VII annual international conference «Cross-border cooperation: the Russian Federation, the European Union and Norway»

22-23 September 2011 the VII annual conference “Cross-border cooperation: the Russian Federation, the European Union and Norway” took place in Kaliningrad. The conference gathered together more than 500 participants from Russia, Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Denmark, Belarus.

This year the conference was jointed with the III International forum of partner-regions of Kaliningrad oblast and with the Annual Conference Lithuania-Poland-Russia ENPI CBC Programme 2007-2013.

The conference was opened by the Deputy Prime minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhukov, he emphasized that development of cross-border territories would not be possible without implementation of all the economic relations’ potential.

During the opening ceremony the Minister for regional development of the Russian Federation Viktor Basargin took floor. He touched upon future development of the programmes on cross-border cooperation after 2013. The Minister ascertained that so far 61 projects totaling more than 56 mil euro are approved for financing.

European states were represented by the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis, the Minister for the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania Raimundas Palaitis, the Minister for Regional Affairs of the Republic of Estonia Siim Valmar Kiisler, the Vice-Minister of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania Sigitas Šiupšinskas, the Secretary of State, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland Pertti Torstila, the Secretary of State, Ministry of  Local Government and Regional Development of Kingdom of Norway Hege Solbakken, the Undersecretary of State, Ministry Regional Development of the Republic of Poland Marceli Niezgoda.

During his welcoming speech the Governor of Kaliningrad oblast Nikolay Tsukanov emphasized that Kaliningrad oblast was open for its neighbours and friends in terms of tourism development, economic projects implementation. One of the forms of such cooperation, that we need to strengthen focus on, should be infrastructure facilities construction.

The rector of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University Andrey Klemeshev marked out significance of the fact, that the event was held in the University, that represents Russian education system to Europe. The University gained federal status and, according to the rector, is becoming all-Russian scale platform for discussion.

Deputy plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation to the North-West Federal District Sergey Zimin concentrated attention of the audience on trade and economic indexes of cooperation of Kaliningrad oblast with its partner-regions.

Nordic Council of Ministers Secretary General Halldor Asgrimsson pointed out high significance of the Baltic Sea region for his organization’s activities.

Cooperation in the Baltic Sea region was one of the priority topics of the conference. Increasing cooperation of Germany and Russia, that are going to preside over the Council of Baltic Sea States during next two years, was an issue of the sessions attended by the Ambassador,  Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Head of Task Force of German Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States Gerhard Almer and the MP, Former Parliamentary State Secretary, Chairman of the German Bundestag Delegation to the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference Franz Tönnes.

The sphere of Russian-German cooperation in the Baltic Sea region jointed with the issue of cooperation with partner-regions of these countries.

 In the framework of the conference a meeting of the Coordination council on cross-border and interregional cooperation by the Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation to the North-West Federal District took place. The participants of the meeting paid attention to the position building of the regional authorities towards the European Instrument of Neighborhood and Partnership development after 2013. They also touched upon issues of implementation of the Federal targeted programme “National Action Plan for rehabilitation and improvement of the Baltic Sea ecosystem”.

In the framework of the III International forum of partner-regions of Kaliningrad oblast the round table “Cooperation of Kaliningrad oblast and partner-regions in the sphere of business” was held. According to the Minister of Economy of Kaliningrad oblast Elena Pozhigaylo in the end of 2011 Kaliningrad oblast will reach pre-crisis indexes of economic development, also due to interregional cooperation development. The Council on investments chaired by the Governor of Kaliningrad oblast promoted opportunities of license and coordination execution in “one window” for the investors. Moreover, Kaliningrad oblast renders assistance in search of land plots for businesses and lays services for them.

On the second day of the joint event the Annual Conference Lithuania-Poland-Russia ENPI CBC Programme 2007-2013 was open. Representatives of the executive authorities of the Russian Federation, the Republics of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Estonia participated in the conference. The Minister and Head of Agency for international and interregional relations of Government of Kaliningrad oblast Alla Ivanova and the Deputy Director of the Department of International Relations and Cross-Border Cooperation Development, Ministry of Regional Development Mikhail Vinogradov opened the conference.

In the framework of the conference analysis of current state and implementation of the Programme, issues of its short-term development were discussed.

One of the conference areas was discussion on improvement of transport accessibility of cross-border territories and sustainable environmental management through implementation of large-scale projects. 

The final event of the conference was consultation on the issue of future cross-border cooperation of Russia and the European Union after 2013, it took place in Nida (Republic of Lithuania). The Deputy Minister for Regional Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Travnikov and representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, national authorities of Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and representatives of the European Commission participated in these consultations.

During the consultations main approaches to cooperation of Russia and the European Union in the field of cross-border cooperation after implementation of the programmes on cross-border cooperation in the framework of the European Instrument of Neighborhood and Partnership were discussed.

It was admitted that the issues touched upon, level of discussions demonstrated significant professional advancement of the conference as a platform that unites experts in the area of cross-border cooperation.

We would like to thank all the participants, partners and sponsors of the conference! We would be pleased to see you next year!