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The Northern Dimension

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The Northern Dimension THE NORTHERN DIMENSION THE NORTHERN DIMENSION 1 MARKKU HEIKKILÄ THE NORTHERN DIMENSION Markku Heikkilä The Northern Dimension 188c/2006 Published by EUROPE INFORMATION Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland 2 3 MARKKU HEIKKILÄ THE NORTHERN DIMENSION Contents To the Reader 7 1. Introduction 9 2. The European Union reaches the North 11 2.1. Beginning of Arctic cooperation 11 2.2. The Barents and the Baltic Sea initiatives 13 2.3. Finland searches for the EU’s northern role 14 2.4. The Northern Dimension initiative in 1997 15 2.5. Part of EU’s external and cross-border policies 17 2.6. Programmes, not structures 18 2.7. Partnership as a tool 19 2.8. Russia’s problems with the Second ND Action Plan 20 2.9. Toward new thinking 21 3. Paavo Lipponen: Strong Commitment from Russia 25 4. A Success Story in Environmental Partnership 27 4.1. The Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant in St Petersburg 27 4.2. The project’s roots in the past 29 4.3. New philosophy for financing 31 4.4. Reducing waste in the Baltic Sea 33 4.5. The St Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier 34 4.6. Tackling nuclear waste in the Kola Peninsula 36 5. Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being 39 5.1. Partners from 13 countries and several organisations 39 © Markku Heikkilä and Ministry for Foreign 5.2. From Joensuu to Oslo 40 Affairs of Finland / Europe Information 5.3. Progress made 42 5.4. 44 Editor Päivi Toivanen The Barents HIV/AIDS programme 5.5. Great challenges remain 45 Translation Lionbridge Oy Layout and illustration Mika Launis 6. Regional Councils 47 6.1. The Arctic Council 47 Printed by Edita Oyj 2006 6.2. The Barents Euro-Arctic Council 50 ISBN 951-724-568-8 6.3. The Barents Regional Council 51 4 5 MARKKU HEIKKILÄ THE NORTHERN DIMENSION 6.4. The Council of the Baltic Sea States 52 To the Reader 6.5. The Nordic Council of Ministers 53 7. Erkki Tuomioja: Wheels in Motion 55 8. Transport and Energy 59 After the accession of Finland and Sweden to the European Union 8.1. Towards new partnerships 59 in 1995, the Union’s geographical area enlarged northward and Rus- 8.2. East-west connections in the north 60 sia became one of its neighbouring countries. By introducing its ini- 8.3. Energy transport by sea 61 tiative on the Northern Dimension (ND), Finland wanted to bring 8.4. Northern eDimension 63 the new situation and its challenges and opportunities to the atten- 8.5. Accelerating the exploitation of energy resources 63 tion of the EU. The purpose was to increase cooperation between the Union and Russia, especially North-West Russia, and to bring the 9. North and South 66 Baltic States closer to the EU. This was fuelled by a wish to consoli- 9.1. A new financial instrument 67 date stability, welfare and sustainable development in Northern Eu- 9.2. Neighbourhood and partnership 68 rope, and thereby promote security and development throughout the Union and in its neighbouring areas. 10. Paula Lehtomäki: Commitment and Coordination 70 The Northern Dimension was one of the key issues on the agen- 11. Expectations of the European Parliament 73 da of Finland’s first Presidency of the EU in autumn 1999. The first 11.1. Towards a Baltic Sea Strategy 73 Northern Dimension Ministerial Conference was arranged then, 11.2. A higher profile and more attention 74 and the European Council in Helsinki in December 1999 invited the 11.3. Kauppi: Reviving the concept 75 Commission to prepare an action plan for the Northern Dimension policy. Since then, two Action Plans for the Northern Dimension have 12. Northern Policies and Finnish National Fora 78 been adopted, cross-border cooperation has been developed and the 12.1. Society for Northern Policies 78 Environmental Partnership as well as the Partnership for Public 12.2. Finnish national fora 79 Health and Social Wellbeing have been established. 80 12.3. Discussions and results After the adoption of the current Northern Dimension Action Plan, the Baltic States have become Member States of the EU. Co- 13. 82 Olli Rehn: Active Players in Demand operation between the EU and Russia has developed, but the need for cooperation between the countries of the region and the EU and Russia in issues related to North-West Russia, the Baltic Sea and the Arctic regions is even greater than earlier. The Finnish Government has been aware of all these issues and of the fact that the current Northern Dimension Action Plan will expire at the end of 2006, coinciding with the end of our EU Presidency. The Government therefore launched a thorough and extensive ‘brain- storming’ process in order to find out what has been achieved by means of the Northern Dimension policy to date and what decisions 6 7 MARKKU HEIKKILÄ THE NORTHERN DIMENSION should possibly be reached during this