Baltic Sea Youth Platform is an Erasmus+ Programme project aiming at empowering youth and fostering actual participation in decisions and policy-making in the Baltic Sea Region. It started on February 1st 2020 and was prolonged from August 2022 until December 2022. Despite many difficulties and inconveniences caused by the pandemic, the project partnership supported and got involved in many significant youth-oriented initiatives throughout the past year, thus promoting the idea of BSYP.

In 2021 project partners meetings were held online every two weeks, which contributed to building strong engagement and developing new initiatives and great ideas for further cooperation.

On March 1st, BSYP conducted the Youth Forum within the 2^nd EU Macro Regional Strategies week hosted by DG REGIO. Julia Orluk, ERB’s Youth Board former Chairwoman, who’s been engaged in the BSYP project from its’ very beginning, was among the panellists of the bottom-up session to empower the participation of Youth and Civil Society Organisations in MRS.

In March 2021, the First Interim Report for the Baltic Sea Youth Platform Erasmus+ project was submitted and approved by the Swedish Agency.

In April, the BSYP project participated in two youth-oriented events:  BSSSC Youth Network on April 14th and Digital Youth Workshop on Green and Social entrepreneurship co-organized with Youth4Nature.

May 2021 was another busy month for BSYP. On May 6th BSYP became a part of a youth panel during a CBSS trafficking conference focusing on human trafficking during the digital era. The meeting was co-organized by TH-TFB and the CAR unit of the CBSS. Next, on 12^th – 14^th May, the CBSS Ministerial Youth Edition was held, where again BSYP was very active. During the event, young people from the Baltic Sea region came up with great ideas that evaluated the CBSS Vision Statement Beyond 2030, presented to the Foreign Ministers at the CBSS Ministerial on June 1st.

Finally, between 28^th and 29^th May, BSYP joined the BSSSC Youth Spring Event, where modern democracy, Baltic sustainability and entrepreneurship were discussed with experts from EU Parliament.

On June 22nd, all BSYP project partners and associated partners joined Partnership Day to work on the platform vision with ACTER experts. Project partners discussed further steps regarding virtual platform development, toolkits and guidelines issues within Baltic Sea Youth Power Box, policy recommendations, youth input to the Baltic Sea Cultural Cities and other matters connected to the external report.

August 2021 was also filled with extraordinary events dedicated to Youth, and the BSYP project was proud to be a part of them. Starting up with 41^st Hanseatic Days days on 19^th -21^st August, a hybrid event taking place in Riga and online. Among others, the program included the “Youth Hanza” event, which was a virtual meeting of young people from member cities, during which issues of current issues in the region such as the climate and environment, the participation of young people in these processes, as well as the history and traditions of Hanseatic cities were discussed interactively.

On 28^th – 31^st August, BSYP joined the ReGeneration Week 2021 – a hybrid event, where people participated physically on the Åland Islands and through the streaming tool Coeo. The ReGeneration Week provided an international meeting place for intergenerational dialogues for a sustainable system change. The theme for the ReGeneration Week 2021 was “ReThinking The System”, which highlights the need for a sustainable recovery after the pandemic. ReGeneration Week 2021 offered interactive lectures and workshops, intergenerational dialogues and provided tools to contribute to a more sustainable life in connection to the five different domains in Anatomy of Action.

On August 29th, the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS)/Baltic Sea Youth Platform, together with the Swedish delegation to the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, organized the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth Forum to promote dialogue between young people of the region and policymakers.

The Forum gathered young people and members of parliament from the Baltic Sea Region who discussed how to secure a democratically and environmentally sustainable future. It provided an opportunity for young people to give input to policymakers on the issues at hand and gain insight into international parliamentary cooperation.

Furthermore, BSYP was an active participant at the EUSBSR Annual Forum 2021. On September 30th, CBSS organized a panel discussion on Empowering Youth for Green Entrepreneurship, which became a platform for young entrepreneurs from across the BSR to share their insights on how to start a green business and provide their experience regarding existing obstacles and barriers for receiving funding and building a business model. The panel also gave the floor to representatives of financial institutions and programmes. The participants also had an opportunity to discuss how to improve the status quo regarding financial mechanisms and accessibility and provide a more supportive environment for young people to start their businesses in the BSR. The last day of the Forum was entirely dedicated to youth issues. Participants joined a plenary session on Youth’s involvement but also heard more about Klaipėda as the European Youth Capital 2021, the role of Youth in implementing ambitious green agenda of the EU, the presentation of Lithuanian Sea Museum, creative workshop on SDGs, presentations of sustainable solutions of businesses and many more.

