Highlights

The concept of project platforms was introduced by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme to support cooperation among partners of projects funded by Interreg and other funding programmes in different thematic fields. The overarching objective of this kind of collaboration has been to improve the utilisation of the results from individual projects on a wider scale.

Harry S. Truman once said: “All will concede that in order to have good neighbours, we must also be good neighbours. That applies in every field of human endeavour.” In the framework of Baltic Sea Region and EUSBSR we can also talk about importance of good neighbourhood.

The pace of population ageing is much faster than in the past. According to World Health Organization statistics, the number of people aged 60 years and older outnumbers children younger than 5 years during 2020. Worth to mention, ageing issues are relevant in all local, national, regional and global levels keeping in mind the level of impact.

Human trafficking happens every day in the Baltic Sea region. It takes place in all countries – across the borders as well as locally. EUSBSR addresses this issue through Policy Area Secure which focuses on, among other things, cross-border crime.

All EU countries benefit from Cohesion policy. It is also an important element to the development of EU macro-regional strategies as they are put into practice in cross-border projects and strengthen regions through cooperation.

One of the principles of circularity – at least as I see it – is the local or regional dimension, A.M. Haasse writes.