Presidency. The results of the 1. Introduction analysis were clear: the Northern Dimension is needed also in future; cooperation between the EU and Russia – the EU and North-West Russia, in particular – is even more important that before for both parties. However, the policy for the Northern Dimension should be updated to correspond to the changed operational environment. As defined by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Northern Therefore, it is natural that the renewal of the Northern Dimension Dimension (ND) operates at two levels. constitutes one of the central themes of our EU Presidency. It is of par- ticular importance that the Northern Dimension becomes a common At the higher level, it is a policy concept aiming to draw the EU’s policy of the EU, Russia, Norway and Iceland, to which all parties are attention to northern Europe and to develop cooperation especially genuinely committed. The adoption of a new joint Policy Framework with North-West Russia. Document for the Northern Dimension is on the agenda of Finland’s In practical terms, it encompasses Northern Dimension partner- EU Presidency in autumn 2006. It is scheduled to enter into force at the ships and all cross-border and trans-regional activities pursued in beginning of 2007, when the current Action Plan expires. the area: European Union projects, as well as the work of individual The Government’s analysis also proved that the Northern Dimen- countries, groups of countries, the European Commission, organisa- sion as a term is well known both in Finland and elsewhere in Europe, tions, provinces and local players. All of these are part of the overall even though its content and achievements have remained unknown concept. to general public. One could even say that the Northern Dimension This implies that the EU’s Northern Dimension may be difficult has suffered from a sort of ‘marketing and communications prob- to identify at times. On the one hand, it is scattered throughout the lem’. For example, few people are aware that environmental projects world in hundreds of projects largely unaware of one another. On worth as much as EUR 2 billion, which are crucial for Finland, Rus- the other hand, it is omnipresent as an umbrella term in policy and sia and the rest of Europe, are currently being implemented by the geographical discourse, covering pretty much everything. Even the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership. The input of indi- region itself lacks clear delineation. On maps it is usually drawn as an vidual countries constitutes only a fraction of this sum. The Partner- oval stretching from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains, covering all ship is an excellent example of the fact that by joining our forces we of northern Europe. can achieve more than we could on our own. A unified Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, was General Charles Journalist Markku Heikkilä’s book on the Northern Dimension de Gaulle’s vision in the late 1950s. While none of this is mentioned in answers the question of what the Northern Dimension is and tells the objectives set for the ND, the fact remains that the concept is used about what has been achieved. Moreover, it contains a comprehensive to address northern Europe as a whole. In the end, no other mechanism overview of the evolution of the Northern Dimension and presents exists for such extensive cooperation between the EU, Russia and other ideas on what it could be like in the future – renewed and reinforced. non-EU areas in the north such as Norway and Iceland. The Northern Dimension extends over the Arctic all the way to North America, with Helsinki, June 2006 the USA and Canada taking part as observers. Therein lies the original and most powerful vision of the Northern Matti Vanhanen Dimension: cooperation between northern regions that benefits all Prime Minister and aims at sustainable development, stability, prosperity and security. 8 9 MARKKU HEIKKILÄ THE NORTHERN DIMENSION But, as is often the case in the real world, vision and practice do not 2. The European Union reaches the North always meet. While the Northern Dimension is now an established concept, few can describe its actual content. It is as if disillusionment followed from things not being served up on a plate as had been ex- pected. As an EU policy, the Northern Dimension is less than ten years of The concept of the Northern Dimension was created not in a vacuum age. From the very beginning, its development has been based on a but on the basis of existing circumstances. An essential facilitating multitude of small elements. While many of these would have existed factor was the enormous political change that took place in the late in any case, some of them, especially those related to environmental 1980s and early 1990s: the end of the Cold War, which meant the issues, are brand new.
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