Register for the Umbrella project final conference & check the agenda
Time to sum up our Umbrella project in figures! Did you know that…
① representatives from 5 countries from the South Baltic, i.e: Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Germany took part in our project? ② over 300 people in total participated in the project? ③ in over 3 years we have organized 30 live meetings and over 12 online events?
Looking at these figures, we wonder what the next editions of this project will bring us. We already know for sure that a lot is going to happen! Remember that you can still sign up for the conference closing the Umbrella project, which will be held online on December 2, 2020, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
As a partner of Let’s Communicate! project, ‘Pomorskie in the EU’ Association has been part of the communication of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region for several years now.
Their latest publication is “Baltic stories”, a digital magazine, devoted to promoting the cooperation around the Baltic Sea, joint initiatives and flagship projects of the European Union Strategy of the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR). You can see the contribution from Julia Orluk, Chairwoman of the Euroregion baltic Youth Board, but also Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło, Head of the ERB International Permanent Secretariat.
Get the full version of the Baltic Stories magazine:
The Annual Forum of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region has always been a celebration of cooperation, knowledge transfer, exchange of inspiration and cheering concrete results of joint initiatives in the Baltic Sea Region. But these were not mainly the keynote speeches, the presence of prominent politicians and established experts that attracted a considerable number of 800 to 1000 participants each year. The main reason was to grab some coffee with the people you worked hard with throughout the whole year or people whose work you really appreciated but did not have the chance to ask about unofficially. And that is how many new ideas were born, and many new partnerships launched.
This year due to the Covid-19 pandemic the Annual Forum was held online for the first time, which posed a huge challenge for the organizers from the Finnish city of Turku and CBSS. One thing is sure- against all odds, they did their best to make the gathering in virtual space as close as possible to the in-person-event, creating a very participatory and interactive experience thanks to available technological tools. But could it have been otherwise taking into account that the countries from the Baltic Sea Region are frontrunners as far as digitalization is concerned and that the 2020 Forum’s main theme was ‘Towards a Decade of Innovation and Sustainability’?
Although, no chance for a cosy coffee corner, so much appreciated informality was brought in by the speakers casually dressed and being seen in front of their home libraries or favourite pictures. And by an enthusiastic, uncompromising voice of the Baltic Youth representative, talking about the expectations and ideas of youngsters and proudly introducing the Baltic Youth Declaration.
A policy matters only if it serves the people. And having such a strong voice of the young generation at this year’s EUSBSR Annual Forum was a perfect starting point for more involving, more people-centred policymaking. The starting point, which is strongly supported by the EUSBSR New Action Plan, presented and discussed during the Forum. It seems that the ground is set for more result-oriented, more effective and more engaging activities in the Baltic Sea Region.
On macroregional level, which has always been praised for bottom-up approach and uniting different governance levels, economic sectors and diverse groups of ‘people of the action’ working on concrete projects, the inclusion of new-comers and community building initiatives have always been top priorities. With all the digital tools that are available at the moment and that we have all been learning more intensely since the pandemic outbreak, there is even a higher chance for making these ambitions come true. Thanks to the hard work on the ground, of course.
*The article written within Let’s Communicate! project. 11th Annual Forum Online – Turku 2020 – Moderators_ Peter Nyman, Bettina Rafaelsen, Esa Kokkonen –
Photo from the EUSBSR official webiste
Photos & recording
Find photos from the Annual Forum 2020 on EUSBSR Flickr.
Did you miss the event? Watch the recording on Youtube.
The Forum was hosted by the City of Turku together with the Council of the Baltic Sea States in cooperation with the Ministry For Foreign Affairs of Finland. The Annual Forum was co-financed from the programme of Interreg Baltic Sea Region.
What: Baltic Sea Youth Camp virtual 2.0
For whom: young people (16 – 30 years old) from the Baltic Sea Region
Why: Because we want to make the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region much more youthful and state our opinion on it.
Please follow the link and get your ticket for the event before the event. Registrations is open until the start of the event!
