The 7th Strategy Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) will be hosted by the Swedish Government together with the Nordic Council of Ministers and in close cooperation with the European Commission. The Strategy Forum will be held on 8-9 November 2016 at the Brewery Conference Centre in Stockholm, Sweden.
Nordregio takes an active part in the Strategy Forum with hosted sessions on both days. Read below for more information.
Saving and using the Sea? – Connecting decision makers and actors through Maritime Spatial Planning is the name of a seminar Nordregio organises together with the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and VASAB (Vision and Strategies around the Baltic).
Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) provides an opportunity to achieve and balance the three main objectives of the EUSBSR. It is a cross-cutting mechanism boosting cooperation between actors on all governance levels. Transboundary MSP provides the means for addressing issues on a macro-regional scale. However, early findings from the Baltic SCOPE project indicate that the level of interest and involvement of decision makers and stakeholders at regional and local levels of governance needs to increase in order to achieve and balance the EUSBSR objectives across the region.
Baltic SCOPE is part of a chain of projects on MSP in the BSR with a distinct contribution – it successfully brought national authorities together for the 1st time and thus to moves the MSP train further. The project created stronger links between the planning authorities taking part in the project and has strengthened a pan-Baltic approach to MSP.
One of the next steps in MSP, and key to increase its legitimacy, is the mobilization of political decision makers. How should decision makers be included in MSP? How to save the sea while using it more effectively?
To elaborate on these issues, this political seminar discusses ways of
- showing what MSP could do for the BSR region,
- increasing political ownership and
- connecting actors / engaging stakeholders beyond sectors & decision makers.
Each question will be introduced through background information from VASAB and findings from the Baltic SCOPE project, followed by an interactive panel round featuring:
- Statements from panellists
- Interactive discussion between panellists & audience
- Audience invited to add post-its on three posters prepared for the audience and to share ideas & concerns
The results will be used in the finalisation of Baltic Scope outputs and in upcoming projects, such as in the EU Bonus BASMATI (Project page soon to be launched).
Nordregio will be represented during the seminar by Andrea Morf, Michael Kull, Alberto Giacometti and John Moodie. The seminar is moderated by Prof. Jacek Zaucha and takes place on Tuesday 8 November, between 15:00-16:20, in Seminar room “Lindgrenrummet”.
More on the topic:
On Maritime Spatial Planning
https://helcom.fi/action-areas/maritime-spatial-planning/
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it?” is the title of the second seminar hosted by Nordregio during the EUSBSR Forum 2016 which deals with ongoing spatial developments in the Baltic Sea Region.
The seminar will discuss questions such as how can the changes that we see now (in spheres such as sea environment, accessibility, and prosperity) be measured, which regional hotspots can be identified, and how can policy makers make use of monitoring of territorial trends. For this forum seminar, two tools have been developed and elaborated in order to stimulate discussion on the development potential within the macro region.
The ESPON BSR-TeMo project, which was established in 2014 and focused on territorial monitoring of the Baltic Sea Region’s sub-regions, has now been developed further in order to relate the territorial trends to the Baltic Sea Region Strategy and its’ objectives and sub-objectives. The results of this updated exercise will be presented, and answers will be provided to questions such as why monitoring systems are useful for policy making, or how do we ensure that a robust monitoring system is applied in the region?
Furthermore, the “Regional Potential Index” will be presented. This regional ranking was included at the Nordic scale in Nordregio’s State of the Nordic Region Report 2016, but has now been expanded to cover the entire Baltic Sea Region. The results of the “Regional Potential Index” will be discussed during the seminar.
Nordregio will be represented by Julien Grunfelder, Linus Rispling and Åsa Ström Hildestrand. The seminar takes place on Wednesday 9 November 2016, between 10:40-12:00, in Seminar room “Sjöläget”.
More on the topic:
Download and read the report “Trends, challenges and potentials in the Baltic Sea Region”
Organisers:
