News&Events

16.12.08
Baltic Euroregional Network-East creates cross-border dialogue

Future perspectives, sharing experiences and open dialogue within the field of cross-border cooperation dominated the closing conference of the Baltic Euroregional Network-East (BEN-East) project. The international conference “Future models of cross-border cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region” took place on 11-12 December in Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia. The event was organised by the Nordic Council of Ministers Information Office in Saint-Petersburg and the Contact centre in Petrozavodsk in cooperation with Council of Municipalities of the Republic of Karelia association.

The two-day event summed up the best practice of the project activities as well as took a closer look to the future perspectives of cross-border cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. The conference was attended by representatives of the government of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Karelia, educational ad research institutions of the North-West Russia and Republic of Belarus, Nordic Council of Ministers and partners’ network.

The conference participants were welcomed by Mikhail Annenkov, Chairman of the Local municipalities Committee of Republic of Karelia, Dmitry Kislov, Vice-minister for economic development of Karelia, Arne Grove, Director of the Information office of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Kaliningrad and Paula Sirkia, Consul of Petrozavodsk Department of the Consulate General of Finland in Saint-Petersburg.

New trends of trans-border cooperation were presented by Maksim Tokarev, Adviser of the Committee for international affairs of the Council of Federation. Vivid discussion was awaken by reports of Sarunas Radvilavicius, Deputy Director of the NCM Office in Lithuania and Alexander Bedino, Deputy Head of the Department for international cooperation of Petrozavodsk State University who spoke about directions of BEN and BEN-East projects’ development (Project ideas on Creative industries and education in CBC).

During the second day of the event project partners presented results achieved during BEN-East implementation. “BEN-East project provided Russian and Belarusian cross-border organizations with possibility to benefit from experience and knowledge, which had been accumulated by the large network in this field. This helps Euroregions in Russia and Belarus become more active and more visible“, - Pavel Petrov, the coordinator of the project, told.

Programme of the conference (in Russian) >>

List of participants (in Russian) >>