SYPERB project presented during EUSBSR seminar

The seminar was moderated by Mr Anders Bergström, Coordinator of PA Education from the Norden Association.

On 18th November 2014 in Warsaw Euroregion Baltic took part in a seminar dedicated to cooperation within the Priority Area Education of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.

Moderated by Mr Anders Bergström, PA’s Coordinator from the Norden Association, the seminar was organised by the EUSBSR National Contact Point at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With around 60 participants from various ministries, educational institutions, labour offices and non-governmental organisations, the meeting attempted to shed more light on the details of transnational cooperation on higher education with special focus on vocational training, labour market issues and youth employment. During the presentations several active and potential Flagship Projects within EUSBSR were introduced by their representatives. These included such projects as Baltic University Programme, Baltic Training Programme, South Baltic Training Programme, HansaECVET, Baltic Sea Labour Forum, Ready to Research, Introducing Dual Education in the BSR, Baltic Sea Labour Forum mobility initiative, BSR Life Long Learning, Quick IGA, Baltic Science Network and  EntrepreneurshipLab. Among them was also SYPERB Strategic Youth Policy in EuroregionBaltic project which was introduced as a new initiative that could later become a Flagship Project within the Strategy.

The seminar proved to be very informative and well organised, allowing participants to gain more concrete and practical knowledge on the implementation of the Strategy and meet relevant stakeholders working within the Priority Area.

For more information about the Seminar including all presentations, please follow this link to an article in the official web portal of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the country’s involvement in the EU cooperation.

The members of the ERB Executive Board meeting met on 29th October 2014 to discuss important matters regarding the cooperation in Euroregion Baltic.

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© 2014 Sławomir Lewandowski

Members of the Euroregion Baltic and representatives of other important stakeholders involved in the ERB cooperation met on the 28th October 2014 in Gdańsk, Poland for the 5th Annual Forum of ERB Stakeholders entitled “Labour mobility, higher education and youth cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region – addressing common challenges”. The event was organized jointly with the South Baltic Professionals project and hosted by the Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship.

During the Forum stakeholders took part in discussions on the challenges and problems currently faced by the inhabitants of the regions of the South Baltic area, such as labour market mobility, internationalisation of higher education institutions and youth cooperation.

The Forum tried to identify barriers hampering the development of labour mobility, and find out if creation of stable and dedicated networks of relevant stakeholders could be a key to solving this problem.

Further discussions concerned methods allowing universities and other higher education institutions to cooperate better on the international level, thus providing students with better education and other skills that would allow them to pursue their careers in increasingly competitive working environments.

Finally, the prospects of youth cooperation in our region and how it could be bolstered by relevant actors were investigated.

For more details and conclusions from the Forum, please read the summary of the 5th Annual Forum

All presentations from the Forum are available under this link.

The Forum’s photo gallery can be viewed on ERB’s flickr profile.

Veronika Solobai with Mateusz Kryżba and Sebastian Magier after an introductory meeting at ERB International Secretariat.

Based on the decision of the ERB Executive Board adopted during its meeting in Gdańsk on 29th October 2014, the work of the ERB Youth Board will from now on be supported by a new EVS volunteer working within the European Association for Education and Development ‘Pionier’ in Olsztyn.

Ms Veronika Solobai is a graduate of marketing and economics at the Belarusian State Economic University in Minsk. Having recently completed her studies, she already has three years’ professional experience in sales and marketing working for a private company in Minsk. As of September this year Veronika is working as an EVS volunteer at the Pionier Association within the project entitled „Volunteering – a way to the unforgettable adventure”. Being busy with her duties at the Association, she will still dedicate some of her working time to supporting youth cooperation in Euroregion Baltic and by doing so she will have a chance to receive valuable experience in the area of cross-border cooperation.

