The Barents Programme adopted last November by the Barents Regional Council covers the period 2009-2013 and is a basis for cross-border cooperation between the 13 participating Nordic and Northwest Russian regions.
-The aim is to make the Barents Region competitive on the global market, Council Chairman Pauli Saapunki writes in the programme preface. –The success of the Barents Region will depend on the effectiveness if the cross-border cooperation, he adds.
The priority areas of the programme are business cooperation, sustainable environment, human resources, indigenous peoples, transport and infrastructure.
The programme includes high ambitions within the priority areas. However it does not touch upon several of the main challenges in the regional cooperation, among which is more effective political cooperation, more joint funding, better representation from the member regions, more efficient working groups and the stronger inclusion of the popularly elected regional assemblies in the cooperation.
Read the whole programme at the website of the International Barents Secretariat