In October, CBSS announced a call for the Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2021: Looking forward, looking back – 30 Years of Collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region. The dialogue, held between 4th-28th November, consisted of three lectures on the following topics: Safe & Secure Region, Sustainable & Prosperous Region and Regional Identity. All participants of the lectures had an exciting opportunity to dialogue with experts from the region. The discussion was followed by two activities: a cross country assignment and a learning diary. Each activity’s best creative entries were later awarded during the online ceremony on December 11th 2021.

On November 1st, the Baltic Sea Youth Platform partnership announced the recruitment for the Baltic Sea Talent Pool. Young people (18-30 years old) eager to be active in shaping policies within the region could apply to join one of the working groups: advocacy – responsible for writing policy recommendations and taking part in the events,  culture – implementing local actions and being part of the development of the Baltic Sea Cultural Cities and Regions Project Or to become a part of BSYP taskforce for child protection policies.

On November 23rd, CBSS presented the BSYP during the “Connecting minds across the ages” side event at the NDPHS Partnership Annual Conference.

Finally, on 25^th and 26^th November, the BSYP project partners met physically in Stockholm for the first time after nearly 20 months. At the two day meeting, organized in the premises of CBSS, representatives from Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany and Poland, including many youth representatives, had an opportunity to discuss the current status of the Project, partner contribution, funding options, add-ons to be created, development of intellectual outputs within Project as well as Strategy, Vision and Partnership beyond 2022. The second day of the meeting was filled with some great workshops within the Baltic Sea Belongs to Kids project and very fruitful discussions among members of BSYP Working Groups.

• BSYP Vision Beyond 2022

As a follow-up of the youth involvement in the first CBSS Committee of Senior Officials meeting in mid-September, BSYP was asked to provide a first draft of a vision for the BSYP after the project ended. The document is an internal document of the CBSS to continue the discussions on the institutionalization of the BSYP. It was meant to start a debate amongst the CBSS Member States on how financial support of the BSYP could look like after the Erasmus+ Project ends. On November 23rd, the CSO met and discussed the BSYP Vision Beyond 2022 proposal and how to move on with the BSYP.

This call aims to involve people aged 18 – 30 years old in shaping policies within the region. There are three thematic groups to apply:

Advocacy Working Group

Politically interested young people who want to shape policies in the Baltic Sea Region.

Culture Working Group

Active young people who want to implement local activities and advise decision – makers on cultural projects in the Baltic Sea Region.

Taskforce: Child protection

Young people who are interested in child protection policies and would like to conceptualize a child protection working group.

The deadline for the submission is November 8^th, and is held via this link: https://bit.ly/3nRBaDq

More detailed information is available on the CBSS website and the Baltic Sea Youth Platform website.

The next meeting of the BSYP Working Groups is scheduled for November 25th and 26th in Stockholm and via remote tools. Euroregion Baltic will be present in Stockholm, we will have two representatives of the International permanent Secretariat and 3 Euroregion Baltic Youth Board members.

FAQ

FOR WHOM? 

Everyone between 18-30 years old. 
No special knowledge needed.

Do not worry about your level of English, joining our Working Groups is a great way to improve your own personal skills. 

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? 

Every group will meet twice per month.

If you join a group, you should stay active for at least 6 months. There will be tasks distributed within the group.

If you take over such responsibility, please consider carefully if you have the time to fulfil the task. 

IS THERE ANY SUPPORT AND MENTORSHIP? 

Yes, the Council of the Baltic Sea States and other partners of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform will support the groups and provide guidance whenever needed. 

WHY SHOULD I JOIN? 

This is a great opportunity to enhance your own skills in teamwork, international cooperation, the English language and in the topic you will be working in. 

You can learn a lot and share your experiences with others while working for a much bigger purpose: real youth participation in the region. 
You will be the one driving the change, engaged in all our activities and getting all the latest information before anyone else. 

You have the chance to work with mentors and experts in various fields and you can build a network that will help you throughout your life. 

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THE WORKING GROUPS? 

The aim of the Working Groups is to promote youth cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region and show that young people are active drivers of change. You will get the chance to speak to decision-makers and influence decisions to create a more sustainable, safer and prosperous region. 

IS THERE A DEADLINE FOR THE APPLICATION? 

