ERB Working Group on Conference on the Future of Europe established

Following the decision made by our Euroregion Baltic Board Members on 25th May new ERB Working Group for the Conference on the Future of Europe has been established.

The plan for this WG is to follow the COFE debate, events and discussion over the upcoming months and let us all know once there is some significant event or input related to ERB members and stakeholders or anything we may find necessary to the South Baltic area.

In the group, we have the representatives of Euroregion Baltic Secretariats from ERB member states, Europe Direct representatives, and the Brussels Offices representatives from our regions. We are pleased to welcome you onboard and thank you for agreeing to work with us regarding COFE. The list is not finalised; we still keep it open for other actors to confirm their interest

The plan for this WG work is as follows:

• We will keep track of all COFE events and seminars relevant and essential to the Euroregion Baltic/South Baltic area citizens and stakeholders;
• we will share information on important events and meetings organised
• we will promote the ERB/South Baltic area COFE events – please let us know what & when you organise and we will share information on our website and social media;
• In September 2021, we will organise an online meeting of the WG representatives to exchange knowledge, and discuss the potential directions where we could engage more.
• In the late autumn of 2021 current ERB presidency, Blekinge Region will start working on the draft of the ERB position paper regarding the COFE – a document that we hope the WG can discuss later. The upcoming presidency of Warmia and Masuria Region will also be closely working on the final draft. Finally, we would like to see the document ready for Fen 2022  and adopted by Euroregion Baltic Board Members during the Board meeting.

We hope that this WG will help us promote the most important events and inputs from the COFE, share them with ERB and South Baltic Stakeholders and finally, in the fall, these inputs will allow us to prepare the ERB position paper to be adopted in Feb 2022.

Please see below the final agenda for the online seminar planned for 9th April 2021. We welcome all ERB Stakeholders to join us and learn how:

• ERB contributes to the Interreg South BalticProgramme (SBP);
• what are the perspectives and planned policy objectives for Interreg SBP 2021-27;
• how we can align the planned SBP objectives with the work in
  ERB Water Core Group, ERB MobilityCore Group and ERB Youth Board;
• what are the possibilities for ERB Stakeholderscooperation in the area of tourism
  
• 
  
  

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).

On the 19th of May, for the first time in many years, the Euroregion Baltic Executive Board met on-line.

Fourty representatives of ERB Board, Secretariats and our Youth Board connected to discuss i.a. the current COVID – 19 situation in the South Baltic region and most recent news on the Interreg South Baltic Programme.

However, the most significant point of the agenda was the adoption of the newest ERB Policy paper – “Future of the Interreg South Baltic Programme. Arguments supporting the early introduction of a Capacity Building Initiative”. You can see the document here:

The meeting was Chaired by the ERB President, Mr Witold Wróblewski, Mayor of Elbląg representing the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic together with the ERB Vice-President, Mr Johan Sandberg from the Blekinge Region.

Dear All,

In these challenging times, we are all navigating through uncertainty for ourselves, our loved ones and our community. We hope you are staying healthy and safe.

Wishing you a very Happy Easter that is filled with plenty of love and happiness.