Euroregion Baltic (ERB)
was established in February 1998 and is a politically solid and well-anchored cooperation in the south-east of the Baltic Sea region, consisting of eight regions of Denmark (Regional Municipality of Bornholm), Lithuania (Klaipeda County), Poland (Pomorskie and Warminsko-Mazurskie Voivodeships), Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast), and Sweden (Lans of Blekinge, Kalmar and Sodra Smaland).
Comprising the regions from both old and new EU Member States, and the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, Euroregion Baltic constitutes the operational network of substantial and effective links across the borders, facilitating the promotion of political dialogue and reform, as well as sustainable, economic, social and environmental development, and thus strengthening local democracy and fostering people-to-people contacts between civil societies. The co-operation actively involves both local and regional authorities, private and public sectors, and NGOs.
Euroregion Baltic centres its cooperation around strategically selected and agreed objectives. In 2005, within the framework of the INTERREG III B BSR Programme, Seagull devERB project resulted in the elaboration of a long-term development strategy based on four strategic priorities, including economic and social development, implementation of the EU policies regarding environmental protection and promotion of renewable energy sources, as well as improving the infrastructures in order to provide better access to the Trans European transport networks, all corresponding with the revised Lisbon Strategy and the development of Four Common Spaces between the European Union and Russia.
As a result, an ambition was declared within ERB to facilitate the implementation process of its common strategy and Joint Development Programme. The geographical scope of Interreg programmes had never matched the map of the actively cooperating regions within Euroregion Baltic. A successful lobbying campaign based on the unanimous support of all ERB member regions, support from the national governments as well as from the European Commission, allowed the creation of a new cross-border cooperation facility for the South Baltic area. ERB has representatives in the Monitoring and Steering Committees of the South Baltic CBC Programme with around 61 MEUR provided by the European Regional Development Fund.
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