Umbrella 2.0 “BE PART OF THE CHANGE” booklet for the Baltic Sea cooperation newcomers is ready!
The key goal of the Umbrella 2.0 project is to raise awareness and knowledge of the importance and advantages of transnational and cross-border cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), following the principles of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR), European Union Green Deal and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Umbrella 2.0 is dedicated to the BSR local authorities, civil society organisations and small institutions of diversified type, especially those who are newcomers to international cooperation. Our aim is to encourage them to be open to the possibilities provided by cross-border and transnational cooperation, to make them aware it is worthwhile to cooperate and that there are financial tools and project possibilities available to them, too. Furthermore, our ambition is to jointly explore the opportunities and benefits of being a part of the BSR and EUSBSR.
We believe that the best way to convince those who are new to international cooperation is by showing them the best examples of what has already been achieved by others. Thus, we have decided to ask directly those we thought could give some inspiration.
Umbrella 2.0 developed this booklet with best practices to further build the capacities of small and local actors and inspire more stakeholders to engage in transnational BSR cooperation.
The stories show examples of successful collaboration, extensive networking and present current and future “hot topics” for cooperation in EUSBSR thematic areas.
We asked partners of Baltic Sea cooperation projects and initiatives to share their stories about what good transnational collaboration can bring to their work, their organisations and local communities. They were all so enthusiastic about their work!
We encourage you to read those stories, get inspired and try to start your own transnational or cross-border activity.
The 3rd Seed money call for proposals of the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 is open between 13 September and 5 November 2021. The call is open for proposals which are aiming to develop ideas for regular projects to be implemented and financed under the future Interreg South Baltic Programme 2021-2027.
The template of the ISBP 2021-2027 being under public consultation by 15 October 2021 is available here
The applications must be developed under one of the current Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 specific objectives:
SO 1.1 Increase the presence of blue and green sector SMEs from the South Baltic area in international markets through joint cross-border actions;
SO 1.2 Improve the transfer of innovation for the benefit of blue and green sector SMEs through joint cross-border actions;
SO 2.1 Increased development of the South Baltic area’s natural and cultural heritage assets into sustainable tourist destinations;
SO 2.2 Increased use of green technologies in order to decrease the pollution discharges in the South Baltic area;
SO 3.1 Improve the quality and environmental sustainability of transport services in the South Baltic area
SO 5.1 Improve the cooperation capacity of local South Baltic area actors through participation in cross-border networks.
Interested applicants are invited to access the application documents here
The call closes on 5th November 2021 (Friday), 4:00 p.m. CET.
The Joint Secretariat is organising a webinar with questions and answers session dedicated to the 3rd Seed money call on 23rd September at 1:00 p.m. CET. The registration for the webinar is available here
The GDPR rules for the meeting are here. Please, say YES during the registration if you consent to the rules.
In case of questions, please contact Project Officers at JS, contact details to be found here
The Joint Programming Committee approved a draft of the Interreg South Baltic Cross-Border Cooperation Programme 2021-2027. An external contractor prepared a draft report of the Programme Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Now, you can HAVE YOUR SAY!
Add your comments until 15th October 2021.
South Baltic programme JS Team is happy to announce that the Joint Programming Committee approved a draft of the Interreg South Baltic Cross-Border Cooperation Programme 2021-2027. In parallel, an external contractor prepared a draft report of the Programme Strategic Environmental Assessment.
This means that we are ready to announce the documents and start public consultations. It is time to share your opinion and contribute to the future of the South Baltic Programme.
Use the opportunity to get familiar with the draft documents:
We also encourage you to take a direct and active part in the seminars organised by the Regional Contact Points of the South Baltic Programme. Relevant information will be announced on our website in the “Events“ section as well as on the Programme’s social media platforms Facebook, Linkedin and directly by the Contact Points.
The public consultation process will take 37 days. The deadline for submitting comments is 15 October 2021.
Your feedback is very valuable in developing the new Programme and will be used by the Joint Programming Committee to finalise the programming process.