A detailed schedule of the event can be seen on the event registration page.————————————————————
Are you interested in politics? Would you like to get more information on EU policies and what they actually do for you? We want to make young voices be heard all over the Baltic Sea Region and beyond. Share your thoughts and become a part of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform. Together with you, we want to prepare a youth input to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. We have organised several smaller local events before we will now meet all together online. If you did not get the chance to take part in the local events, do not worry, there will be an info session for everyone to get on the same page. We will also provide the possibility to informally meet decisionmakers in the region and familiarise yourself with the structures of political engagement in the Baltic Sea Region. The event functions as a youth event before the Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and will enable you to follow the big event on 20.10. Together we will write a declaration to the actors within the Strategy from EU to the local level. This event is the ideal starting point or continuation of your political career within the Baltic Sea Region. Join us and see what the Baltic Sea Region has to offer! We welcome participants from ALL countries of the Baltic Sea Region (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia & Sweden) and everyone interested in exploring our region.
Do you want to know how the EU promotes macro-regions? See a great example of the EU cohesion policy? Then check out what the EU macro-regional strategies are all about and why they are influencing your life as well and bring us together as one Baltic Sea Region. Join us at 17.10. from 14 – 17 o’clock to discuss what is important for young people in our region and influence EU policies directly: https://www.facebook.com/events/329616354995029
You will also get the chance to informally chat with the Director General of the Council of the Baltic Sea States. The Council represents 11 Member States and the EU. You want to know more about the Council and its work? And what the EUSBSR has to do with it? Ask your questions! Some information can already be found on the CBSS website: https://cbss.org/
STEAM – Science and Technology Path for Every Child and Youngster
2 October 2020, 12:00–14:30 CET
STEAM comes from the words Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. These are the skills needed in the future and this workshop concentrates on one very basic, yet extremely important question: how to build science and technology path for every child and youngster through the education.
The aim of this workshop is to discuss STEAM work, share best practices and experiences and plan the future activities in the Baltic Sea Region.
The EUSBSR Annual Forum will be held online on 20th October 2020. Registration to the Forum is now open. The speakers and moderators have also been published.
Registration for the EUSBSR Annual Forum has been opened! Please register here: https://bit.ly/2RwTXnX
The deadline for registration is 18 October 2020. After you register a personal link to the Annual Forum will be sent to you a day before the event on 19 October 2020.
Confirmed speakers and moderators announced
You can now find information about the speakers and moderators from our programme. The Forum will be moderated by Finnish journalist and media professional Peter Nyman, Chief Market Manager at COWI Bettina Rafaelsen and Director of The Baltic Institute of Finland Esa Kokkonen. In the opening session, Mayor of Turku Minna Arve and Director General of CBSS Grzegorz Poznański will welcome you to the Forum. The former President of Finland Tarja Halonen holds a keynote speech.
The program is structured in three parts. The first panel will focus on BSR cooperation and what it means to cooperate effectively even when the pandemic limited the ability to meet face-to-face.
The panel features for example Finnish Minister of the Environment and Climate Krista Mikkonen, Mayor of Gdansk Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Acting Director Christos Economou, Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission, Madeleine Granvik from Baltic University Programme, C.E.O. Tiina Tuurnala from Finnish Shipowners´ Association and Jonas Faergeman, Chair of #ReGeneration2030 Steering Committee.
The second discussion will focus on the emerging areas of cooperation. Minister of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland Mika Lintilä will start the discussion. The panelists include for example General Secretary of BSSSC Krystyna Wroblewska, Executive Secretary of HELCOM Rüdiger Strempel, Director of The Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being Ülla-Karin Nurm, Director of EU and International Affairs Christiane Mißlbeck-Winberg from Confederation of Danish Employers and Aline Mayr, Representative of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform.
The third panel focuses on the future of the EUSBSR and outlines the main policies that will shape the Strategy in the next 10 years. For example, the panel features Ambassador for Baltic Sea Affairs at MFA Finland Helena Tuuri, Head of European Affairs at Eastern Norway County Network Ann Irene Sæternes, C.E.O. of Nordic West Office Risto E. J. Penttilä, Chair of Interreg Baltic Sea Region Monitoring Committee of Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Iruma Kravale and Member of the European Parliament Delara Burkhardt.
