VASAB Long Term Perspective for the Territorial Development of the Baltic Sea Region till 2030

VASAB 7^th Ministerial Conference on 16 October 2009 in Vilnius, Lithuania has endorsed the new VASAB Long Term Perspective. The Ministers underlined that during present times, new common responsibilities and challenges have emerged which call for deeper pan-Baltic co-operation on spatial planning and development and integration of spatial development policies into all relevant sectors. The present economic restructuring has different effects in different places. Place-based planning and development policies have to react on that. There is a growing understanding that the Baltic Sea itself is in urgent need of maritime spatial planning. The new Long Term Perspective for the Territorial Development of the Baltic Sea Region (LTP) is an effort to define important challenges with a trans-national relevance and to illustrate how to deal with them.

Spatial planning is more than ever a cross- sectoral exercise and therefore in clear need of involvement of many actors. The array of actions in the LTP can only be identified, decided upon and implemented in close co-operation with other pan-Baltic organisations and partners from public as well as private sector. Common efforts are needed to fulfil them. Therefore, the LTP invites pan-Baltic organisations, institutions as well as national and regional authorities to co-operate in a transparent and efficient way.

VASAB Long Term Perspective is available for download here.

In order to learn opinions of relevant regional stakeholders on 21 April 2009 VASAB organized stakeholder seminar in Riga, Latvia. Representatives of the EU Commission, HELCOM, CBSS and other organizations and member states discussed policy guidelines and specific actions to achieve territorial cohesion perspective. Presentations of the seminar are available here.

The LTP policy document and background document as well as analytical reports of VASAB working groups that served as a basis for LTP are available here.