National Coordinators of the EU Strategy for Baltic Sea Region have approved the revised Action Plan of the Strategy in their online Meeting on 29-30 June this year. The revised Action Plan will enter into force after completion of the Commission´s internal procedure and it will be published as a Commission Staff Working Document (SWD), it is expected to happen in the beginning of 2021.

Capacity4MSP project platform has been granted Flagship status by the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) under the Horizontal Action Spatial Planning. The decision was made at the online meeting on 29-30 June by the National Coordinators of the EUSBSR.

LITHUANIAN CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE VASAB COMMITTEE ON SPATIAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BALTIC SEA REGION   The VASAB Committee on Spatial Planning and Development of the Baltic Sea Region (VASAB CSPD/BSR) was chaired by Lithuania from 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2021.

Within the Capacity4MSP project, VASAB Secretariat has started the work towards developing an integrated report on MSP stakeholder involvement and engagement. The report will encompass and analyse experience and lessons learnt from MSP projects and national MSP processes that concern stakeholder involvement, their awareness raising and engagement into MSP at EU, BSR and national as well as regional level.

MARA (Mobility and Accessibility in Rural Areas) is an Interreg BSR project which aims to improve the mobility and accessibility in and to remote and rural areas in the countries of the Baltic Sea region (BSR). Many of those areas are also important touristic destinations. The project partnership consists of 12 regional and national public administrations and universities from nine BSR countries. 13 associated partners are involved.

To better support its work, VASAB initiated the ESPON targeted analysis project ‘Territorial Scenarios for the Baltic Sea Region 2050’ (BT2050).