Highlights

  EUSBSR Flaghip project NutriTrade mixes activities to implement practical measures and to develop longer-term solutions to combat eutrophication. In particular, its digital crowdfunding platform Nutribute may prove to multiply the impact of the flagship over the time. Nutribute facilitates encountering of Baltic Sea savers and can be used as a fundraising tool for concrete measures to reduce eutrophication. In other words, Nutribute harnesses digital technology to contribute towards cleaning the Baltic Sea and thus contributes to the EUSBSR ‘Save the Sea’ objective.

  On 8th November 2017, in the Maritime Culture Centre in Gdańsk, Poland, an international seminar entitled “How Can Maritime Business Benefit from the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region?” was held. It was organized as part of “Let’s Communicate!” and “Smart Blue Regions” projects by “Pomorskie in the EU” Association, PA Ship and PA Safe. During the seminar, experts and companies from the maritime industry met to discuss current and potential maritime projects (covering the fields of shipping industry cooperation, logistics, port industry, shipping and occupational safety, biotechnological innovations, etc.)

  In October 2017, three new Flagships of Policy Area Secure were adopted by the EUSBSR National Coordinators. The actions of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region are implemented by means of Flagships. Flagships demonstrate the progress of the Strategy, and may serve as pilot examples for desired action in a given field. We asked the newly approved Flagships what the status means to them.

I had a great privilege to travel to sunny Slovenia last month to take part in “EU Macroregional Strategies Conference on Media and Communication – Know Thy Neighbour”. The event was about exchanging experiences, learning from good practices and discussing how to improve the visibility of the EU macro-regional strategies (MRS). Participants were representatives of media, journalists, communication experts, academia and interested stakeholders. Can you imagine that this was the first time that communication people from all four macro-regional strategies met to discuss their work!  

A digital Flagship of Policy Area Innovation, project DIGINNO (Digital Innovation Network), was launched on 5 September in Tallinn. DIGINNO’s objective is to advance the digital economy and to speed up the process of moving towards the Baltic Sea region single digital market. The project aims to increase the capacity of policymakers, industry associations and industrial SMEs to enable faster and more efficient uptake of digital solutions both in public and private sector.

  Healthy Population – Prosperous Region A healthy population is a critical factor behind the sustainable economic development of enterprises and societies. Therefore, improvement of health throughout the Baltic Sea region is important for the prosperity of the region.