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).

The project, whose partners are Euroregion Baltic (ERB), the Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation (BSSSC) and the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC) is funded by the Swedish Institute.

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.

Enjoy the reading!

Click here:  

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.

DOWNLOAD HERE:

The Umbrella project was meant to be exactly that – an umbrella to gather other projects and a way to connect people through cross-border projects. It was aimed at newcomers who had not yet been involved in projects in the South Baltic Programme. These included small local and regional organisations with an interest in developing a South Baltic identity. 
Stakeholders were invited to participate in national training courses in project management and offered tailor-made solutions to help build capacity. Different initiatives and micro-activities such as “meet your- neighbour” has helped break down barriers and spread the concepts and values of cross-border cooperation.

A cross-border project to inspire more cross-border cooperation The overall purpose of this project was to enlighten people that cooperation is important for geographic, economic, and social cohesion and that approaching the field of EU grants and projects can be an advantage in local development policies. A gradual process with great potential This development is not without obstacles, and capacity building should not be seen as a goal in itself, but rather as a process. To build a house you need to lay brick by brick, starting from the foundation. That is why the Umbrella project was introduced with awareness-raising events to say: “Hey you! Change is just around the corner! Go out and see what is going on in the region you live in.”

And for those who were already aware of the great potential of the Baltic Sea Region, well, knowledge can always be increased. We have been looking forward to introducing you to the benefits of cross-border cooperation in the South Baltic Sea region. These 12 Interreg South Baltic projects are here to motivate and to inspire – and we are pleased to include our own achievements – and tips & tips on how to be part of the Interreg South Baltic family.

This is our Success Story Book
To inspire. To encourage. To bring the action!

Download full publication here: The Benefits of Cross-Border Cooperation

Would your organisation like to start or expand collaborations that contribute to sustainable economic, environmental or social development in the Baltic Sea region? The Swedish Institute provides funding for joint projects in which Swedish organisations meet transnational challenges together with organisations from the Baltic Sea region countries including Russia and the countries of the Eastern Partnership.

Overview

What is Seed funding in the Baltic Sea region?

The Swedish Institute seeks to strengthen Sweden’s relations and develop cooperation with the countries around the Baltic Sea and in our immediate area. Swedish organisations can apply for funding from the Swedish Institute in order to cooperate with organisations in the Baltic Sea region countries including Russia and organisations in the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries. The project activities that the Swedish Institute supports via ‘seed funding’ must be clearly linked to one or more of the challenges identified in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea region. Projects including countries in the EU Eastern Partnership must also relate to this framework. Furthermore, projects should help create conditions for long-term, sustainable relations in the region.

• A project can run for no longer than 18 months.
• A project can apply for SEK 100,000 to SEK 500,000.

Who can apply?

• The main applicant has to be based in Sweden.
• The application must include at least three actors in three different countries eligible for support, one of which is Sweden (as main applicant).
• Countries eligible for funding are  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russian Federation, Sweden and Ukraine.

Project database

Have a look at our project database to get an idea of the kinds of project we support. The database is under construction and more project descriptions will be added.

Questions?

If you have questions relating to our seed funding for Baltic Sea region cooperation, please find our contact details at the bottom of the page.

The next call for Seed funding for cooperation projects in the Baltic Sea region opens 19 November 2020. Read all the info about the call here: https://si.se/en/apply/funding-grants/pi/

Dear UMBRELLA project beneficiaries,

On behalf of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic as Lead Partner of Umbrella Project and on behalf of the whole project partnership,

We’d like to invite you to take part in a focus group discussion, a ‘group interview’ whose scope would be to consult relevant stakeholders who could valuably contribute in the consultation to build up the priorities of the new INTERREG South Baltic programming period 2021-2027.

The discussions will be conducted online- in groups of maximum 15 people- in a friendly and informal environment with the aim to collect honest opinions, new ideas, needs from the stakeholders on the topics below.

Platform: ZOOM. A link for the participation will be sent to you in advance

FOCUS GROUP 1

TITLE: Building civil & inclusive society

Umbrella partner responsible: Pomorskie in the EU Association (PL)

Moderator: Jens Masuch

DATE: 19th Nov 2020 13.00-15.00 CET

Main areas to investigate:

1. Citizen engagement
2. More inclusive Interreg projects
3. Civil education
4. New and upgraded tools for citizen engagement

FOCUS GROUP 2

Title: Blue and green growth

Umbrella partner responsible: Kalmar Region (SE)

Moderator: Jens Masuch

DATE: 5th November 2020 10.00-12.00 CET

Main objectives to investigate:

1. Promoting sustainable water management
2. New and upgrades capacity for waste water
3. Biodiversity
4. Circular economy

FOCUS GROUP 3

Title: Energy transition/Connectivity

Partner responsible: Klaipeda University

Moderator: Kristina Koebe

DATE: 9^th November 2020 15.00 – 17.00 CET

Main areas to investigate:

