Marcinkute speech at 23 BSPC

Dear Chair, Dear Parliamentarians, Ladies and Gentlemen,Thank you for the invitation to the 23rd Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference. We appreciate and welcome the initiative to discuss the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) during the event, and we do think that this is very useful in maintaining and building on the long-term high political commitment towards the Strategy.Review of the EUSBSRAs you may know, last summer the European Commission presented a report on the added value of macro-regional strategies. With a view to looking at this topic more at all levels in the Baltic Sea Region, the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) arranged a round of individual meetings with all priority area coordinators and horizontal action leaders of the EUSBSR, in order to have an in-depth discussion on the main achievements completed and issues identified after more than four years into the implementation phase of the Strategy. The meetings were held in Brussels last winter.After a series of meetings (in total 21), a discussion paper, presenting the results of the meetings, and offering, for discussion, suggestions on how to solve the main issues identified, improve the current situation had been drafted by the Commission and circulated for consultation in your Member States.Several interlinked political, policy, technical and financial issues have been identified. However, I would like to give you only one example. The analysis shows that there are some priority areas/horizontal actions that could benefit from greater commitment from Member States concerned, in particular when it comes to functioning of steering groups: some have still not been established, in others too few Member States show up. One might say that this is a very technical issue as it is closely linked to resources issue. However, this raises such important political questions as: are these areas regarded as priorities by Member States concerned? If not, should they continue to be a focus of our macro-regional cooperation? If yes, if they are priorities, why political choices are not backed-up with resources? These and similar questions need to be answered by Member States during the current review of the Strategy, and, depending on answers, appropriate measures need to be taken.Just to mention that this initiative is part of a more general reflection at EU level on the governance of macro-regional strategies, which has led to the adoption of the Commission report on this question in May 2014.The report on the governance of macro-regional strategies (May 2014)The report has been published as a response to the Council invitation (October 2013) to facilitate discussions on improving the governance of macro-regional strategies. The report states that based on analysis and experience of existing Strategies (in Baltic and Danube) improvements in particular are needed in two fields: stronger political leadership and decision making, and greater clarity in the organisation of work.As regards political leadership and ownership, the report underlines that at the present all strategies over-rely on the Commission as the principle driving force and there is a need for better balance between the leadership from the countries/regions concerned and the role of the Commission. Therefore, the Report invites Member States concerned to take a more active role in strategic leadership, in particular at ministerial level (strategic coordination for Ministers hosting National Contact Points (NCPs) of the Strategy; better involvement of sectorial ministries in thematic cooperation, or rotating chair for the Strategy). When it comes to the NCPs and the notion of a rotating chair, it's worthwhile to mention that this is already established in the Baltic Sea region with Finland as first succeeded by Estonia from 1st July. An excellent chairmanship of Finland proves that this is a successful measure that balances the Member States' and the Commission's roles in coordinating the work and priorities of the strategy.The report concludes by providing a list of preconditions for a well-performing governance system of macro-regional strategies. Though these recommendations are applicable to all macro-regions, the report states that one size cannot fit all and regional specifics must be taken into account, i.e. each region has to find what fits them the best.It is worth noting that the Report mentions the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference as a good example when it comes to regular high-level discussions on the Strategy.Northern Dimension (ND)As you may know, the Northern Dimension represents an equal partnership of the EU, Russia, Norway and Iceland fostering prosperity, sustainable development and well-being through regional cooperation. It covers both the Baltic Sea region and the European Arctic areas. Cooperation is structured under four sectorial partnerships:o Environmental partnership (NDEP)o Partnership on Transport and Logistics (NDPTL)o Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS)o Partnership on Culture (NDPC)Let me briefly focus on a couple of themes which are also discussed within this Conference:• Our next session will focus on environmental challenges with the state of the Baltic Sea being one of the clearest common concerns.o The ND Environmental Partnership (NDEP) has since 2002 made a significant contribution to the health of the Baltic Sea with projects on water and wastewater treatment in North-West Russia. Projects are also starting in Belarus which is within the Baltic Sea's catchment area.o So far NDEP grants of 122 million euro have leveraged 417 million euro of IFI loans, 644 million euro of national Russian contributions and 113 million euro of additional bilateral grants from the countries of the region. The total value of investments of the whole NDEP environmental portfolio is close to 1.3 billion euro.• One of our sessions deals with culture and Baltic Sea cultural heritage. In this context it is worth reminding about the successful joint meeting last spring between regional working groups on culture: CBSS, Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture.o The ND Partnership on Culture focuses especially on supporting the development of cultural and creative industries in the region.o To strengthen this cooperation, a legally binding agreement on the NDPC secretariat is currently being prepared. The support of the parliamentarians present would be very welcome to encourage their respective countries to strengthen their role in this cooperation. Especially in important countries in the region such as Denmark, Germany and Iceland which have so far not been very active in this framework.• The BSPC working group on innovation in Social and Health Care is presenting its mid-term report.o I assume the group is very familiar with the work of the ND Partnership in Public Health and Social well-being. The NDPHS is currently preparing its strategy for 2014-2020. Contacts between BSPC and NDPHS in this field would surely be mutually beneficial.I would like to conclude my speech by inviting you to the 6th Annual Forum of the EUSBSR which will take place in Latvia next June. The event will be co-hosted with the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and focus on the social dimension of the EUSBSR.Thank you for your attention.