Stages and direction of the Baltic Sea region cooperation
Finland’s ambassador for Baltic Sea region cooperation, Helena Tuuri wrote a Pulloposti column in January about the development of the Baltic Sea region cooperation over the decades. She described how the organized cooperation of the region started with commercial participation and has since expanded into collaboration reaching almost all areas of life.
Tuuri describes how the environment of the Baltic Sea region has adapted to the course of the history. After the WWII, the iron curtain split the area in two. The western side actively started new forms of cooperation, such as the Nordic Council in 1952 and the Council of Ministers in 1971, while the other side, the Soviet Union with the Baltic countries, East-Germany and Poland, remained outside of the cooperation. One exception was the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission HELCOM, founded in 1974, to which all the coastal states of the Baltic Sea joined.
After the cold war, according to Tuuri, the region faced its golden era. Cooperation was flourishing, when countless organizations and other cooperation platforms were established in all possible fields and levels. In addition to the national and public sector, universities and research centers, also the private sector, and civil society representatives founded their own collaboration platforms.
Baltic Sea region in the range of a new war
The geopolitical location of the Baltic Sea region makes it vulnerable to the effects of Russia’s erratic behavior. Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014 and the war of aggression in Ukraine, have affected all regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea and its surrounding areas. Tuuri cites as an example, how the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) first froze all its principal and ministerial meetings due to the loss of trust in Russia and later suspended Russia’s membership. Russia responded by first suspending the membership from their own side and then withdrawing from the CBSS and the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC). HELCOM’s official meetings have also been suspended, but its project-level work continues between other members and the EU.
Although Russia’s power politics have affected the region in the last decade, according to Tuuri, majority of the organizations work well and are able to carry out their tasks, even though they have partially overlapping members and goals and no common general coordination mechanism. The reason behind the overlap is that the cooperation platforms were originally established to meet the needs of each agency or organization.
According to Tuuri, it is challenging to predict what kind of regional cooperation will continue successfully in the future. Regional cooperation is highly valued, but some think that dissolving overlapping assemblies and tasks between the organizations would be reasonable, as long as the existing structures are not dismantled too hastily.
Centrum Balticum’s perspective on Baltic Sea region cooperation
We in the Centrum Balticum, as one of the collaboration organizations, have been advancing the cooperation in the Baltic Sea region since our establishment in 2007. Our paths have run parallel to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) since its approval in 2009 and we share its objectives: Saving the sea, Connecting the region and Increasing prosperity. Centrum Balticum has worked at the heart of the Strategy via hosting a support unit “Let’s communicate” and now the Baltic Sea Strategy Point. The task of the Strategy Point is to support, coordinate and communicate about the EUSBSR.
Looking back at our past projects, we can notice the same trend affecting our cooperation networks as the Baltic Sea region has experienced regarding Russia. In earlier years, Russia was considered as a good associate in the development of the Baltic Sea region, and we had projects aimed at expanding networks especially towards Russian partners. However, the trend changed after Russia’s aggressive behavior started some years back and nowadays more ideal partners are found from other Baltic Sea states. The fact that many organizations around the area have been able to readjust to cooperation models that exclude Russia, shows that no network is dependent on one erratic member.
Centrum Balticum actively promotes and furthers the green transition with its projects and daily contribution. One of the main objectives of EUSBSR, Saving the sea, has been in the focus of Centrum Balticum’s projects. We have participated in projects such as Eco-efficiency to maritime industry processes in the Baltic Sea Region through digitalisation (ECOPRODIGI and EXOPRODIGI), Clean Shipping Project Platform (CSHIPP), and recently started ReNutriWater project.
The new geopolitical and economic situation in the Baltic Sea Region – with energy crisis, increasing prices and inflation – increases the need for cooperation. Sustainable solutions found and tested in one country need to be efficiently replicated in the others. That requires increased knowledge transfer and capacity building not only across countries but also across different sectors in societies - between academia, business sector and governance. Finding reasonable cooperation models and platforms and eliminating overlaps, requires good coordination and management skills. Therefore, a strong demand for our special areas of expertise, communication and project coordination exists.