1. Fossil fuel-free transport sector – the need for energy storage possibilities.
2. Production of renewable energy and solutions
3. Improved structures for varied and broadened access to renewable energy
4. Need to strengthen power grids for smart energy usage due to electrification of vehicles
5. Combat and mitigate climate changes

FOCUS GROUP 4

Title: Sustainable & innovative tourism

Partner responsible: Guldborgsund Municipality (DK)

Moderator: Jens Masuch

DATE: 10th Nov 2020 TBC 10.00-13.00 CET

Main areas to investigate

1.     Sustainable tourism
2.     Digitalisation in tourism
3.     Competence development in tourism

IMPORTANT:

• Questions and/or other material will be sent in advance to the participants in advance to the participants
• Remember that “Everyone’s contribution is important”. So, get involved!
• The moderator will write a report of the main findings that will be shared with the Interreg South Baltic Programme Joint Secretariat and Joint Programming Committee members working on the new Interreg South Baltic Programme for 2021-2027
• Publication: the report and a recording of the webinar will be made available on Moodle platform- on enrolment in the section dedicated.

Hope that this initiative is of interest to you, we hope to see you soon online and we thank you in advance for your kind contribution.

Kind regards,

Euroregion Baltic and Umbrella team

This year the Interreg South Baltic Programme decided to organise their Annual Event in digital format?.
?Please save the date – 17 September, 10 am – 1 pm CET – and join the FB event below to receive updated info on the agenda❗️

https://www.facebook.com/events/296412905047204/

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, almost all countries have got decisions cancellation of travels and all kind of meetings, which also affected the BSLF Round Table event planned to be held in St. Petersburg 26-27 of March. Please, be informed that both the BSLF Round Table and the Conference were postponed and we met on 15th June 2020 online to discuss the latest BSLF developments. Ms Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło, Head of the ERB IPS, took part in the meeting on behalf of the Euroregion Baltic.

The Annual Meeting of the CBSS Coordination Group on Labour and Employment dedicated to the reporting on the progress of the ESF funded Project “BSLF for Sustainable Working Life (SWL)”

15th of June 2020, 13.00 – 15.00
Welcome words and introduction Daria Akhutina, CBSS, Head of Priority Area

Tour de table

Participants are invited to brief on current developments in the field of labour and employment in their countries/organisations (5-7 min each)

• Ministries’ representatives
• BSLF’ representatives (employer’ organisations and trade unions)
• Strategic partners: NFS/BASTUN, BSPC, EUSBSR PA Education, NDPHS
  Report from the SWL Project’ team Josefina Halme, Project manager
  Sonia Buchholtz, TWG (1) leader
  Reetta Maria Raitoharju, TWG (2) leader
  Discussions on the Report and Policy briefs from the TWG’ members
  Summing up and the way forward

Please read the latest BSLF documents:

Please see below the list of the BSLF Round Table participants:

Meeting 15^th of June, 13.00 – 15.00 CET

CBSS

Daria Akhutina

Josefina Halme

BSLF’ founder

Franz Thoennes

Ministry, Finland

Lippe Koivuneva 

Ministry, Lithuania  

 Inga Liubertė       

Ministry, Poland           

Konrad Karolak

Konstancja Piątkowska
Anna Pamerska

Ministry, Russia

Olga Korchemkina

Alexander Ugolin

Janna Vorobyeva

Elsa Nahatinova

City Administration, St. Petersburg

Dmitry Cherneyko, Nikolay Rogachev

Ministry, Latvia

Imants Lipskis (TBC)

Ministry, Sweden

Inger Wijkström (TBC)

Confederation of Employers, Denmark

Christiane Miβlbeck-Winberg

Polish Confederation of employers Lewiatan

Sonia Buchholtz

Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia

Maria Grinnik

Natalia Klimova

Nikolay Blokhin

 Trade Unions, KTR, Russia

  Igor Kovalchuk

Trade Unions DGB, Germany

Uwe Polkaehn

Siglinde Hessler

Employer Organisation NORDMETALL, Germany

Hans Manzke

RSPP, Employer confederation Russia

Natalia Hoffmann

NFS/BASTUN Secretariat

Magnus Gissler

Jenny Tabermann

Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC)

Pyry Niemi

Bodo Bahr

EUSBSR, Policy Area Education

Anders Bergstrom

Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being

 Euroregion Baltic, Secretariat

 Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło

European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Jader Cané (TBC)

Trade unions, Belarus

Siarhei Antusevich

Our Moodle is ready and filled with useful information on project management and available EU-funding opportunities! You can now use all the knowledge we have gathered for you within the Umbrella project framework and wish to share with all South Baltic beneficiaries.

We have a great course and handbook on project management prepared by the experts, that is free to use. You simply register and enjoy our coursebook, trainers book, presentations and much more.

