Good Governance for Cooperation

'Municipalities and regions in the candidate countries on the Baltic rim are now preparing for the demands and opportunities that will confront them when they join the EU. Prior to and in connection with EU accession, candidate countries need to address several important tasks: to raise the competence and efficiency of their public administrative bodies, to define more clearly the roles and the division of responsibility between politicians and public servants, to apply the principles of equal treatment and gender equality, and to develop the dialogue with the citizens, etc. - to achieve good governance.

When Poland and Lithuania join the EU, the Russian Kaliningrad region will be completely surrounded by EU member states. To enable the region as a whole to take advantage of the development potential offered by close interaction with its new EU neighbours vigorous efforts to enhance public sector administration in Kaliningrad will also be required.

It is important to understand that the question of efficient municipal and regional public structures in the candidate countries and in an EU perspective is not just about proficient handling of EU funds and programmes. The issue has much broader implications and is closely related to the ability to manage a local or regional public administration in close interplay with citizens, the business community and other administrative levels. Implementing the requisite sections of the Community acquis (law) means that certain basic demands must be fulfilled with regard to administrative know-how, organisation and expert knowledge. Public bodies must be able to handle such tasks as public procurement, employer-related issues, funding, financial management and accounting, permits and supervisory activities with regard to environmental and construction issues, spatial planning and implementation.

Further development of cooperation within the Euroregion "Baltic" is of great importance to both the EU and Sweden in terms of national and regional interests. The establishment of the Euroregion is a concrete manifestation of the overriding ambition of the EU to develop cross-border cooperation within the Community and across its external borders with a view to reducing economic and social disparities between the regions in the long term. In this case the ERB is unique inasmuch as it is an active component in EU enlargement in the Baltic Sea region while at the same time it has a Russian partner with an extremely complicated and absolutely unique position in this context.

About 20 UBC cities are situated in the Euroregion Baltic area. It is very important to coordinate plans on effective governance of UBC and Euroregion cities.

The Swedish partners taking part in the ERB cooperation are together in possession of both in-depth and broad knowledge of efficient municipal and regional administration, of the division of responsibility between different administrative levels in society, of self-government at different levels, of the division of responsibility between elected representatives and public officials, and issues relating to gender equality, etc.

To sum up, in our view an investment in skills development and the dissemination of information to politicians and public officials in accordance with the criteria outlined above, together with a modest but very essential upgrading of administrative resources at the ERB offices would significantly enhance the efforts of the municipalities and regions as they prepare for EU-membership and also help consolidate and deepen cooperation within the ERB.