East West Window

Project’s lifetime: June 2007 – December 2008
Budget: € 503 104

The main aim of the East West Window project was to accelerate the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) development through better connecting of the existing potentials within the Region.

The project:

  • promoted territorial integration of the North-West Russia and Kaliningrad into the Baltic Sea Region through joint spatial planning and development actions in the priority fields such as business development, transport and ICT development as well as in the sea use planning and Integrated Coastal Zone Management,
  • diminished knowledge gaps within the Region on the character of development potential, its synergies and complementarities with potentials of other countries of the region, and on methods how this potential can be efficiently connected with the potentials of the regional partners,
  • served VASAB as a useful tool for its main goal to prepare the Long Term Perspective for spatial development of the BSR till 2030, in line with the encouragement of the Council of the Baltic Sea States.

The outputs:

  • Assessment of unused innovation potential in NW Russia and recommendations on policy improvements for innovations in NW Russia from the BSR perspective;
  • Identification of spatial problems generated by innovation and in/out sourcing in NW Russia and assessment of their potential for the BSR integration;
  • Assessment of accessibility and trade flow perspective of NW Russia;
  • Policy recommendations on contribution of NW Russia to the joint efforts to improve connectivity and accessibility of the BSR;
  • Recommendations for improvement of the transnational planning methodologies in the field of transport and ICT development in the BSR;
  • Assessment of legal framework for co-operation of NW Russia in transnational sea use planning and ICZM;
  • Sea use register in Russia with relevant maps/GIS application;
  • Policy recommendations on legislative changes leading to involvement of Russian institutions in the management system for sea use planning and ICZM at the BSR level;
  • Recommendations on upgrading the instruments and tools for transnational sea use planning and ICZM accumulated at the BSR level based on the completed pilot activities;
  • Proposals for future investments in NW Russia in the fields of knowledge-based economy, transport and ICT;
  • Acknowledgment of the results at the political level (e.g. Northern Dimension, BDF, Baltic 21, VASAB, CBSS summits);
  • Institutional framework for co-operation with other BSR countries in the transnational sea use planning and ICZM.

More information and documents about East West Window project can be found here: East West Window