“We consider it to be important for politicians to gather for discussing, initiating and guiding political activities in regard with the most topical problems of the Barents region, taking into account the advantages of the combination and interaction between the national and regional levels of the Barents cooperation,” reads the invitation sent by Yevgeny Nikora, the speaker of the regional Duma (parliament) in Murmansk.
When the Barents cooperation was established in 1993, the political cross-border contacts were formalized on two levels; The intergovernmental between the Foreign Ministries in Moscow, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm named Barents Council, while the interregional contacts were organized within the frame of the Barents Regional Council, where the thirteen member regions maintain the political and practical contacts.
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But, at last week’s Barents Council meeting, none of the five Russian governors attended the meeting in Tromsø, Northern Norway. When the Barents structures were formalized in 1993, the Russian governors were elected. Also on the Norwegian side, it was the elected governors that participated in the Barents Regional Council.
In 2004, then-president Vladimir Putin made a decision to abolish direct elections of governors. Today, all governors in the Russian part of the Barents Region, with exception of Karelia’s Sergey Katanandov, are directly appointed by the President. On the other side, the elected leaders of the regional parliaments in the Russian member regions of Barents are not participating within the formal cross-border structures like the Barents Regional Council.
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The move by Duma speaker Yevgeny Nikora from Murmansk is the first significant initiative to include the elected leaders from the Russian regions into the Barents Regional cooperation.
The invitation to the September political conference in Murmansk is addressed to all other political leaders in the Barents Region, in addition to the President-appointed governors. The invitation and the draft program is posted at the web-portal of the International Barents Secretariat. The purpose of the International Barents Secretariat is to provide technical support for the multilateral coordinated activities within the framework of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the Barents Regional Council.
“The invitation from the regional Duma in Murmansk to the political conference in September was welcomed as very positive by the participants at last week’s Barents Regional Council meeting in Tromsø,” says head of the Secretariat Alexander Ignatiev.
The Murmansk conference is planned to include two sessions; “Priority areas of the Barents cooperation for 2010-2013” and “Problems and prospects of the Barents cooperation: vision of the Barents Regional Council member regions.”
Several of the joint working groups in the Barents cooperation are invited to present their prospective for further cross-border development. This include topics like economical development, energy, tourism, environment, health and social issues, culture, education, youth issues, indigenous peoples and transport. In other words, most of the highlighted issues in the Barents Regional Council’s program adopted for the period 2009-2013.
