At the beginning of July 2018 the Polish Minister of Investment and Economic development, Mr Jerzy Kwieciński, sent an open letter to the European Commission (EC) on the future the South Baltic Programme.
The Minister also presented the overview and maritime cooperation benefits of the Programme for the last 11 years. In this brochure are presented the joint actions of coastal regions of five countries – Poland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and the achievements of the Programme for the last two programming periods.
As the period of the cross border cooperation programmes comes to the end in 2020, the EC is in the process of proposing the budget for the next long-term 2021-2027. This includes also proposals of amendments the form of existence of maritime and other cross-border partnership programmes.
The Ministry of Investment and Economic Development is the Managing Authority of the South Baltic Programme, therefore Mr Jerzy Kwieciński is open to discuss the future of cross-border programmes, including the South Baltic Programme, to prepare the framework and regulations for the new programming period.
The Minister emphasizes the significance of the small regions in sub-regional levels: “a huge number of small communities (of less than 20 00 inhabitants) located in are covered by both cross-border and transnational programmes is more interested in cooperation in a local partnership instrument”.
The Minister hopes to find a dialogue with the EC and expresses willingness to continue cooperation within the framework of the South Baltic cross-border Programme.
You can find the entire letter here. The document describing the benefits of South Baltic cooperation is available for download under this link.