THE NORTHERN DIMENSION

1. Background

- The Northern Dimension became EU policy in 1999, a few years after Finland and Sweden had joined the Union. The main purpose was to respond to the challenges and opportunities that the new neighbouring areas in North-East Europe offered to the Union. The idea was to strengthen a positive interdependency between the countries located in the Northern Dimension region and thus contribute to security, stability, democratic reforms and sustainable development.

- The Northern Dimension covers a wide geographical area, including North-West Russia, Kaliningrad, the Baltic Sea region and the Arctic areas. The Northern Dimension is implemented and financed by various actors, the European Union, the EU member states, the Northern Dimension partner countries (Russia, Norway, Iceland), Regional Organizations, county- and local level actors etc. The European Union financing to the projects comes form the existing Community instruments and programmes, such as TACIS and INTERREG. In the future, from 2007 onwards, the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) will be the main financing instrument also for the Northern Dimension.

2. The Northern Dimension partnerships

- The Northern Dimension partnerships are an innovative model of concrete cooperation. The interested countries, the EU Commission, regional organizations and international financing institutions participate in the cooperation on equal basis. By combining financing and other contributions from the partners, it has been possible to implement of large-scale projects that have both social and economic impacts.

We have now two Northern Dimension partnerships; the Environmental partnership and the Partnership in Public Health and Social Wellbeing.

- The Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) is a success story. With the creation of the Partnership in 2001, the European Commission, several EU member states and partner countries, the International Financial Institutions (EBRD, EIB, NIB and the World Bank Group) established an institutional framework to find a solution to the environmental problems in the region. A special NDEP support fund, which is operated by the EBRD, was established in 2002.

- By now the contributions to the NDEP Support Fund have reached €224 million. 2/3 of this amount are earmarked by the donors for nuclear safety related projects in Kola peninsula. The remaining 1/3 of the contributions is non-earmarked, in practice available for other environmental projects (environmental window). Combining financing from the NDEP Fund, the International Financing Institutions and other donors, the total amount of the planned NDEP projects will reach €2 billion euros.

- The implementation of environmental projects started in 2003.
The implementation of the following environmental projects has started:

- St Petersburg Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant
- St Petersburg Flood Protection Barries
- St Petersburg Northern Wastewater Treatment Plant Incinerator
- Komi Municipal Services Improvement Project

Other environmental projects are in the pipeline. Many of these projects have a direct effect on the wellbeing of the Baltic Sea and people living on its shores. Some projects will improve the water and sanitary services of ordinary people in North-West Russia.
(Municipal Environment Investment Programme in the Leningrad Oblast, Kaliningrad District Heating Rehabilitation, Novgorod Cross Municipal Rehabilitation, Kaliningrad Solid Waste Management Project, Archangelsk Municipal Water Services Project, Murmansk District Heating Project, Neva Direct Discharges Closure Programme, St Petersburg District Heating Programme, Ladoga Environmental Programme )

The implementation of nuclear safety projects has not yet started. The strategic master plan was adopted last autumns and the planning of concrete projects is now underway.
(For further information see www.ndep.org)

The Partnership in Public Health and Social Wellbeing was established in 2003 and it is now beginning its work. The objective of this partnership is by better coordination and joined projects to reduce major communicable diseases, prevent lifestyle related non-communicable diseases and promote healthy lifestyles.A small secretariat for the Health Partnership was established in Stockholm last autumn. (See www.ndphs.org)

3. The role of regional, subregional and local actors

The Northern Regional Organizations have an important role in the implementation and development of the Northern Dimension. These intergovernmental organizations are the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the Arctic Council. Except for the Nordic Council of Ministers, which is an old organization, all these regional councils were established in the 1990s. This is a high number of councils for one region, but in fact their tasks and geographical coverage are different.

Many of the northern regional councils mentioned above, have close connections to county- and local level actors in the region. For example the Baltic Sea States Sub-Regional Cooperation, the Union of the Baltic Cities and the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe have an official status as special participants in the Council of the Baltic Sea States.

The Barents Euro-Arctic Council is an interesting combination of intergovernmental and subregional cooperation. There is a special Barents Regional Council which unites 13 counties of the northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia as well as representatives of indigenous peoples. The priority areas of the cooperation are economic cooperation, sustainable living environment, human resources and indigenous populations. (see: www.beac.st).

There are several joint working groups between the intergovernmental Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the subregional Barents Regional Council. For example Finland and the Russian Republic of Karelia are co-chairing the working froup on Health and Related Social Issues. Authorities from both governmental level as well as county and local level participate in the work of the joint working groups.

The role of the subregional cooperation in the development and implementation of the regional and cross-border cooperation has increased and will probably further increase. Some subregional organizations have contributed also to the development of the present Northern Dimension Action Plan either directly or through the regional organizations.

The county and local levels have an especially important role in the cross-border cooperation, both in the evaluation of needs and setting priorities and in the planning and implementation of projects. This will be even more the case when the new Neighbourhood Programmes of the European Union start functioning. In practice this means that for example in the Finnish-Russian border, the individual cross-border projects supported by the European Union will be selected by subregional Finnish-Russian committees.