Barents Regional Council (BRC)
The Region of Troms (Norway) took over the BRC Chairmanship from the Oulu Region (Finland) on October 14, 2009. Troms will chair the BRC for two years.
The Barents Regional Council unites 13 member counties and a representative of the indigenous peoples in the northernmost parts of Finland, Norway and Sweden and north-west Russia.
At the same time as the BEAC was established in 1993 by the signing of the Kirkenes Declaration, the regional representatives, together with the indigenous peoples signed a co-operation protocol that established the Regional Council for the Barents Euro-Arctic Region with the same objectives as the BEAC - to support and promote co-operation and development in the Barents Region. The prootocol determines the structure and the general aims of the regional co-operation.
The Barents Region includes the following counties or their equivalents:
- in Finland: Kainuu, Lapland and Oulu Region (North Karelia - was approved observerstatus in 2008)
- in Norway: Finnmark, Nordland and Troms
- in Russia: Arkhangelsk, Karelia, Komi, Murmansk and Nenets.
- in Sweden: Norrbotten and Västerbotten
Indigenous Peoples in the Barents Region:
- Saami (in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia)
- Nenets (in Russia)
- Veps (in Russia)
The establishment of a separate forum for the inter-regional Barents co-operation is an acknowledgement of the importance of local knowledge, the ability to identify the most urgent priorities and the capacity to carry out implementation in the Region.
Initially, the Barents Region consisted of seven member counties, but already in April 1993 the Republic of Karelia in Russia joined the co-operation. An increasing interest in the benefits of regional co-operation and the potentials of the northern regions followed. The Barents Region gradually expanded and with the adherence of the Russian Republic of Komi on 1 January 2002, the Region now comprises 13 member counties, approximately 1,75 mill sq. km and almost 5,4 million inhabitants. In its meeting in Kuusamo 29.5.2008 the Barents Regional Council decided to accept the region of North Karelia as an observer in the Barents Regional Council.
Barents Regional Council in Umeå, November 19th 2008.
The Chairmanship of the Barents Regional Council alternates between its 13 member counties every second year. The Regional Council meets two times a year. The Regional Council’s meetings are prepared by the Regional Committee, which consists of civil servants from the member county administrations. The Troms County Council acts as a Chair of the Regional Council and the Regional Committee from November 2009 till the end of 2011.
The Barents Programme is the framework for co-operation where the priority areas of work are identified. The focus in the Barents 2010 strategy is on sector programmes, which are strongly oriented towards the natural resource potentials in the region and linked to closely related industries. Six frame sector programmes have been launched: sector programme on forestry, sector programme on mining and minerals, sector programme on oil and gas, sector programme on tourism, sector programme on east-west logistics and sector programme on higher education. A specific region takes leading role in each sector programme and identifies partner regions. Next step is to create bilateral or multilateral targeted pilot projects within each programme.
The Regional Council adopted the Barents Programme for 2009-2013(printable version/brochure ) in its meeting in Umeå on the 19th of November 2008.
Working groups deepen co-operation
In order to deepen and concretise the co-operation the Regional Council has established Working Groups in priority areas of work. At the moment there exists four regional thematic working groups for environment, communications, youth issues, and economic cooperation. Together with the Working Group of Indigenous Peoples, which has an advisory role to both the Regional Council and to the BEAC, and four joint BEAC/BRC working groups (Culture; Health and related social issues; Education and research; Energy) there are altogether nine Working Groups reporting to the Barents Regional Council.
Contact information
Troms Chairmanship of the Barents Regional Council
Mrs. Pia Svensgaard, Chair
Contacted through:
Roald Rokeberg, Chair of the Regional Committee
Phone : +47 77 78 81 84
Mobile : +47 90 82 95 20
E-mail: roald.rokeberg@tromsfylke.no
http://www.tromsfylke.no/
Members of the Barents Regional Council
Norway:
Pia Svensgaard, Troms (Chair)
Runar Sjåstad, Finnmark
Odd Eriksen, Nordland
Sweden:
Chris Heister, Västerbotten
Per-Ola Eriksson, Norrbotten
Finland:
Pauli Harju, Oulu
Alpo Jokelainen, Kainuu
Veikko Kumpumäki, Lappland
Russia:
Dmitrij Dmitrienko, Murmansk
Ilja Mikhaltsjuk, Arkhangelsk
Sergej Katanandov, Karelia
Liliya Oparina, Komi
Igor Fjodorov, Nenets
Working Group on Indigenous Peoples (WGIP):
Aili Keskitalo, Saami Parliament of Norway