The Association of European Border Regions AEBR has elaborated a detailed opinion on the 6th Cohesion Report published earlier this year by the European Commission. The opinion underlines the general criticism, how from the quantitative and qualitative point of view the subject of territorial cooperation was treated in the 6th Cohesion Report. The opinion proposes also concrete improvements and supplementary points.

The 6th Cohesion Report published in July 2014 delivers important facts for the future of the Cohesion Policy. Even if the territorial cooperation is described in the report as one of the two priorities of the EU Cohesion Policy, this subject has not at all been sufficiently considered in the document.

Currently work is under-way on the comments submitted to rapporteurs in the European Parliament and Committee of the Regions. AEBR is lobbying actively for changes in the document that would lead to a more focused approach with regard to the territorial cooperation. That in turn would ensure that this focus could be maintained also after the current programming period.

It is worth noting that the next 7th Cohesion Report  to be published in 2017 during the mid-term evaluation of the programmes, will be of particular importance for the next programming period after 2020. This report will have significant impact on the political priorities and, in consequence also the allocation of funds, in the next programming period.

The entire text of the AEBR opinion on the 6th Cohesion Report is available here.

The EUSBSR newsletter November 2014 issue focuses on governance issues, future Action Plan, Horizontal Action ‘Sustainable’ among other things. For the first time, this publication is 16 pages long aiming to better analyse and inform about each of the topics addressed. The newsletter is available in the EUSBSR website in both flipping book and pdf formats.

Also, a photo gallery for the EUSBSR has just been created on Flickr. It includes pictures from many different meetings and events as well as generic pictures taken in the Baltic Sea region. This tool aims to help EUSBSR stakeholders in their communication activities. The photos currently displayed in the online photo sharing platform have been provided by the INTERACT Programme and other EUSBSR stakeholders.

Please follow this link to read the EUSBSR Newsletter in pdf format.

The Baltic Sea Fund is nominating candidates for the Baltic Sea Award 2015. Any person who or organisation which have done meaningful and outstanding achievements for the Baltic Sea environment are welcome to apply for the contest. (more…)

Gathering more than 150 participants the 5th Annual Forum of Euroregion Baltic Stakeholders will take place today (28th October) at the Office of the Marshal of Pomorskie Region. During the Forum we would like to encourage all our stakeholders to take part in discussions on the challenges and problems currently faced by the inhabitants of the regions of the South Baltic area. We believe that the most important challenges in the Baltic Sea Region concern the problem of labour markets and mobility, internationalisation of higher education institutions and youth. We will therefore try to identify barriers hampering the development of labour mobility, and find out if creation of stable and dedicated networks of relevant stakeholders could be a key to solving this problem. We will also discuss methods allowing universities and other higher education institutions to cooperate better on the international level, thus providing students with better education and other skills that would allow them to pursue their careers in increasingly competitive working environments. Finally, we will investigate the prospects of youth cooperation in our region and how it can be bolstered by relevant actors.

The final programme of the Forum can be found here.

The Joint Technical Secretariat of the South Baltic CBC Programme in Gdańsk is looking for for a qualified intern, motivated to complement her or his academic knowledge with practical working experience in international working environment of the South Baltic area. (more…)

We kindly invite all stakeholders of the ERB cooperation to attend the 5th Annual Forum of Euroregion Baltic Stakeholders. The event themed “Labour mobility, higher education and youth cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region – addressing common challenges”, which will take place on 28 October 2014 at the Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship, Gdańsk.

The event is organised in cooperation with the INTERREG IVA project SB Professionals and hosted by the Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship.

During the Forum we would like to invite to take part in interesting discussions on challenges in such areas as labour mobility, internationalization of universities and youth cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. We will try identifying barriers hampering the development of labour mobility, and find out if creation of stable and dedicated networks of relevant stakeholders could be a key to solving this problem. We will also discuss methods allowing universities and other higher education institutions to cooperate better on the international level. Finally, we will investigate the prospects of youth cooperation in our region and how it can be bolstered by relevant actors.

The final programme of the event can be found here.