The event will be a joint discussion of five projects engaged in:
green technologies and environmental protection,
skills and labour development and education services for different target groups
connecting and involving institutions to establish future partnerships
The discussion aims to present and inspire participants on how the cross-border cooperation projects can effectively involve local society, youth, and local authorities in activities for green recovery on different levels. The variety of invited speakers will allow leading the discussion towards many fields and threads. Invited to the discussion are representatives of such projects as WASTEMAN, Baltic for All, Umbrella, ArchaeoBalt and SEAPLANSPACE who will present concrete examples of what they did in the context of local community collaboration and their engagement, as well as the impact of the communities’ activities on the sustainable development of their regions. They will discuss options for cross-border training, and networking – all aiming at a greener future of small regions and establishing partnerships. After this session, participants will be able to identify which option for close partnership is suitable for their organisation, a project, or a cluster and how to engage local society for green recovery and more sustainable regions.
Organiser – Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020
The Swedish Institute, in cooperation with Euroregion Baltic Secretariat, the Union of the Baltic Cities Secretariat and Nordregio, invite you to a webinar exploring different collaborative governance models for enhancing stakeholder engagement in the Baltic Sea Region. The webinar aims to boost stakeholder involvement within emerging EUSBSR initiatives related to the green transition. The programme consists of two parts:
The first part will focus on:
A policy perspective on stakeholder and citizen engagement in the EUSBSR.
An overview of different EUSBSR governance concepts and practices.
Practical learnings from ongoing projects, focusing on concrete stakeholder and citizen involvement tools, methods and practices from the Umbrella 2.0 capacity building programme examining how to engage local stakeholders and CSOs in frameworks such as the EUSBSR.
Hands-on practices coming from regional city networks working on the green transition in the Baltic Sea region
The aim of part one is to provide a good overview of both theoretical and practical examples for cross-sectorial and multi-level stakeholder engagement, including horizontal approaches, such as youth participation to boost green transition.
The second part of the webinar will open up the stage to the audience. Smaller group discussions will be arranged to discuss your possible role in future Baltic Sea Region collaborations. Interactive discussions based on participants own personal experiences will be carried out, focusing on: 1) identifying alternative stakeholder engagement best practice tools and methods; 2) establishing how to overcome the challenges of stakeholder mobilisation; 3) exploring the benefits of engagement and how to incentivise stakeholder to become more proactively involved. The key take-aways part of the discussion will be reported to the Annual Forum organisers.
For more information, please contact Gabor Schneider
Organiser – Swedish Insititute, Umbrella 2.0, Nordregio
The Annual Forum of the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is the largest event of the Strategy. It brings together all the stakeholders implementing the EUSBSR as well as other participants who would like to contribute to managing the common challenges the Baltic Sea Region faces. The 12th Annual Forum will take place from 27 September to 1 October. It will focus on green recovery and will invite the participants to REVITALISE the Strategy, to RECOVER after COVID-19 together and to RECHARGE for a greener and more resilient Baltic Sea Region.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions
the 12th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region will be virtual. The Annual Forum will take place online from 27 September to 1 October 2021. The agenda of the Annual Forum will be full of interesting, engaging and inspiring discussions, workshops and presentations. You are most welcome to join!
We invite you to read the short descriptions and register for as many events as you wish by filling in the information in the registration form
Six major events
Planned to take place daily from 13:00 to 14:30 CET:
#01
High-level opening event/ strategic panel discussion on 27 September with the main focus on economic recovery through green and digital transformation.
#02
1st plenary session on macro-regional strategies’ role in setting EU agenda on 28 September. The macroregional strategies have shifted from being a pure platform for regional cooperation to being the hub for identifying challenges a particular region faces and for looking for common solutions. The ongoing embedding process strengthens this change. Therefore, it is important to discuss the ways to increase the EUSBSR’s ability to ensure the relevant issues are included in the EU agenda.
#03
The presentation of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2021-2027 on 28 September. The participants of the Annual Forum 2021 will be the first to learn about the possibilities of the EU funding for transnational projects tackling the challenges the Baltic Sea Region face. The kick-off event will focus on the importance of cooperation across borders in order to develop an innovative, climate-neutral Baltic Sea region and to increase the resilience of its society.
