Towards Kolarctic CBC Programme 2014 – Katja Sukuvaara

Kolarctic CBC Kolarctic CBC Programme is a multilateral ENI CBC programme: –With Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden Regional Council of Lapland will be the Joint Managing Authority (JMA) Public consultations about the Programme content in February 2015 Estimated launch of the new programme in the end of 2015/ beginning of 2016?

Kolarctic CBC 2014 – 2020 Programme area

Kolarctic CBC Core regions: Lapland (Finland) Norrbotten (Sweden) Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia) Nordland, Troms, Finnmark (Norway) Adjoining regions: Region of Northern Ostrobothnia (Finland) Västerbotten (Sweden) Republic of Karelia, Republic of Komi (Russia) NEW! A major social, economic and cultural center: City of St. Petersburg (Russia) Lead Partners/Partners from outside of the Programme area can participate in such cases, where the project activities are supporting the Barents cooperation and other Euro- Arctic cooperation.

Kolarctic CBC CBC programmes under the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) will have 3 overarching strategic objectives; 1. to promote economic and social development in regions on both sides of common borders; 2. to address common challenges, in fields such as environment, public health and the prevention and fight against crime; 3. to promote better conditions and modalities for ensuring the mobility of persons, goods and capital.

Formation of the joint vision and Kolarctic CBC programme priorities: “Flourishing area with environmentally-friendly and viable economy and citizens enjoying good quality of life." “Free movement of people, ideas, technologies etc. within the programme area. To reach Kolarctic-area working as if there were not any borders." "Improved east-west infrastructure, improved business cooperation, enlarged labor markets in the High North, cultural cooperation." “We live in the Arctic area, where we have good infrastructure (road, railways, airports, flexible borders) basic services.“

Joint Vision for the Kolarctic CBC (draft!) Kolarctic CBC Programme area is flourishing, environmentally-friendly area with viable economy, fluent mobility of people, ideas and technologies, and where people to people cooperation is an essential value.

Kolarctic CBC Thematic objectives:  Business and SME development (TO 1)  Environmental protection, climate change adaptation and mitigation (TO 6)  Improvement of accessibility to the regions, development of sustainable and climate-proof transport and communication networks and systems (TO 7)  Promotion of border management and border security, mobility and migration management (TO 10) Promotion of local cross-border “people-to-people cooperation” and “support to education, research, technological development and innovation” will be applied as horizontal modalities, where relevant.

Proposed Priority axes 1.Viability of Arctic economy, nature and environment (TO 1, TO 6) 2.Fluent mobility of people, goods and knowledge (TO 1, TO 6, TO 7, TO 10)

Lessons learnt for the new programme period? Project selection procedure  Regional involvement in the project selection procedure has to be ensured (Regional Assessment Groups in each country)  CBC is about cooperation between the border regions and should benefit the programme area and match with the regional development needs and strategies  Well designed and prepared applications shorten the time spent on selection procedure: capacity building events and trainings for applicants are needed!

Lessons learnt for the new programme period? Practical management of projects and LSPs  Relevant partnerships and good design of the projects are essential in avoiding delays in project implementation  Documentation of the project progress on regular basis helps the project partners to manage their projects  Use of relevant indicators supports the project management  Capacity building on Project Cycle Management is needed for the project applicants and for the programme personnel

Thank you for your attention! Kiitos! Спасибо за внимание! Tack för intresse! Takk for oppmerksomheten!