Closing words will be offered by Pekka Haavisto, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Additional speakers will be confirmed at a later date.
There are plenty of opportunities to interact and ask questions during the panels. Generous networking breaks are also reserved in the programme.
You can participate in the Forum’s diverse program from your laptop or phone. Our online event platform and mobile app will be published closer to the Forum. Participants will be able to network, ask questions and participate in discussions online. Networking Village will also be available online.
We start tomorrow at 15.30 CET. Please create your
Hi
We’re happy to announce that tomorrow at 15.30 CET we start the Baltic Sea Youth Camp 2020, digital edition.
We kindly
ask you to register at your earliest convenience so that we do not experience
any delays during the event.
After your
registration you will receive 2 reminder emails from HOPIN – one email 24 hours
and one email 1 hour before the event begins. This is unfortunately not
something we can turn off.
There are
many breaks for you to recharge your batteries, but please attend and be active
in all the plenaries and one workshop per session to get the most out of the
Baltic Sea Youth Camp.
We will
provide Certificates of Attendance after the event.
Clarification
of platform concepts
•
Reception – waiting area before the event. Nothing happens here.
•
Stage – is the big stage, where we broadcast presentations and have plenary
sessions. Here you can only listen & watch. You can comment and ask
questions using the chat function.
•
Networking – an area where short ONE-on-ONE meetings takes place to get to know
each other. Use coffee and lunchbreaks to meet other participants.
•
Sessions – are used for the smaller workshops with a maximum of 20 participants
(sharing audio and video) and 100 participants who can listen and watch.
FYI: Only
some plenary sessions will be recorded, you are encouraged to actively
participate with your audio and video in the workshops and you can be sure
these sessions won’t be recorded.
Apart from
the sessions we want you to get in touch with Baltic Sea food culture,
therefore we have prepared a recipe booklet, please feel free to check it out
and choose your favorite recipe for the weekend and buy the ingredients to get
the full Baltic Sea experience.
We would
also like to let you know that there will be a movie night on Friday starting
at 20:00, the Nordic Pulse Documentary will be screened and you get the chance
to ask questions from two of the protagonists from the Baltic Sea Youth
Philharmonic.
If you
still have some friends who would like to join the event, please let them know
to get in touch with us, through sending a mail to: info@bsryc.eu
We are also
happy to answer any of your questions.
We are very
much looking forward to seeing you all on Friday and Saturday.
On 25-26 February 2020, the Umbrella project held its third cross border conference on Sustainable Tourism at the beautiful Hotel Saxkjøbing in Guldborgsund municipality, Denmark. More than 65 participants from Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden and Germany took part in the conference to discuss the latest trends of sustainable tourism in the Baltic Sea Region.
The conference offered an excellent overview of the objectives in the EU Baltic Sea Strategy – and how different regions and projects in the South Baltic Sea work within the frame of sustainable tourism.
We also had some fantastic workshops in the areas of;
1) Nature and Coastal Tourism,
2) Cultural heritage Tourism,
3) Food / Gastro Tourism,
and 4) Cycling Tourism, and we hope that these workshops have paved the ground for future projects and international cooperation.
A big thank you to the host of Guldborgsund Municipality for organising this event.
FOTO: Anders Knudsen/Folketidende FOTO: Anders Knudsen/Folketidende FOTO: Anders Knudsen/Folketidende
Guldborgsund Municipality, together with UMBRELLA Interreg South Baltic project partners is pleased to invite you to attend the 2-day cross-border conference with EUSBSR Tourism PA panel in Sakskøbing (DENMARK) on 25th – 26TH February 2020 (from lunch-to-lunch).
The objective of the cross-border conference is to bring various tourism stakeholders that show a common interest in international cooperation in the region of the Baltic Sea together. The conference offers an excellent opportunity to learn about future trends concerning the on-going discussions on sustainable tourism in the South Baltic Sea, extending your international network, and get inspiration for future international cooperation and projects.
