BSR-TeMo – Territorial Monitoring for the Baltic Sea Region

ESPON 2013 Programme project

Project’s lifetime: February 2012 – January 2014
Budget: € 340 000

BSR-TeMo promotes territorial development and cohesion in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) by developing an indicator based monitoring system. The monitoring system will measure the progress in achieving economic, social and territorial cohesion in the BSR by using indicators at different scales. This will contribute to increased knowledge and understanding of territorial cohesion processes in the BSR. Geographically the whole of the BSR, EU as well as none EU-member States, is covered.

The BSR can become a practical demonstration area for the territorial dimension of the EU Cohesion Policy and cooperation with the neighbouring countries in spatial and regional development. The EU Strategy for the BSR is foreseen to promote a stronger transnational cooperation between various actors in dealing with important issues, which transcend the administrative borders. Among them are the issues of environment, prosperity, attractiveness and accessibility, as well as safety and security challenges. The Strategy takes notice of the development opportunities related to an inflow of EU Structural Funds to the countries and regions around the Baltic Sea, and calls for harmonization of actions across the borders in order to minimize overlaps and contradictory activities.

The remains of the former political divide of Europe are still strongly reflected in the disparities between the countries in the BSR. The ministers responsible for spatial planning and development in the Baltic Sea Region at the VASAB Ministerial Conference in Vilnius 2009 declared the interest to develop the Region into a model case of concrete co-operation in spatially related cross-border and transnational spatial planning and development tasks towards territorial cohesion. Furthermore they asked for monitoring and periodical reporting of the territorial development of the BSR.

VASAB Committee on Spatial Planning and Development in the Baltic Sea Region (CSPD/BSR) is a Steering Committee for the project representing interests of the project stakeholders. Four Steering Committee meetings have taken place: 19-20 March 2012 in Rostock, 20-21 June 2012 in Potsdam, 24 October 2012 in St.Petersburg, 21-22 January 2013 in Oslo.

Here you can see the synthesis of the project results in publication “Baltic Sea Region – Territorial Monitoring”, printed in March 2014 by VASAB:

 Baltic Sea Region – Territorial Monitring

 Регион Балтийского моря – территориальный мониторинг

More information about BSR-TeMo project can be found at the ESPON 2013 Programme webpage.