Mobilisation of resources in the Baltic Sea Region

(rural development)

Jüri Rute

Geographical Desk Officer DG Agriculture and Rural Development

Resources

• People• Co-operation

culture• Funds

The conditions for the EU Strategy for the Baltic SeaRegion were gradually developedduring 20(+) years

Baltic Development Forum

Summit 2010, Vilnius 1-2 June

Financial resources

No new resources, better targeting of existing ones:

• Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013– ERDF 208 M€, European Neighbourhood & Partnership Instrument

(ENPI) ca 22,6 M€, Norwegian Funds 6 M€• Cross-border cooperation programmes (ERDF) + Transnational• Inter-regional cooperation programme (INTERREG IVC)• European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion (ESPON) • 7th framework programme for research• Competitiveness and innovation framework programme (CIP)• National regional development programmes, e.g. European Social Fund• Rural development programmes

• National funds – example – Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HelCom), Ministerial Conference next week in Moscow

• Private funds

Agriculture as a priority area

The Action Plan has 15 priority areas

• EU Common Agricultural Policy issues are mainly in Priority area № 9 agriculture / forestry / fisheries

• Ownership of the Priority Areas – Finland is responsible for the priority area Coordinator Mr. Jouni Lind, State Secretary (chair)

Ministry of Agriculture/Forestry, www.mmm.fi/balticsea + Sweden : coordinator for fisheries+ Lithuania : coordinator for rural development

Agriculture as a priority area …

The following flagship projects have been developed so far:

• “Establish a Forum for Inventive and Sustainable Manure Processing” by the exchange of information on how to process manure in sustainable ways;

• “Create a network on the implementation of EU food and feed legislation” to exchange information on best practises for food and feed control;

• Projects related to forestry and wood mobilisation are to be added to the list of flagship projects soon, with formal approval of a change to the Action Plan.

• “Sustainable rural development” with emphasis on innovation and rural youth (to enhance youth participation in the life of rural communities and help young people to start entrepreneurship)

Agricultural projects in other priority areas

1. Nutrient reduction

• “Putting best practices in agriculture into work”

Example activities:– National demonstration farms,– A network of demonstration farms around the Baltic Sea + a catalogue of such farms (booklet / online),– Internet-based multi-lingual “virtual” demonstration farms…

Agricultural projects in other priority areas

12. Attractiveness of the Baltic Sea Region through education, tourism and health

• “Attract tourists to rural areas especially the coastal ones” by - promoting joint environmentally-friendly rural / coastal tourism packages (e.g. farm, food tourism, hiking, winter sports, nature tourism),- co-operating in planning rural and coastal tourism investments.

(Lead: Rural Development Networks + Leader networks + the European RD Network)

Rural Development Programmes

• Common RDP activities and, perhaps, measures throughout the macro-region?– Joint EC/MS-s seminar in 2011 (Helsinki) to discuss

the ideas• Co-operation of the Rural Development

Networks – Establishment of the Rural Development Network of

the Baltic Sea Region – Common projects with joint financing

“Sustainable rural development” was developed by the Nordic/Baltic Networks (coord. Sweden / Poland)Work mainly through LAGs with trans-national cooperation funding

Rural development programming

Member States may consider to:• Reflect objectives of the Strategy in their Rural

Development Programmes. • Take the Strategy into account in allocation of Rural

Development funding (projects benefiting the macro-region, if coherent with the rural development objectives).

• Discuss the Strategy implementation at annual meetings with the Commission + info in Annual Reports.

• Use the Strategy as a reference in the preparation of the 2014-2020 programmes (streamlining of the measures in the macro-region, joint studies and monitoring).

Thank you!