Preliminary Programme
Tuesday 25th February 2020 (12:00-17:00 & dinner)
Presentations and debate about future trends of sustainable tourism and the objectives in the EU Baltic Sea Strategy.
Wednesday 26th February 2020 (9:00-13:00)
Parallel workshops in the areas of:
· Cultural / Heritage Tourism
· Nature / Coastal Tourism
· Food / Gastro Tourism
· Specialised „Microactivity on cycling tourism” – The UMBRELLA project offers an opportunity for experts related to cycling tourism to develop ideas into potential projects. Please let us know specifically if you want to give a presentation about your project idea.
Conference participation is free of charge but there is a limited number of seats. Presentations will be held in English.
The venue:
The conference is taking place at Hotel Saxkjøbing in the beautiful old town of Sakskøbing in Guldborgsund Municipality. There is easy access from Copenhagen airport by car or train taking approximately 2 hours or from Germany by ferry from Puttgarden or Rostock.
For international participants, the Umbrella project offers a possibility of funding opportunities towards travelling and accommodation expenses.
Hotel Saxkjøbing // Torvet 9, 4990 Sakskøbing, Denmark // https://hotel-saxkjobing.dk/ There is a limited number of rooms at a reduced conference price of 655 DKK for standard rooms and 855 DKK for standard plus rooms. Please contact Anna Topp Gustavsen: atg@guldborgsund.dk.
The UMBRELLA project:
The event is funded by Interreg SBP Umbrella project with project partners from the South Baltic region. Read about UMBRELLA // http://umbrellaproject.eu/
For further information, please contact:
Anna Topp Gustavsen, International Coordinator, Tlf. +45 2518 0030, atg@guldborgsund.dk
Dear Swedish Stakeholders,
a workshop to introduce the work of EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (and MRS) and participation in the Strategy will be organised on 4th November 2019 in Hässleholm.
Feel free to spread this information in your networks and register for the event.
Our Umbrella is co-organizing the event and we will be presenting our support possibilities.
Workshop: Att lyckas med samarbete med länder i Östersjöregionen
Category
Events
Date
From 04/11/2019 00:00 to 05/11/2019 00:00
Venue
Norra Station – Norra stationsgatan 6A, Hässleholm
Välkommen till workshop: Att lyckas med samarbete med länder i Östersjöregionen
Dag: 4 november 2019
Tid: 9.00–16.00
Plats: Norra Station, Norra stationsgatan 6A, Hässleholm
Globaliseringens utmaningar känner inga gränser. Allt oftare framstår samarbete med andra länder som mer effektivt och ibland helt nödvändigt.
Tillväxtverket, Svenska institutet, Svenska ESF-rådet, Universitets- och Högskolerådet samt Föreningen Norden har utvecklat regionala workshoppar för att introducera arbetet inom EU:s strategi för Östersjöregionen.
Bland deltagarna finns myndigheter, näringslivet och civilsamhället – lokalt, regionalt och nationellt samt på EU nivå. Vi vänder oss till ett brett spektrum av aktörer som ofta har ansvar för utvecklingsarbete i sina organisationer, förvaltningschefer, utvecklingsansvariga, näringslivschefer och aktörer inom civilsamhället.
Workshoppens syfte är att visa hur EU:s makroregionala strategi konkret kan användas som en ny samarbetsform. Under workshopen får deltagarna kunskap om hur aktörer på alla samhällsnivåer kan samarbeta inom strategins ram för att hitta lösningar på aktuella samhällsutmaningar.
Vi kommer också att diskutera olika finansieringsmöjligheter för denna form för transnationellt samarbete.
Workshoppen är en del av arrangemanget “Två dagar för europeiskt samarbete”, som bl.a. regionerna Blekinge, Skåne, Kronoberg och Kalmar län står bakom och som äger rum 4 och 5 november. Vi bifogar information om hela arrangemanget och fördjupad information om vår workshop. Hör av dig om du vill ha mer information om aktiviteterna på kvällen den 4 november och den 5 november.
