As the Barents cooperation has a strong emphasis on regional participation. Several secretariats and centers have been established throughout the member regions over the years. Some of the secretariats have operated for a limited period following a chairmanship of the Barents Regional Council, while others are more permanent. Starting from 2008, an international Barents Secretariat was established with the aim to coordinate the work of the Foreign Ministries from the member countries and link the regional level and national level of the Barents cooperation.
The first Barents Secretariat was established in Kirkenes, Norway, in October 1993 following a decision by the Barents Regional Council and with the aim to facilitate services needed by the chair-region, at that time Finnmark County. The secretariat was solely financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was headed by Oddrunn Pettersen, a former Norwegian Minister. This secretariat was originally supposed to work for two years and attempts from Norway at the 1994 Barents Council meeting to make it into a permanent secretariat for the Barents cooperation did not get acceptance from the other countries. The Norwegian government did however continue to finance the secretariat in Kirkenes, but from 1995 as a secretariat with special responsibility for the Norwegian side of the cooperation.
When Norrbotten County took over the chairmanship of the Barents Regional Council in 1995, a secretariat was set up in Luleå, Sweden for the two year period. Since then, several regional secretariats have existed following the biannually rotating chairmanships. Most regional secretariats have been arranged within the structures of the county administrations, and in periods in cooperation with the chair country’s Foreign Ministry. Like Sweden that in the period 2003 to 2005 had a virtual secretariat that in addition to people in the chair region Västerbotten (Umeå) had people based in both Luleå and Stockholm.
In 2007, Finland placed its Barents Secretariat in Rovaniemi by the Regional Council of Lapland. The Finnish Barents Secretariat is a cooperation between Lapland, Oulu and Kainuu regions.
With shifting secretariats throughout the region, the debate in the Barents Regional Council and Barents Council continued in regard to the secretariats functions over the first 15 years of the cooperation. Some claimed that rotating secretariats did the work as intended, while others believed that a permanent secretariat would be the best. At the Barents Council meeting in Rovaniemi in 2007 an agreement on establishing a permanent International Barents Secretariat (IBS) was signed. The International Barents Secretariat started in January 2008 and is co-located with the Norwegian Barents Secretariat in Kirkenes. Since it is in Norway, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry covers half of the expenses. The other half of the costs is shared between Norway, Russia, Sweden and Finland. The staffers are recruited from all member countries and some holds diplomatic statues. The first head of IBS was Russian Ambassador-at-large, Alexander Ignatiev. IBS serves both levels of the Barents Cooperation with technical support for the multilateral coordinated activities. IBS also assist the different multilateral topical working groups. With its permanent operation, IBS should guarantee continuity to the work in the rotating chairmanships of the regional and national levels.
The Norwegian Barents Secretariat was until 1999 organized as a project under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was then handed over to Norway’s three member counties in the Barents Region; Nordland, Troms and Finmark. The Norwegian Barents Secretariat has a more widely role than just assisting the counties in the multilateral Barents Regional cooperation. The secretariat is Norway’s key instrument in financing bi-lateral projects with the Russian member regions; Murmansk Oblast, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Republic of Karelia, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Republic of Komi. Since its start in 1993, more than 3,000 different Norwegian-Russian projects have got financial grants amounting to hundreds of millions of Norwegian kroner administrated by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. These are mainly people-to-people projects by organizations, private businesses, educational institutions, municipalities and official structures. Key topics are youth, indigenous peoples, business, sport, media, culture, environment and education. The Norwegian Barents Secretariat has over the years developed more and more into a competence centre for cross-border cooperation in northern Europe. The staffers are actively participating in Barents related working groups, Norwegian-Russian joint initiatives and serves as on-site advisors for the Norwegian government in issues related to Russia and the High North. Information canals like BarentsObserver.com are produced by reporters with the secretariat.
The branch offices of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat in Russia were originally started as Barents Information Centers in cooperation with regional universities. The first was established in Petrozavodsk in 1995, then Arkhangelsk in 1996 followed by Naryan-Mar in 1999 and last Murmansk in 2000. All offices have local employees and their principal tasks are to disseminate knowledge on the Barents Cooperation and promote contacts between players in the Norwegian and Russian members regions. The office in Karelia is now closed, and starting from 2010, the three Norwegian financed offices in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Naryan-Mar are officially registered as a branch of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. The Arkhangelsk office also serves as a Norwegian Honorary Consulate.
In 1996 the county of Västerbotten set up an information office in Petrozavodsk, named Swedish-Karelian Barents Centre. The task of the Swedish office is to coordinate and assist projects between Västerbotten and Karelia, with special priority to business. A similar office was established in Umeå in 2001.
In 1997 the county of Norbotten established an information office in Murmansk, named Swedish Centre. This was later closed, but the Nordic Council of Ministers still operates and information office in Murmansk that facilitates for contacts between the Russian part of the Barents Region and the Nordic Countries.
