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).

The Executive Board of Euroregion Baltic met in Klaipeda on 22^nd May 2018 to discuss about the progress, the challenges and the priorities of the organisation in the coming year. The main topic of the meeting was the development of the ERB 2030 Agenda and discussion on the proposals already submitted by some of the ERB members. The discussion served as a source of inspiration and provided relevant content to the development of the document later this year.

The ERB also continued the dialogue on the pontential enlargement of the organisation by inlcuding a new member from Sweden. To this end a representative of the Skåne Association of Local Authorities (Kommunförbundet Skåne) presented the organisation and their expectations towards the ERB as a potential future member organisation. The process is expected to be finalised at the next Board meeting in September 2018.

Much discussion was dedicated to the question of continuation of the South Baltic Programme under the new proposals submitted by the European Commission. It was agreed unanimously that the Programme should continue as an independent financial tools with significant budget allowing its stakeholders to tackle different challenges identified in the region. In order to provide an effective lobbying for the Programme the Board decided to develop a position paper highlighting the achievements of the Programme and lobbying for its continuation after 2020.

Next day the Youth ERB Board had a very constructive meeting as well. The youth organisation of Klaipeda hosted the meeting and its member presented to the Youth board their actions and activities in Lithuania. Moreover they presented the candidacy of Klaipeda for European Youth Capital 2020 and the vision and goals behind this candidacy.

Alexandra Winberg, the chairwoman of ERB Youth Board announced some changes in the composition Youth Board: Alexandra will not continue to be part of the Board and Johanna Levin will replace her as a new member. Mikkel Hoom Tved will be the next chairman of the Youth Board.

Moreover David Jedrzejak explained his Project Idea about a photo exhibition for non-professional photographers that will take place in different cities of Euroregion Baltic. The exhibition will highlight the beauty of the countries and landscapes within Euroregion Baltic, as a tool to attract more tourists in the region.

Youth Board presented as well its priorities in connection with the Euroregion Baltic Agenda 2030 as following:

a. Exchange of experiences and good practises with youth organisations around the South Baltic Sea!

b. Living conditions for youth.

c. Hot spots for the exchange information among young people!

d. Better promotion of the Youth Board and youth activities in social media.

e. Gender Equality and Human Rights

Last, Damian Ciachorowski presented (via skype) Euroregion Baltic Youth Strategy and specific tools regarding CaSYPoT project and the Youth Board voted upon them,  using the interactive online tool Mentimeter.

 Please follow this link to read draft minutes of the ERB Executive Board in Klaipeda:

On 22-23rd May 2017 stakeholders of Euroregion Baltic gathered in Elbląg, Poland for the second Executive Board meeting this year.

During the two days of official discussions, youth workshops and expert seminars, ERB partners touched upon a number of issues that are of importance to the organisation’s future work.

The event started with the joint meeting of the ERB Board with the Board of the Association of Polish Communes, one of important ERB member organisations and the host of the meeting. Gathered in historic roundtable hall in the Elbląg’s Old Town, the ERB politicians, civil servants and youth were welcomed by Mr Witold Wróblewski, Chair of Association’s Board and Mayor of Elbląg, who underlined the importance of ERB cross-border cooperation for municipalities and regions of the South Baltic Sea which since 1998 has been facilitating international cooperation, project implementation and trust building among the participating organisations.

The meeting was presided over jointly by Ms Akko Karlsson, ERB President and Vice Chair of Regional Council in Kalmar County, and Mr Wróblewski.

The Board discussed several important issues of ERB cooperation, among them preparations for the 20th anniversary of the organisation, as well as revision of strategic cooperation documents. Concerning the recently held Monitoring Committee meeting of the South Baltic Programme in Binz, the Board welcomed the approval of the Interconnect project and decided to commence work on the resubmission of the Umbrella project, which was rejected despite a very positive assessment by the external experts and Programme’s Joint Secretariat.

Discussing the draft ERB position on the future of EU Cohesion Policy, the Board decided to amend the final draft to better reflect the ERB priorities in the draft.

The Board also welcomed ERB’s participation in the recently approved Swedish Institute project in which together with the CPMR Baltic Sea Commission, it will engage in raising the awareness of Baltic stakeholder about the importance of the UN’s Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals.

Finally, the Board was informed about the activities of the ERB Youth Board which had submitted 4 projects to the last call for proposals in the Erasmus+ project and was actively participating in the preparation of joint conference and seminar at the EUSBSR Forum in Berlin on the issue of youth participation and empowerment.

On 23rd May ERB organised several parallel meetings with two very important concerning water and youth issues. The Water Core Group met to discuss a potential joint project in the South Baltic Programme that could be dedicated to the issues of improved management of existing water resources, while the ERB Youth Board discussed the future project with the Norwegian partners from Hedmark, as well as the organisation of the Berlin conference.The meeting was also attended by the youth from Warmia-Mazury who were selected within the Baltic Leaders project to build capacities of local youth leaders in the Baltic cooperation.

Full minutes of the ERB Executive Board meeting will soon be made available on ERB website.

On 6th Feb 2017 the Executive Board of Euroregion Baltic met in the city of Kalmar to officially transfer the ERB Presidency from Kaliningrad Region to the Regional Council in Kalmar County and agree on a wide range of activities for the coming year. (more…)