Yes, we will close the application on

08.11.2021, 23:59 CET Sign-u

Are you a young creative writer, graphic artist or maybe have a project idea for a more sustainable future for the Baltic Sea Region? The Council of The Baltic Sea States (CBSS) is calling 18-30 years old participants around the region to join the competition Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2020 – Let’s create a sustainable future together!
Choose your field of interest between creative writing, graphic design or developing a project idea. Submit your entry for any of the three given categories until November 30th, 2020. Creative work will be encouraged and prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners at every category will be issued. The finalists will be selected by a renowned jury and honoured during the online award ceremony on December 12th.

So join now, as it is only one and a half weeks’ time left to participate in the  Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2020 Competitions “Let’s Create a Sustainable Future Together”!

Great prizes and a festive online Award Ceremony on December 12^th are to be expected. Renowned jury members will be evaluating the submissions.

Further information and participation documents can be found on our website https://cbss.org/2020/10/26/baltic-sea-youth-dialogue-competition/.

You can also find the information on the website of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform https://bsyp.eu/.

On 17th Oct 2020 Baltic Sea Youth representatives gathered for the whole afternoon for the virtual Baltic Sea Youth Camp 2.0. Their goal was to get together to contribute meaningfully to the future of the Baltic Sea Region. This was set out in the Baltic Sea Youth Declaration, put together by the young participants at the camp.

The Declaration was presented to the Baltic Sea Region policy and decision-makers at the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) Annual Forum on 20th Oct 2020, to be taken into account by each of the Policy Areas of the EUSBSR. Read the full document below.

On 3.10 we invited youngsters from Gdansk and Elbląg, including youth from the Euroregion Baltic Youth Board, to participate in the Baltic Sea Youth Platform #BSYP event raising awareness on STEM among youth.

The EUSBSR Annual Forum should have taken place in Turku, Finland in June 2020. Due to the COVID-situation it was rescheduled for October and during summer 2020 it was decided to cancel the physical event and instead go online. As the BSYP partnership planned to organise a physical youth event back-to-back to the Forum this idea now must be transformed to fit into the virtual context of the whole event. The Baltic Sea Youth Camp that took place in June 2020 was the first kick-off to these activities.
The EUSBSR Annual Forum will take place virtually in form of a bigger panel event on 20.10.2020 and workshops were organised online alongside by the PACs and HACs, as well as external partners during September and October.
The young people in the region expressed their wish to return to physical events. Therefore, smaller events were organised by local partners in the region.
Our ERB event in Elbląg was one of them! See a few pictures from the event too!

Working Groups

Join the Baltic Sea Youth Talent Pool!
Sign-up

FAQ

FOR WHOM? 

Everyone is welcome, there are no special qualifications needed. You just have to be enthusiastic to work with others in our region. 
Do not worry about your level of English, this is a great way to improve your own skills. 

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? 

This is up to you and your schedule. As we are all volunteers, there is no pressure. Yet, you should bring a bit of time for our bi-weekly meetings and to work in between. 
Please be honest about the time you have and do not take over responsibilities you cannot fullfil. 

IS THERE ANY SUPPORT AND MENTORSHIP? 

Absolutely. We won’t leave you alone. Even though the groups will be youth-led, there is always support available. Our region has a lot of mentors who are eager to help and support you whenever necessary. 
Our Project Assistant, will be present at the meetings and coordinate the work of the groups. 

You can count on the support of all project partners, especially the Council of the Baltic Sea States. 

WHY SHOULD I JOIN? 

This is a great opportunity to enhance your own skills in teamwork, international cooperation, English language and in the topic you will be working in. 

You can learn a lot and share your experiences with others, while working for a much bigger purpose: real youth-participation in the region. 
You will be the one driving the change, engaged in all our activities and getting all latest information before anyone else. 

You have the chance to work with mentors and experts in various field and you can build a network that will help you throughout your life. 

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THE WORKING GROUPS? 

The aim of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform is to become obsolete at some point. We will work to enhance youth cooperation in various spheres and throughout all levels of decision-making in the Baltic Sea Region.

IS THERE A DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION? 

Yes, we will close the application on 28.06.2020 at 23:59 CET. 
But do not worry if you missed it, we will have an open-call every 6 months to recruit new baltfluencer for our talent pool. 

BSYP aims at empowering youth and fostering real participation in decision and policy-making in the Baltic Sea Region.

The BSYP will enable youth organisations to reach their fullest potential by empowering them to develop new ideas and pursue them jointly, under the guidance of the 2030 Agenda framework.
The platform will engage youth at different levels, in the design of a common framework for action and a shared Baltic Sea Region (BSR) identity.

The aim of the partnership is, to:

1. Improve the political impact of youth on Baltic Sea policy-making.
2. Develop tools for better knowledge transfer.
3. Facilitate various innovative projects relying on the interests and capacities of youth in a broad range of policy areas.

