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Euroregion Baltic Executive Board meeting on 8th Sep 2020


The Euroregion Baltic Executive Board members, ERB Youth Board members and ERB SEcretariats & Water Core Group representatives met on 8th September 2020, again in the digital format, due to the COVID19 situation. The meeting was chaired by Mr Witold Wróblewski, ERB President and started with the informative round on COVID19 situation in all five ERB countries, presented by the ERB Board members from Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Lithuania.

Among discussion points there were:

  • information from the South Baltic Programme Monitoring Committee and Joint Programming Committee meetings with the special attention out to the programming for South Baltic 2021-2027 presented by Mr Niels Chresten-Andersen from Regional Municipality of Bornholm and Mr Sławomir Demkowicz – Dobrzanski from Region Kronoberg;
  • newest capacity building initiatives based on the UMbrella Interreg South Baltic project presented by Ms Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło, Head of the ERB IPS and MS Valentina Scandola, Umbrella Project Leader;
  • proposal of the establishment of “Sustainable transport Working Group in ERB” by the Blekinge Region and Mr Mattias Andersson, Interconnect Interreg South Baltic Project Leader;
  • presentation of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Seed Money Facility “WaterMan” project, selected for funding in June 2020 and starting in October 2020. This part was presented by the Water Core Group representative from Kalmar region Mr Tobias Facchini.

The ERB Board members agreed to continue working in on-line format until the possibilities to travel and meet in person becomes safe again. The next Board meeting was scheduled for 3rd Dec 2020, back-to-back with the Umbrella project final conference (digital format).

Euroregion Baltic President Mr Witold Wróblewski, Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic
Euroregion Baltic Vice President – Mr Johan Sandberg, Region Blekinge



The Euroregion Baltic Executive Board and the Youth Board meetings transpired in Radisson Blue Hotel in Klaipeda, Lithuania from 13-14th February 2019!

On 13th February, the Euroregion Baltic Executive Board meeting took place. Some of its highlights included: the presentation of the Skåne Association of Local Authorities-from Sweden-as the new ERB member, the transfer of the ERB Presidency from Denmark to Lithuania, the approval of the new Head of the Euroregion Baltic International Permanent Secretariat and the ERB Action Plan for 2019. Furthermore, the new Executive Board members were introduced, a new sequence of ERB Presidencies was proposed to start after 2020 and various reports detailing hard-earned results and plans for the future were exhibited.

The inclusion of Skåne  Association of Local Authorities is undoubtedly a very important moment in ERB history. The Association from Sweden represents the 33 most southern municipalities in Sweden. Due to the Swedish local self-government tradition, the municipalities have responsibilities in many important areas such as climate issues and water. The organization also has an office in Brussels which is participating in several working groups such as Blue Growth, Energy and Climate, Water and Digitalization.

The Skåne  Association’s interests coincide with the goals of the new Lithuanian Presidency of the Euroregion Baltic (in the picture) so, it will be interesting to see how cooperation in these subjects will evolve. The Lithuanian ERB Presidency will focus on: blue and green growth (through smart specialization tool-kit), EU Cohesion policy (by effective lobbying and focusing on the South Baltic Programme after 2020) and accessibility/ transport (through the implementation of the Interconnect Project).

These goals were also included in the ERB Action Plan for 2019. It was presented by the new President of the Euroregion Baltic, Mr Vytautas Grubliauskas. The funds, projects connected to the ERB, and success criteria were demonstrated. The new strategy involves events like the Participation Day (in the frame of the EUSBSR Annual Forum) which will take place on 11th June 2019 in Gdansk, right after the Baltic Sea Youth Camp, event that will be attended by 100 young people and representatives of the HA- Horizontal Actions like HA- Capacity Building.

Finally and most importantly, we are glad to have Ms Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło (in the picture) as the new Head of the ERB International Permanent Secretariat to replace Mr Sebastian Magier who spent almost a decade working dedicatedly for the Euroregion Baltic. Ms Leszczyna-Rzucidło will start her duties in April and until then, Ms Agata Ludwiczak will lead the ERB IPS. Ms Leszczyna-Rzucidło scored the highest result in the interview stage of the recruitment and also received warm recommendations during the Executive Board Meeting. We are looking forward for her arrival in the ERB IPS!

On 14th February, the Youth Board meeting took place. Ms Agata Ludwiczak, from ERB IPS, and Mr Marcin Żuchowski, from the Association of Polish Communes, presented the new Youth Strategy. The strategy is focused around 3 objectives: mobility, development and identity. In order for these objectives to be fulfilled, the use of almost 40 tools was recommended. Some of these tools include youth mobility, the Students’ Council, Youth Centers, youth media, school’s first job and others. Furthermore, there was a discussion on the future of the Youth Board which involved a variety of suggestions and requests for changes in its structure.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the ERB Executive Board meeting introduced certain changes of crucial importance and drew the plan for the future. On the other hand, the Youth Board meeting brought into light many of the alterations needed to be made in order to boost its influence and effectiveness. Both meetings were characterized by openness, cordiality and a sincere wish to discuss and cooperate.

  • The next meeting of the ERB Executive Board and the Annual Forum of the ERB stakeholders will take place in Kalmar on 13th-14th May 2019!

By IVY Theodora Chatzipanteli

In order to celebrate its 20th anniversary, on February 14-15, 2018 Euroregion Baltic is going to organize two days long series of meetings and officially launch SB YCGN and Umbrella. SB YCGN (South Baltic Youth Core Groups Network) project focuses on the cooperation of different actors, like local and regional authorities, universities, NGOs, etc. in the field of youth questions. youth participation in decision making on the local level and strengthen the capacities of local and regional actors in the South Baltic Programme area in youth policy and sustainable development. The project has the ambition to create a cross-border network with joint capacity building events, based on analysis and research of partner countries with following the international participatory campaign. UMBRELLA aims at developing know-how capacities for small local and regional organisations in the South Baltic Programme area to initiate their active participation in the cross-border cooperation in daily activities.

Both to be held at the Old Town Hall (ul. Stary Rynek 25, Elblag) on Wednesday 14th at 9.00, the kick-off meetings will see the participation of project and associated partners with the aim of discussing the overall objective, purposes, targets, results and activities to be carried out. To coordinate the meeting: Sebastian Magier – Project Coordinator and Valentina Scandola – Umbrella Project Manager; Małgorzata Samusjew – Project Coordinator and Marcin Zuchowski – SB YCGN Project Manager along with Agnieszka Limanòwka, Joint Secretariat’s Project Officer.

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The content of this website is the sole responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union, the Managing Authority or the Joint Secretariat of the South Baltic Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020. The project UMBRELLA is partly financed from the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 through the European Regional Development Fund.