have decided to open a new call for applications for small projects already in March: stay tuned for detailed information!

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