How to know what's up in Brussels

by Mr Ingemar Lilienblad

Umea is very interested in having a clear view of what is going on in the European Union, especially when it comes to new directives which will affect our activities and when it means possibilities to get funding for interesting projects. Our main tool for lobbying is the North Sweden European Office which is the joint regional office for the counties of Norrbotten and Västerbotten, the northernmost Swedish regions. The main purpose of the office is to contribute and encourage Northern Sweden to become an active and competent region on the European level. The founding organisations are the municipalities, the county councils, the county administration boards, the Federation of Private Enterprises and the chambers of commerce in Norrbotten and Västerbotten as well as Norrlandsfonden, Lulea University of Technology and Umea University.

The main tasks of North Sweden European Office are:

• developing strategies and competence: North Sweden is working for the active participation of representatives from the region through seminars and other training activities to increase the EU-competence in the region.
• monitoring our region's interests: North Sweden monitors
  changes and development within policies at the EU-level that might have impact on the region.
• monitoring of projects and programmes: North Sweden monitors current and relevant EU-funded projects.

The county of Västerbotten and the city of Umea are included in the Objective 1 area North Sweden. This will not be the case during the next programming period. This means that we will be more dependent upon North Sweden EU Office to show presence at the Brussels-arena, especially since Umea, as a university town, has an interest in the framework programme for research.

The mayor of Umea, Mrs Marie-Louise Rönnmark, who is also the UBC vice president and a member of the board of North Sweden European Office, strongly emphasizes the importance of being represented in Brussels. It is important that the UBC with its 100 members increases its presence in Brussels through an office of its own. This will make it easier to influence the European Union and also to enhance the possibilities to work for a sustainable development in the Baltic Region, which is one of our main goals.