Highlights

In the beginning of this year, Interreg South Baltic Programme promoted their Flagships in a Facebook campaign. The campaign is a great compilation of the work carried out within the EUSBSR but also good inspiration to all those thinking of running a social media campaign. Let’s take a look at the Flagships and their results!

Clear facts about bioeconomy help decision makers form a clearer picture of their own performance and create ambitious, yet realistic goals for their bioeconomy. Facts provide a solid base for a regional strategy. This sounds very simple, but that is not the case.

The year 2019 is a big year for the EU in many ways: the EU elections will take place in May, and the Union needs to also negotiate for post 2020 and the update of the multiannual financial framework. As EUSBSR is an EU Strategy, all these are relevant for those working with macro-regions, and not least because of the updating process of EUSBSR Action Plan taking place during 2019.

Norway is closely linked to Baltic Sea Region (BSR) and has taken active part in Baltic Sea Region cooperation on national, regional and local level for many years. Norway is also closely linked to EU through the EEA agreement and supports the economic, social and sustainable development of the BSR among others through the EEA and Norwegian financial instruments.

In September, four new flagships were approved in the National Coordinators' meeting. The actions of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region are implemented by means of Flagships. Flagships demonstrate the progress of the Strategy, and may serve as pilot examples for desired action in a given field. We interviewed the projects and asked what the status means to them.

The sun lovers of the Baltic Sea countries were bathed in the much awaited heat wave in summer 2018. But too often the perfect summer day at the beach or sailing boat was spoilt by toxic blue green algae in the sea. In many coastal countries, emotions ran high on traditional and social media to find the culprits to the algae overload. Manure was one of the accused.