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EUSBSR Capacity building in Poland with implementers from Policy Areas Culture, Education and Tourism
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Text: Ewa Dębska, National Coordinator, Poland
On 21 and 22 November, two capacity-building workshops for Polish stakeholders of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region took place in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Poland. The workshops are a part of the preparation for the Polish Presidency in the National Coordinators Group and in the Strategy as such starting in July 2024.
During the two days, the Polish National Coordinator Ewa Dębska together with Policy Area Coordinators, a Policy Area Steering Group member and a representative of the support unit for the
Strategy, shared knowledge, experiences and best practices from their work in implementing the Strategy. Such representation from different governance levels and countries around the Baltic Sea made it possible to pull competencies together in a cross-sectorial, multilevel and transnational way.
The first workshop addressed governmental agencies with the Policy Area Coordination roles and representatives of ministries serving as members of the 14 Steering Groups in the Strategy. The focus was on the role of the Steering Group member, his/her tasks, forms of cooperation with key partners, the role and tasks of the Policy Area Coordinators, as well as cooperation with the National Coordinator and the support facility of the Strategy. Steering Group members represent their governments and perform their tasks as focal points at the national level. Furthermore, they strategically and thematically advise Policy Area Coordinators on the development of the respective Policy Areas.
For the second day, the organisers had reached out to new stakeholders. The workshop was attended by representatives of regional authorities and institutions i.e. from Poznań, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Toruń, Kraków, Lublin, Olsztyn and Warsaw, that would like to use the Strategy in order to engage in the Baltic Sea Region and to establish sustainable cooperation with partners. The workshop was not only an opportunity to spread information about the macro-regional strategy to new stakeholders but also to present the cross-cutting activities of the Strategy and to stimulate the development of new projects in the areas of education, culture and tourism.
Additionally, both groups were informed about EU funding opportunities from national, transnational and EU mainstream programmes. The participants of the second-day workshop found especially interest in the presentation on European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) funding for international cooperation.
The organization of the workshops was made possible by close cooperation of the Polish National Coordinator with EUSBSR professionals – Policy Area Coordinators in Policy Area CulturePolicy Area Culture – Magdalena Kleszczewska from Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, Policy Area Education – Anders Bergström from Association NORDEN in Sweden, and Policy Area Tourism – Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło from Pomorskie Tourist Board in Gdańsk, as well as Konstancja Piątkowska, Policy Area Education Steering Group Member, engaged in the “School to Work” collaborative platform.
Polish National Coordinator Ewa Ewa Dębska, together with Policy Area Coordinator Anders Berström.
