On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Barents Euro-Arctic Cooperation and the upcoming Barents Summit, we here present 20 different views on the success behind and the future of the Barents Region.
Eirik Mofoss - The Student: "From a student’s point of view, I believe that the most important conditions for the future of the Barents cooperation are: visa-freedom, educational exchange-projects, language-learning, better east-west infrastructure, innovation, entrepreneurship and a strong civil society. This would lead to a more open, connected and attractive Barents region."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Øyvind Nordsletten - The Diplomat: "As much important as meetings and workshops - ie the more institutionalized cooperation – has the atmosphere, "The Barents Spirit", created a sense of the community and cooperation across borders in the north that we are experiencing today. The big headline of the achievements of these 20 years can be described in two words - normalization and humanization. This is also the way to go for in the future."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Tatiana Kulbakina - The Human Rights activist: "From my point of view it's quit important to concentrate Barents cooperation on environmental issues, development of civil society and involvement of youth - and not only youth - in decision making. Also, cause I feel that borders is a repression, it's necessary to open the borders in Barents region as much as possible. And for sure we need to share culture, art, ideas and concepts and we need to do it in horizontal and non-hierarchical way."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Rune Rafaelsen - The Enthusiast: "The success of the Barents cooperation comes from participation and involvement "on the ground" within the Barents Region. The further development requires that national politicians strengthen the local and regional involvement. This means that all barriers to civic participation and influence must be removed. Visa regime should be removed. Cooperation must be based on mutual democratic values that facilitate sustainable economic development based on the terms of the people who live in the Barents Region."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Jenny Mikkelsen - The Tourist creator: “We have amazing people, breathtaking history, different cultures, indigenous people and stunning nature! By increased focus on cross-border tourism development, together we can make the Barents Region the world’s most unique tourism destination. This would strengthen the relations between people in the area and benefit to economic development with positive effects for employment and business activities”
Photo: Trude Pettersen / BarentsObserver
Andrey Shalyov - The Bridge builder: "Barents cooperation is still very fragile political construction. Surprisingly, today in anticipation of the second Kirkenes Declaration it seems even more vulnerable than 20 years ago. After so many years of interaction across the borders we started to enjoy a slight sweet feeling of new regional identity. And because of that we better understand what we can lose if some of our top-politicians would suddenly find in the Barents cooperation the signs of “regional separatism” or “threat to national sovereignty. The fact is that two levels of Barents cooperation, - central and regional, - were developing in different velocity. We observe relatively modest interaction on the central level of cooperation on the background of rich and diversified “people-to-people” project activity in the regions. This situation reflects the dominating model of interrelations between the capitals and the regions but we need to move forward in order to make it less vertical, better balanced and more transparent."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Christina Henriksen - The Politician: "The close ties between the peoples of the north are developed through hundreds of years of people-to-people cooperation. This must never stop. Without interaction, no trust. Without trust, no regional development. Strong and vital regions, with strong indigenous voices, constitute our future in the north, and the Barents cooperation is essential to our toolbox."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Amund Trellevik - The Journalist: "The demand for accreditation for journalists must be removed. While the Barents cooperation is improving in many areas, foreign journalists who frequently travel to Northwest-Russia to work there experience that getting the necessary permits from Russian authorities gets harder and harder."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Vera Nowbuth - The Swim coach: "I am very optimistic about the cooperation in the Barents region. The children are the region’s future. If they learn to communicate with each other now, they will continue to do so in the future as well. "
Photo: Trude Pettersen / BarentsObserver
Jens Stoltenberg - The Prime Minister: "The region is now attracting growing international attention, partly due to its great potential for the development of natural resources. We share a common interest in further enhancing this cooperation at every level. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Barents partners will adopt a new declaration that will address future opportunities and challenges."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Bjarne Berg - The Headmaster: "It is important to focus more on the education of young Norwegians and Russians with the thought that they may be important players in the Norwegian-Russian cooperation. Important to think long term here, and learn each other's language, culture etc. Today, Russians are not included in the EU’s education programs, a fact that hinders them from obtaining equal loans and grants while studying in Norway. This is a major challenge that should have been solved long time ago."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Anna Kireeva - The Ecologist: "As it's a difficult time for NGOs in Russia, I believe it is very important for environmental NGOs to get a status of observers in all Norwegian-Russian projects and negotiations, connected with environmental issues."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Willem Barentsz – The Original: “June 17, 1596 - It was calm until noon but hen when we had reached the 80th degree & 10 minutes we weighed (…) to go around the ice, passed at 5 leagues (…). Went even a quarter mile further with wind SE, went SSW 4 leagues. Then we saw land and went again WSW. (…) the land is high and all covered with snow (…).”
Claus Bergersen - The Hockey player: "I want to see construction of more modern sports facilities in the Barents Region. We have 25 years of sports exchanges with Russia. Now is the time for upgrading and new construction."
Nils Bøhmer - The Nuclear physicist: "The Barents cooperation has contributed to international cooperation on nuclear safety in northern Russia. Such cooperation is important in order to raise the awareness on safety understanding and how to solve the challenges. Over the first 20 years, measures have been taken to find intermediate solutions to secure radioactive waste and reactor safety. For the future; we should focus more on final solutions, like establishment of a repository for nuclear waste and a final closure of Kola NPP."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Trine Hamran - The Reporter: "We should go on stimulating freedom of speech and civil society, to ensure that the people of the North, we who actually live here, have a say when it comes to the development of our own region. That also means telling the stories about who we are, and why we are here. This is not always compatible with the perspectives of the big industry."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Evgeny Goman - The Youth house creator: "I believe it's important to understand WHO will be in the Barents cooperation and HOW they will do it. Young people keep on leaving. Murmansk region is loosing quite a few of bright minds annually. Those who stay - are they into Barents coperation? Do they understand the meaning and importance of it? We are getting old. We need to keep on and increase the investments into the young. Create possibilities for the young people to get education, jobs and entertainment IN the region. Make it even easier to move around. In terms of possibilities the Barents region should become a synonym to Moscow, Oslo or even New York. We all shall gain through it."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Urban Wråkberg - The Researcher: "Based on our good experiences of Barents collaboration so far, and on some less successful aspects of the so called "Europeanization" programmes which the EU has projected on several of its neighboring states, future Barents collaboration will do best in supporting cross-border initiatives based on entrepreneurial individuals applying for to build activities based on, and expanding, the cross-border connections of their professional networks. Any counter-funding demands in Barents grants should be avoided also in the future as EU experiences again tell us that this tends to limit the number of active operators to already well funded and flexible expert fundraisers. One needs to work more with public institutions in the various countries and temper reform ideas directed abroad based on overblow enthusiasm for the ways we do things in our own country."
Photo: Thomas Nilsen / BarentsObserver
Anna Afanasyeva - The Indigenous peoples representativ: "Indigenous peoples of the Barents region face similar challenges in regard to their economic development and cultural situations. In my view, their future in the Barents region lies in strengthening legal frameworks, which will secure that indigenous needs and voices are heard and fulfilled. Inclusion of the paragraph on these issues into the Kirkenes Declaration shows a promising way forward for Barents cooperation of indigenous peoples in future!"
Photo: Asia Hansen
Morten Brugård - The Young Entrepreneur Creator: "Over the past 20 years cooperation between people have been in focus. I hope that we may see a shift into entrepreneurial cooperation. It’s important to understand that doing business includes risk, and through years of cross border cooperation we have reduced these risks and are now ready to utilize the full potential in the region. We will look from east to west, rather than north to south."