Click here: https://umbrellainterreg.moodlecloud.com/login/index.php

Of course, we also invite you to our Project Management training sessions we are currently developing in Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Lithuania. Use this link to register: https://bit.ly/2IuFu7B

Thank you one more time for participating in our UMBRELLA project Cross-border Conference with PA panel “Future trends in ENERGY and ELECTROMOBILITY in the South Baltic Region”  on 25th Oct.

We had almost 50 experts from 6 BSR countries: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark, Sweden and Russia. We are happy to share all the presentations for the event, including the contact details for the speakers. Soon we will share a short report from the electromobility micro activity on our website- www.umbrellaproject.eu and our social media –https://www.facebook.com/Umbrella.Interreg/

If you are interested in how can we help to improve your transnational activities within the UMBRELLA Interreg South Baltic project framework,  please let us know!

1.Umbrella PA Energy Gdańsk 25.10

2.EUSBSR_PA_ENERGY for UMBRELLA

3.Prezentacja_Raport energetyczny_23.10.2019_eng

4.Presentation Umbrella 2019 10 24

5.ESS Umbrella 25-10-2019

6.20191025_Umbrella_GdanskDenmark

7.The transition of the power sector in north Poland

8.Fuel for energy trasition

9.UBIS 25 Oct

10.Mevo_25.10.2019

11.Biogas in Kalmar municipality Umbrella GDANSK

Sign up to take part in free of charge trainings organized by the UMBRELLA project partners in Sweden, Poland, Lithuania and Denmark. They will be held in national languages.

Decide whether you would like to participate in a beginner or advanced course, or both.

You can choose the training on the following dates and cities:

1. 21/10: National training in Kristianstad (SE)- Basic
2. 28/10: National training in Chojnice (PL)- Basic
3. 28/11: National training in Gdansk (PL)- Advanced
4. 22/11: National training in Telsiai (LT)- Basic
5. 04/12: National training in Ringsted (DK)- Basic
6. 05/12: National training in Kalmar (SE)- Basic
7. 10/12: National training in Klaipeda (LT)- Advanced
8. 10/01: National training in Alvesta (SE)- Advanced
9. 24/01: National training in Elbląg (PL)- Basic
10. 28/01: National training in Nida (LT)- Basic
11. 20/02: National training in Roskilde (DK)- Basic

Register now:
https://bit.ly/2IuFu7B

The IX Kaliningrad partner – regions Forum took place in Kaliningrad on 18-19 June 2019. Among participant there were Vice-Governor of the Kaliningrad region Mr. A.Rolbinov, Chair of the Kaliningrad region Duma Ms. M. Orgeeva, Ambassador-at-large of the MFA of Russia Mr. M. Vanin, Deputy EU Ambassador to Russia Ms. A.Simkic, director of the Department of Development and Foreign Economic Affairs of the Ministry for Economic Development of Russia Ms. L. Schur-Trukhanovich and other officials.

More than 300 participants from Poland, Lithuania, Belorussia, Germany, Norway, Latvia and the regions of Russia (Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Moscow, Saint-Petersburg,  Archangelsk, Novgorod, Pskov, the Leningrad region and the Komi Republic) took part in the plenary session and thematic sections, discussed practical aspects of regional cooperation in various spheres.

Mr A. Rolbinov in his speech on behalf of the Governor of the Kaliningrad region said: “The Forum is organized on an annual basis which proves the interest of all participating parties in building partnership relations. One of the good examples of such long-term interaction is the implementation of the Cross-border cooperation Programmes “Poland – Russia” and “Lithuania – Russia”. At the moment the contraction of projects is going on, and the interesting fact is that most of them are aimed at tourism development and cultural heritage preservation.

The Vice-Governor also reminded participants about the forthcoming launch of the free E-visas mechanism for foreign citizens planning to visit the Kaliningrad region: “There will be an opportunity to apply for a visa at the special website and to get entry notice in just  4 days. The E-visa is free and the term of stay is 8 days”.

The Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs Mr M. Vanin also welcomed the participants: “During some previous years the Forum became an important regional event. It gives impulse to further development of international cooperation between the Kaliningrad region and European countries. Achieving success in establishing regional and municipal links we develop trust between the neighbouring countries. We want the Baltic Sea region to be sustainable and prosperous. The Forum contributes to working out coordinates for practical actions. Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now participation in preparations for launching processes of agreeing on programs for the next financial period 2021-2027”.

A number of pan-baltic organizations were presented including the Euroregion Baltic and BSSSC – Kaliningrad Region is an active partner in both of them. Also, there was a presentation of the outcomes from the recent Baltic Sea Youth Camp organized in Gdańsk, Poland jointly by the: BSSSC, Euroregion Baltic, Union of Baltic Cities and co-financed by the CBSS.

Several agreements were signed during the Forum. Among them two grant contracts for the implementation of the large-scale strategic projects within the Cross-border cooperation Programme “Poland – Russia”: construction of the bikeway from Zelenogradsk to Svetlogorsk and construction of the wharf in the Svetliy municipality.