#04
2nd plenary session on macro-regions’ contribution to the Conference of the Future of Europe (focus on social agenda) on 29 September. This session will create links to the ongoing Conference on the Future of Europe. Taking into account the fact that the aims of the Conference of the Future of Europe and the EUSBSR in terms of involvement of citizens coincide, we aim at ensuring EUSBSR’s contribution to this important wide-range debate. This plenary session will focus on the social dimension and the challenges the youth encounters due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants will search for the ways the multilateral cooperation could contribute to enabling the young people to participate more actively in the decision-making process.
#05
3rd plenary session on green recovery on 30 September. It will be devoted to the possibilities of the EUSBSR to significantly contribute to the Green Recovery of the EU.
#06
Closing event on 1 October. It will be fully owned by young people. They will be looking for solutions for the environmental issues the Baltic Sea Region encounters. As in the case of the opening event, some of the participants will come to a studio in Klaipėda, the other speakers will join online.
After the registration, you will receive the automated confirmation.
A personal link to the virtual Annual Forum will be sent to the registered participants one day before the event, on 26 September. We kindly ask you to keep this link as it will help you access the event.
Please note that if you answer “no” to the statement “I consent that my name and organisation will be published in the forum participant list”, you will not be able to use the networking tools during the Forum.
Over 125 participants joined us on Tuesday, 27th April to learn more about the cooperation possibilities in the Baltic Sea Region! More than 90 participants stayed also for the thematic workshops part and enjoyed the discussion with the experts from all BSR countries. On behalf of Umbrella 2.0 Partnership: Euroregion Baltic, Union of the Baltic Cities and Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation, together with Swedish Institute, which is funding our initiative, we would like to thank everyone for your presence, comments and great inputs!
Our event started with a presentation on the Umbrella 2.0 project given by Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło – Project Coordinator and Head of the International Permanent Secretariat at Euroregion Baltic, which you can also see here:
This part was followed by the presentation of 3 project partners, their organisations and the possibilities they offer to the Baltic Sea region smaller actors and institutions eager to start transnational cooperation.
Finally, Gabor Schneider presented the Swedish Institute offers for the Baltic Sea Region actors, coming from all over the Baltic Sea, but also available to participants from Russia and Ukraine.
The second hour of the webinar part was dedicated to knowledge sharing – Olga Zuin, Programme Coordinator of the CBSS Baltic 2030 Unit presented her great input on Sustainable Development Goals and their implementation measures in the Baltic Sea Region. She mentioned two important reports prepared by the CBSS:
Finally, Sebastian Magier from Vestanda AB, Umbrella 2.0 Expert presented the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region “entry points’ for small and local actors based on 14 interviews with EUSBSR Policy Area Coordinators. The full report will be provided in May and available to all Baltic Sea actors.
The whole webinar part of the Umbrella 2.0 Awareness Raising Event was recorded and is available online here:
After the break, the event continued with the Q&A Session, where experts related to BSR cooperation answered the questions we’ve received from our participant before the event. Q&A session was related to the Baltic Sea Cooperation related to EUSBSR, SDGs and EU Green Deal.
Questions that were taken live: COMING SOON!
Is the EUSBSR action plan updated from time to time? How often? And how does the negotiation work? Can local actors contribute to it? How?
Our expert: Anders Bergström, EUSBSR Policy Area Education Coordinator
2. Who’s in charge of monitoring the SDGs achievements in each country of the Baltic Sea States?
Our expert: Olga Zuin, Programme Coordinator of the CBSS Baltic 2030 Unit
3. How do you think the situation in the tourism sector will change after Covid in the Baltic Sea Region, e.g. how the pandemic affected the way of travelling? Will there be any incentives to prefer “green transports?