What will be done?

The BSYP will produce several Intellectual Outputs usable for youth organisations and policy-makers in the BSR and other macroregions to promote the region and its identity.
The main output will be a virtual platform for youth, organisations and decision-makers for projects and to interact with each other. The platform will be built according to the needs of the young people in the region and the demands from policy-makers. The platform enables youth to interact, cooperate and communicate across borders and to virtually meet peers and decision-makers in a safe and productive environment.
The BSYD will also produce a Baltic Sea Youth Power Box, with toolkits and guidelines for intergenerational dialogue, policy-making, youth engagement and advocacy especially tailored for youth in the region, but with possible transferability to other regions.
Furthermore, the youth platform participants will be able to engage in the production of youth inputs for the Baltic Sea Cultural Cities (BSCC) – a flagship project of the Policy Area Culture of the EU Strategy of the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR).
The platform will collectively produce External Reports to show what projects have been done and how the platform was established. Furthermore, Policy Recommendations for decision-makers in the region to emphasise the political perspective of young people and to ensure their positions and rationales are delivered to those who make decisions about our future, will be produced.

How will it be done?

The Baltic Sea Youth Platform ensures that there is nothing about us, without us!

The Youth Platform will work as an umbrella coordination mechanism for several youth organisations horizontally across sectors in connection to the different policy areas and horizontal actions of the EUSBSR.
The Strategic Partners of the Erasmus+ project (KA 205) and other associated partners will meet physically and virtually several times per year to discuss the progress and further steps of the project.
There will be at least one Multiplier Event per year to inform external stakeholders about the progress of the project and showcase the Intellectual Outputs.
In addition, young people will have a safe space to come up with concrete actions and project ideas to allow for increased participation of youth in society. This will contribute to the development of sustainable policies for future generations and the creation of future experts with the cohesion and stability of our Baltic Sea Region at heart!

On the 6^th and 7^th of May the Baltic Sea Youth 2030 meeting took place in Gdansk.

Several Youth organizations have contributed and young people have had the opportunity to build the future plan together with experts  on youth and cooperation.

ERB was present, along with CBSS, BSSSC, ERB, Latvian Youth Council, Swedish Youth, Council, Leontief Centre, Nordisk Institute på Åland/Ålands Natur och Milljö, ReGeneration 2030, International Cooperation Burau at the Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship, Morena Association, as well as LSU and  LJP representatives who joined online.

It was a crucial meeting to start a more systematic process of coordination amoung youth in the Baltic Sea Regions, to share with all the participants what has been done so far and  which steps to be taken for the future.

The topics discussed focused on the practical instruments to engage young people and to improve communication between youth organizations.

Young people underlined the real need to have the opportunity to meet several times a year, in addition to online meetings, to build a strong cooperation within the Baltic Sea Regions.

The wokshop on the second day, brought some real ideas for the possibilities and applications that youth can catch in the frame of Erasmus + program. Thanks to the experts present, youth have started to draw the initial ideas that will be developed in the future.

Young people are planning to create a video and a letter for all organizations, politicians and adults who can and want to actively contribute, in order to ask their support.

Let’s make our voice heard!

Text by our IVY volunteer – Milena Pallotta

The Association of Polish Communes of Euroregion Baltic, IPS, is currently part of Europe for Citizens project SIA4Y- Strengthening civil society rights by Information Access for European Youth (http://civicyouth.eu/2018/12/19/sia4y-project-kick-off-meeting-in-gdansk-european-debate/).

The project, led by the Polish Economic Society (Gdansk, Poland), foresees a series of mirroring events “Access to public information from the youth perspective” in each partner country (Poland, Estonia, Finnland and Belgium), and we’re about to start the organization of ours that will take place in Elblag (Poland), on 7th March 2019 (1-day event).

Our event will count 80-100 participants from our ERB network (Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, and Poland) and from our SIA4Y partner countries, especially from Finnland and Estonia. We still have to define the details but I think that our target group will be mainly young people aging between 18 and 25 years old.

The main objective of the event will be to inform and train the participants in the use of the right of access to public information, including practical training on socially responsible relationships and participatory budgeting knowledge for youth. Our idea would be to dedicate half of the time on right of access, and the second part on participatory budgeting through a role game.

We are currently looking for speakers that would be able to give a significant contribution to our event, with experience in the topics described above, and used to work with youth.
If you are interested in participating as speaker, please contact Valentina Scandola at valentina.scandola@euroregionbaltic.eu

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.