CBC In My Region 2018

South-East Finland – Russia CBC Programme organised its 1st Annual Event in Lappeenranta, Finland on 18-19.12.2018. 

Lappeenranta University of Technology provided nice and working facilities to celebrate operational start of the cross-border cooperation between Finland and Russia and to support the projects, of which, the first ones have just started their journey. The event audience, in total circa 150 persons, enjoyed the attention given from the region and from the key stakeholders of the programme.  

Voice of the Region, by the Mayor of Lappeenranta Mr Kimmo Jarva, noted very essential point and that we all agree; it was about time to start! He also encouraged the event participants to get most of this cross-cooperation instrument, which also support the green strategies of the Lappeenranta city. (speech of Kimmo Jarva at the end of this post)

Programme stakeholders, European Commission represented by the Programme Manager Mr Marcello Mori, the Russian Federation represented by Mrs Anna Popova (speech of Anna Popova at the end of this post) and the Republic of Finland represented by Mr Petri Haapalainen (speech of Petri Haapalainen at the end of this post) highlighted in their keynotes the importance of having cross-border cooperation tool like the South-East Finland – Russia CBC programme as functional and supported by both participating countries Russia and Finland.  

Despite of the European wide, and to some extent global, uncertainty and challenges effecting also in the border regions, working mechanisms to keep up good neighbourhood relations should not be brought down. Instead, we should empower already given inputs and results on several fields of cooperation like education, research, green industries, tourism services, culture and so on.  

South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 has still financial support to offer for the new project proposals. Our last open call for proposal close on 27 March 2019 at 23:59 EET and the workshops to guide preparation of the application packages will take place in January-February 2019. More information and registration links are already on-line here. To get more information of the opportunities read Acting Programme Director Tiina Jauhiainen’s presentation from the event at the end of this post! 

As part of our Annual Events Good Communication Awards are given in recognition of the contributions made by the projects. Awards symbolize transparent and fluent cooperation between the partners, the positive approach towards the Cross-Border Cooperation and the visibility and notability that the projects provide for the Programme and its financiers. This year following projects were awarded: INFUTURE, DIGIFOR, RAINMAN and EnviTox. Warm congratulations and keep up the good work.

Special thanks to the project partners who stayed with us for training sessions on 19.12.2018. We hope your projects’ implementation is more fluent with the tips you got on project reporting and monitoring. 

And last but not least! The annual on-line survey during 17.-21.12.2018 provided 125 responds on current and future cooperation between Finland and Russia. This is a good start for the capacity development that the MA will carry on-site of standard administrative work. We will take a moment for analyzing all the feedback and publish summary on our website. 

Hope you enjoyed this throwback to our first Annual Event and looking forward meeting you all again in our second event in Saint Petersburg, Russia at the end of 2019. Results gained by the funded projects will be then one of our central focuses! 

South-East Finland – Russia CBC Annual Event 18.12.2018 Lappeenranta – Anna Popova speech

South-East Finland – Russia CBC Annual Event 18.12.2018 Lappeenranta – Petri Haapalainen speech

South-East Finland – Russia CBC Annual Event 18.12.2018 Lappeenranta – Kimmo Jarva speech

SEFR CBC 2014-2020 Annual Event 18.12.2018 presentation Tiina Jauhiainen

Go to programme’s Facebook account for the picture library of the Annual Event https://www.facebook.com/cbcprogramme/