Our expert: Andrea Krabbe, EUSBSR Policy Area Tourism Coordinator
4. How to find partners for cooperation activities/ international projects?
If you missed our last week’s seminar #ERB South Baltic Agenda” related to Euroregion Baltic Agenda 2030 document and Interreg South Baltic Programme, you can now watch the video from the debate. Click here:
Among the speakers:
Magdalena Bednarczyk-Sokół, Deputy Director of the
Territorial Cooperation Department, Ministry of Development Funds and Regional
Policy, Interreg South Baltic Programme Managing Authority, Poland
Johan Sandberg, President of Euroregion Baltic, Blekinge Region, Sweden
Dominika Butkiewicz, Head of the Joint Secretariat Interreg SBP, Poland
Johan Lundbäck, Interreg South Baltic Programme Contact Point Region Kalmar, Sweden
Tobias Facchini, Water Core Group Leader, Kalmar Region, Sweden
Mattias Andersson, Mobility Core Group Leader, Blekinge Region, Sweden
Johanna Wyckman, ERB
Youth Board Chairwoman
Presentations from the experts are also available:
Apply to participate in a hybrid meeting for young people and members of parliament from the Baltic Sea Region to discuss how to secure a democratically and environmentally sustainable future. The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth Forum on Saturday, 28 August 2021 will provide an opportunity for you to give your input to policymakers on the issues at hand and to gain insight into international parliamentary cooperation.
The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth Forum is organised by the Swedish delegation to the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference(BSPC), the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS)/Baltic Sea Youth Platform and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden in order to promote dialogue between young people of the region and policymakers. The purpose is also to capture valuable input from the young generation, which is of great importance in our common endeavour to build back our region – better, greener and stronger – after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Open application
You are welcome to apply if you are between 16-30 years old, interested in climate change, biodiversity and/or democracy and the Baltic Sea Region, and based in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation or Sweden. Please apply by 30 April (noon (CET) and read more in the downloadable information sheet.Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth Forum
On 3rd December 2020, during the final ERB Executive Board meeting in 2020 and the last one under the Presidency of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion baltic (PL), the Board members all agreed to establish another task force in the Euroregion Baltic – Mobility Core Group.
The decision was made after the Blekinge Region Board Member – Mr Johan Sandberg, ERB Vice President presented the idea to the ERB Board Members. Blekinge Region will host a secretariat for the newly established group.
The ERB Mobility
Core Group consists of partners from the previous Interreg South Baltic project
Interconnect, as well as contact persons and experts from the ERB member
organisations.
The group will be working on behalf of the ERB Board with concrete actions and the work is supposed to contribute to project development and common activities improving mobility between the ERB member regions.
The Mobility Core Group will report to a steering group consisting of ERB board members (appointed by the ERB Board). Lobbying activities in order to represent and promote common interests;
Implementation of strategic initiatives and projects complementing the local and regional agendas of the member organisations; and
Exchange activities, to seek a collaborative approach to common challenges and to progress in innovation and in operational efficiency of the cooperation. The Mobility Core Group will focus on activities from the below perspectives.
Exchange
of experience:
Trends
affecting public transport and sustainability change directions of the local
and regional transport systems in the South Baltic area.
Public
transport planning vs. strategies by private operators (e.g. ferry companies).
Shared
challenges
Access
to cross-border PT services for rural and more remote areas.
Low
knowledge/awareness of leisure time attractions on ‘the other shore’.
Fighting climate change
Joint
solutions
‘Low-hanging
fruits’ (new or enhanced methods, services or products developed and/or applied
in the Interconnect project and demonstrating a high replication potential)
Cross-border
perspective of public transport in the local and regional strategic documents
Impact
on other sectors
Tourism
routes – adapted to different target groups
Cross-border
commuting / labour market travel patterns
Student
and youth travel patterns
Method
The Mobility Core Group will apply a Multi-level governance perspective on its activities. The link between TEN-T development and contribution to the EU cohesion policies is considered a week. The focus will be to apply a holistic view on regional mobility and transport planning as a driving force for boosting potentials within other sectors such as tourism, education and business. This approach will strengthen the relationship between public transport, regional development and the citizens.
Actors from each region
The ERB Mobility
Core Group should aim to include members from all nine regions, in six
countries. The basis will be the partnership from the previous Interreg South
Baltic project Interconnect with the possibility to extend the network with
relevant representatives from each of the ERB member organisations. The group
will also invite relevant participants from regions outside the ERB
geographical area ie former Interconnect partners.
Actions
The Core
Group aims to have physical meetings back to back with the ERB Board meetings.
Those meetings will be complemented by online meetings.
The meetings should aim to identify “hot topics” and “bottlenecks” for further joint development and discussion.
