Last week the first of the regional Europe 2020 conferences took place in Malmö, Sweden. The overall title of the conference was smart specialisation. The idea with these conferences is to establish a closer link between the EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the Europe 2020 growth strategy of the EU.
Baltic Development Forum welcomes this initiative. First of all because it helps to set some more overall guidance to the regional priorities. It also enables the Baltic Sea Region countries to contribute to Europe’s overall growth discussion. Europe needs growth and the Baltic Sea Region cannot be a winner region globally, if Europe does not find a recipe for growth. Lastly, if the Baltic Sea Region can adjust the two processes so that they fit to the special needs, opportunities and problems that exist in the Baltic Sea Region, then we have better chances to succeed. And that is exactly how smart specialisation should be done.
The next regional 2020 conference takes place in Riga. You can find more information below.
Link to BDF news post on Smart Specialisation in the Baltic Sea Region. More information about the event can be found the EU Commission’s Website.