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Funding IssuesThe EUSBSR does not have its own financing. As it stated in the Council Conclusions on the EUSBSR, adopted on 26 October 2009, the Strategy ‘is financially neutral and relies on a coordinated approach, synergetic effects and, on a more effective use of existing EU instruments and funds, as well as other existing resources and financial instruments’. According to the Commission Communication (June 2009), the European Social Fund, European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and European Fisheries Fund are the key funding sources of the Strategy. The study ‘Analysis of needs for financial instruments in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region’, carried out by SWECO in October 2011 confirmed that ‘the implementation of most projects is to a large extent dependent on EU Structural Funds. In particular European Territorial Cooperation Programmes are widely used’. However, the actions and projects under the Strategy and its Action Plan can be funded by many other financial sources (7th Framework Programme, BONUS15 Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme, the LIFE programme, Education and Culture programmes, etc.), as well as national, regional, private sources. In the future actions and projects in the transport, energy and ICT sectors may also become eligible for funding by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). In addition, some projects (especially major ones) could benefit from the support of international financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the Nordic Investment Bank. In this respect, JASPERS initiative plays also a significant role, in particular in the transport, energy and environment sectors, including trans-border projects. Thus the EUSBSR embodies the new concept of macro-regional cooperation which is based on effective and more coordinated use of existing funding sources, and the promotion of synergies and complementarities. An extensive overview of potential funding sources can be found at: http://www.balticsea-region-strategy.eu/pages/funding-sources. To facilitate implementation of the EUSBSR, at the initiative of the European Parliament, EUR 2.5 million was earmarked in the 2011 EU budget for activities mainly supporting the work of the priority area coordinators, horizontal action leaders and flagship project leaders, and to raise awareness of the Strategy. The European Parliament included the same amount (EUR 2.5 million) to support the Strategy in the 2012 EU budget. This financial assistance includes support to promote a seed money initiative. Thus the EUSBSR Seed Money Facility will be operational as of early 2013. This Facility focuses on the preparation phase of project applications contributing to the objectives of the Strategy. The preparation phase will, firstly, enable networking activities aiming at building strategic partnerships and exchange with the responsible priority area coordinators of the EUSBSR Action Plan. Secondly, seed money shall cover the planning of the ‘main stage’ project activities and the budget as well as investigate potential future funding sources. It will be managed by InvestitionsBank Schleswig-Holstein, which is also the managing authority of the Baltic Sea Region programme for 2007–2013. The alignment of funding Given the importance of the EUSBSR for sustainable growth and development of Baltic Sea region, its contribution to the objectives of Europe 2020 Strategy, and the fact that the EUSBSR is based on the effective use of existing funding sources, it is essential to align national, regional and EU policies and financial resources with the objectives of the Strategy. The Commission recommended to align the Cohesion Policy and other funding sources in the region with the objectives of the Strategy in the first progress report on the implementation of the Strategy (June 2011). The Commission then reiterated the importance of aligning the relevant existing and future sources of funding with the objectives of the EUSBSR aiming to maximising the impact of Strategy in its Communication of March 2012, echoed in the Council Conclusions adopted in November 2011 and June 2012. Major steps have been taken to support the macro-regional approach in the financial framework 2014–2020. The legislative proposals for Cohesion Policy during the 2014–2020 submitted by the Commission on 6 October 2011 require Member States to describe their approach to the macro-regional strategies and their priorities and objectives and how these will be taken into account when drafting the Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes. However, the alignment of funding shall not be limited only to the Cohesion Policy programmes. The Strategy can bring tangible and visible results only if it is comprehensively linked to all available financial resources. Thus Member States and bodies in charge of implementing programmes are encouraged to align all relevant national, regional and EU funding sources with the priorities of the EUSBSR. There are several ways to align the programmes with the EUSBSR and it’s up to Member States to decide which one to choose. For example, the Common Strategic Framework, which invites Member States to ensure successful mobilisation of EU funding for macro-regional strategies in line with the needs of the programme area identified by the Member States, foresees that this can be done, among other actions, by prioritising operations deriving from these strategies by organising specific calls for them or giving priority to these operations in the selection process through identification of operations which can be jointly financed from different programmes. Country position papers adopted by the Commission provide guidance to Member States on how to incorporate macro-regional and sea-basin strategies in the Partnership Agreements. Specifically alignment could be done by: 1) setting a priority axis for developing interregional and transnational cooperation (horizontal or vertical one); 2) identifying potential cooperation projects (projects idea) and its partners in the Partnership Agreement and/or Operational Programmes; 3) introducing a project selection criterion which gives priority to flagship projects as listed in the EUSBSR Action Plan, or other projects having a clear macro-regional impact, contributing to the targets and objectives and to the implementation of one or more actions in the Action Plan; 4) allocating a certain amount of funding to activities/projects that are in line with the Strategy; 5) including a separate paragraph describing how the objectives and priorities of the EUSBSR will be reflected in implementing the programmes, their links. 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