1.What are the main territorial trends or observations from your project - for Europe, its regions and cities - in relation to “territorial imbalances, regional disparities, polycentric development, resources efficiency”? Since we don’t have any results yet I include the geographical coverage and suggestion of indicators – to show what trends we intend to measure (and where). For the Baltic See Region, we know that the 3 divides (North-South, East-West, Urban-rural) are quite important and we hope to assess to what extent these impact on the development of the macro region. We will also asses the disparities within the BSR and asses trends in “territorial development/cohesion”. We will also focus on disparities across boarders to Russia and Belarus and look at differences within the group of boarder regions. 1

Coverage and scale Country NUTS2NUTS3 BelarusOblasts7Rayons (sNUTS4)118 (130) DenmarkRegioner5Landsdeler11 EstoniaCountry1Groups of Maakond5 FinlandStoromraden5Landskap20 GermanyRegierungsbezirke8Kreise / kreisfreie Städte 66 LatviaCountry1Regioni6 LithuaniaCountry1Apskritys10 NorwayRegions7Fylker19 PolandWojewództwa16Podregiony66 RussiaOblasts7Rayons (sNUTS4)123 SwedenRiksomraden8Län21

2. How do developments in Europe´s neighbourhood influence the territorial development in Europe and vice-versa (according to your mind / your ESPON findings)? Obviously economic development, social situation, infrastructure, environmental development, for Russia and Belarus, will impact not only neighboring regions but the entire Europe. However, the immediate impacts are of higher importance for the BSR since the position (geographically as well as traditionally) as ‘gateway’ region to Russia is a huge potential. This includes access to markets (imports as well as exports), transboundary environmental problems and crime, better boarder infrastructure for business and tourism. Migrations is also important (in-migration into Europe, and where migration flows go to). Also the question of new transport infrastructures or new communication and cooperation channels need to be established (for instance, towards St. Petersburg). 4

3. What opportunities and challenges exists for Europe and its neighbourhood for increasing competitiveness through further cooperation and integration? (according to your mind / your ESPON findings)? The existence of the BSR macro region is in itself an opportunity for development based on further integration (e.g. labour markets) and coordination in this region. Challenges include reducing “red rape” in simplifying business across the EU/Russian/Belarusian territories and boarder crossings. There are already some cooperation going on to simplify the interaction across boarder regions in particular the Baltic countries and Finland. VASAB is an opportunity in itself in that it is a platform for cooperation with Russia and Belarus, it is cooperation at ministerial level which adds weight to the network. Also the fact that they can agree on a common strategy for the BSR shows that it is a grounding basis for future work. Our project adds to understanding the integration in the region as we intend to monitor the entire BSR including these countries as well. 5