Arctic Cooperation
In recent years, the Arctic region has received a growing attention from policy makers and investors. Because of the wide range of local, regional and international actors and the speed of the developments, a need for a more coordinated regional development has become clear.
The European Territorial Cooperation programmes operating within the Arctic have decided to work more closely together.
The programmes are working on:
- more informed/coordinated project selection and thereby a better allocation and better use of the programme funding
- clearer and more integrated information for potential applicants about funding opportunities, and a wider network of potential collaboration partners
- more concrete and relevant project outputs meeting the needs of Arctic stakeholders, and better involvement of these stakeholders.
- better promotion of results; more targeted, on a more aggregated level, and to a wider audience
- more efficient programme management, by pooling resources and achieving a wider impact
- a more strategic approach to impact policy development, positioning the programmes for the post-2020 period, and potentially having a common priority based on Arctic values.
Concretely, what you can expect are coordinated websites, joint project development events, dedicated annual seminars in conjunction with programme events, a joint presence at large Arctic or European conferences, an award for Arctic projects, and eventually, joint publications focused on results and the post-2020 period.
In the paper, Lessons Learnt - A review of the cross-programme collaboration between EU cooperation programmes in the Arctic covering the period 2016-2021, it is possible to find a description of the Arctic Cooperation experience and lessons for the future.
This cross-programme collaboration is encouraged and mandated by the European Commission and the EU High Representative in their Joint Communication A new integrated EU policy for the Arctic, published in April 2016. Ultimately, the collaboration should provide input for establishing research and investment priorities in the European Arctic.
The cross-programme collaboration is coordinated by the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme. Participating programmes are Interreg Botnia-Atlantica, Interreg Nord, Kolarctic CBC, and Karelia CBC. The collaboration will consider including other programmes. To ensure a high complementarity with other policy initiatives and stakeholder organisations operating in the Arctic, these organisations will be consulted or involved where appropriate.
