First draft submitted 3rd March 2006
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- Assessment Method
Purpose of this ReportAs noted above, the mandate of Baltic 21 was changed in June 2004 as to strengthen cross-sectoral work; developing a set of “Lighthouse Projects” designed to demonstrate sustainable development in action and to identify funding sources to support Lighthouse Projects. Thus the new Baltic 21 mandate was adopted at a time, when the INTERREG programme had already been up and running for almost three years. At the same time – as can be seen from the short description of the INTERREG programme above – sustainability issues were clearly seen as an integral part of INTERREG and the priorities & measures designed in such a way as to allow environmental aspects to be covered in all of them. There was, however, neither a clear definition of sustainable development in the programme nor a clear linkage drawn to the Baltic 21 Action Programme or the suggested “sustainability guideline” developed. The current report tries to assess to what extend projects funded by INTERREG – despite the limiting factors mentioned above - have or are currently supporting the realisation of the Baltic 21 Action Programme and thus sustainable development as defined by Baltic 21. Even though many projects have only recently started and could therefore only be assessed on their planned (but not yet realised) activities and outputs, the current mid-term assessment has been done in view of: The next Triennial Report to be produced by Baltic 21, where regional progress on sustainable development is reviewed generally; actions taken in each sector and joint area are summarised and the overall successes and challenges experienced by Baltic 21 are assessed. A first review of the currently six Baltic 21 Lighthouse Projects (all financed by INTERREG). The search and discussion of new Baltic 21 Lighthouse Project Themes, Partnerships and funding sources. Underlining the position of Baltic 21 in the current consultation process with the Joint Programming Committee for the financing facility for territorial cooperation in view of possible priorities and measures to be included and approval/implementation procedures to be adopted. The report is therefore not only designed as a Baltic 21 internal documents, but might also be an interesting source of information for any other stakeholders involved in sustainable development issues in the Baltic Sea Region: the Joint Programming Committee; national and regional ministries; other Baltic region co-operations and potential individual project partner organisations. Assessment MethodThe current report takes into account all 126 currently approved INTERREG projects. All their general project descriptions and current achievements as reported by them to the Joint Secretariat and published on the INTERREG website have been screened as to their general relevance to the Baltic 21 Action Programme as well as to their relevance to the specific goals and actions of the Baltic 21 sectors, joint actions and spatial planning. In most cases – especially for those projects, which appeared to show a high relevance to the Baltic 21 Action Programme - also specific project documents provided by them directly or extracted via their project websites have been taken into account. In addition to this desk research a questionnaire (see chapter 7) was developed and distributed to the project managers of all INTERREG projects with specific focus on sustainable development areas as defined by Baltic 21. This was seen as necessary as it is understood that many general project documents are not designed as to draw attention to sustainability issues in particular. Given the rather low response rate the results from this direct research have, however, not been used as to create a general overview, but have been taken into account when it comes to the specific projects, which did respond. In terms of qualitative results/conclusions to be drawn from the screening of INTERREG projects the following should be taken into consideration: By their very nature INTERREG projects only cover projects of transnational nature. Topics which might not be covered by INTERREG will in many cases have been covered by other EU or national programmes/projects. INTERREG projects of the last calls (6th-8th call) have only recently started or are even only about to start their activities. In many of these cases information material has not yet been produced and results and recommendations will only be forthcoming in one or two years time. Only projects of the last calls include the new EU member states (Poland, Baltic States). Only the earliest projects can in some cases already demonstrate any kind of tangible impact. On the other hand it would have gone far beyond the possibilities and purpose of this report to include projects of even earlier INTERREG programme rounds, external aid programmes (ISPA, Phare, SAPARD) or the national use of structural funds. Thus, in order to be able to take into account both completed as well as only just started projects, the emphasis of the current report is on how the individual project objectives and activities contribute to the aims of the Baltic 21 Action Programme. It would have gone beyond the scope of the current assignment to assess the quality of the specific project outputs and their specific institutional set-up or geographic coverage. Furthermore no further in-depth study has been carried out as to what extend projects, which are not directly linked to sustainability issues, have nevertheless taken sustainability criteria into account. As such the current report has a limited, but focused, scope. Nevertheless it will be able to provide an overview on the following areas related to the Baltic 21 Action Programme: general relevance of projects to sustainable development relevance of projects to specific Baltic 21 sectors and joint actions; implemented and planned practical applications of sustainable development current and planned recommendations on innovative approaches for sustainable development current and possible future policy recommendations supporting sustainable development and policy changes achieved supporting sustainable development within the BSR. 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