Making ends meet in the North

In order to take full advantage of the industry and natural resources in the most northern part of the Baltic Sea Region two corridors should be developed. One is the Barents corridor from Northern Norway and North Western Russia. The other is the Bothnian corridor along the Swedish and Finnish coast from the very north of the Bothnian Gulf, including road, rail and sea.

The Baltic Sea Region has great potential for development. Unfortunately there are still missing links (often east-west bound) that hamper development. Some of these missing links are to be found in the most northern part of the Baltic Sea Region.

The northern part of the Baltic Sea Region is of great potential interest for the whole Baltic Sea Region and the EU for several reasons. One of the reasons is that there is a concentration of very competitive industry (eg. steel industry and wood and paper industry) along the coast in the most northern part of the Bothnian Gulf. Another reason is the great natural resources in the Barents Region. For both the industries and the transport of natural resources good railways are of utmost importance. Still the railway connections between northern Sweden and northern Finland have not enough capacity. Furthermore, there are no concrete plans for significant improving the infrastructure for transports between the European Union, North Western Russia and Northern Norway.

There are several reasons for these shortcomings. One reason is lack of knowledge of the importance of the industry and the natural resources in the most northern part of the Baltic Sea Region. Another reason is the fact that planning of infrastructure to a great extent is done from a purely domestic point of view. In a Baltic Sea Region where national borders mean less and less national government's lack of international perspective on transports is unfortunate.