Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-08-Speech-4-009"
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted about the opportunity offered to us in this Chamber to debate the policy relating to the Northern Dimension and to do so in advance of the meeting of ministers on 21 November, which will be devoted to this issue.
According to the Commission, the main objective must be to make Northern Dimension policy a policy common to all the parties concerned, notably the Russian Federation. If this new Northern Dimension policy is to be a success, all the parties, and Russia in particular, need to feel fully involved. That also presupposes an unqualified commitment to the objectives and structures concerned with this dimension.
Once all the parties have demonstrated this commitment, we could envisage new partnerships in the Northern region, inspired by the successful model provided by the environmental partnership in the Northern Dimension, for which the European Union is the main provider of funds and which illustrates the very fruitful cooperation established between the four international financial institutions concerned, Russia and the Commission.
From the Commission’s point of view, the new Northern Dimension must be considered as the form of regional expression to the north of the Common Spaces agreed at the summit on 10 May between the European Union and the Russian Federation – regional expression that would be enhanced by full participation on the part of Norway and Iceland. It should also continue to include a number of additional objectives related to the specific characteristics of the North, in particular its fragile environment and the issue of native populations, as well as issues of health and social well-being.
The Commission is at present preparing the basic documents concerning the new Northern Dimension. These should consist of a common political statement and a strategic framework setting out the objectives and listing the measures required for achieving them. These documents should be approved during the second half of 2006 following a very extensive process of consultation involving everyone concerned with this dimension, in particular the four northern region organisations, the international financial institutions operating in this same region, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The documents should enter into force in 2007 upon expiry of the second action plan. The political statement and strategic framework related to the new dimension should be permanent in character, replacing the current model of three-year action plans while necessarily remaining subject to regular review. By way of facilitating these periodic reviews, the idea is also that, in future, everyone involved in the Northern Dimension should present assessments at the Northern Dimension ministerial meetings.
The consultations on the new strategy have begun, and I am delighted at the opportunity they offer me to exchange views with Parliament. The Commission will gladly listen to any new idea or suggestion from Parliament about the development of this strategy and will also keep Parliament fully informed of this development. As for the Commission, it will continue to prepare annual reports. The information system concerning the Northern Dimension is also available on the Relex DG web site.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to conclude by expressing the hope that the discussions we are currently conducting with Russia will lead to Russia committing itself unreservedly to the new phase on which the Northern Dimension strategy will embark in 2007. I also wish to emphasise that the Commission is fully determined to go on working to make this strategy succeed, both by implementing the second action plan and by developing the strategy.
The Northern Dimension is an integrated policy of the European Union. Its purpose is to encourage dialogue and practical cooperation in the northern parts of Europe comprising the Baltic region and the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas of our continent. It is designed to ensure the general well-being of this vast region endowed with many natural resources and to do so by means of effective and long-lasting regional cooperation. It also makes it possible to overcome the divisions experienced within a region whose constituent parts have very many shared characteristics and which has to face common challenges on both sides of the borders of the states concerned.
Northern Dimension policy has moved on considerably since its launch in 1999, when it was officially inaugurated by the Helsinki European Council. The Feira European Council of June 2000 then incorporated the initial action plan for the Northern Dimension, extending over the period 2000-2003, into the European Union’s external and cross-border policies. The Brussels European Council of October 2003 supported the second action plan in favour of the Northern Dimension, which entered into force on 1 January 2004 and covers the period 2004-2006. This second plan took account of the European Union’s enlargement, set for 1 May 2004. Since that date, eight of the nine Baltic Sea states have been members of the European Union. The ninth is the Russian Federation. Even before that, Northern Dimension policy had placed ever greater emphasis upon relations and cooperation with North-West Russia, an aspect that will certainly be reinforced in the years after 2006.
The second action plan relates to five areas deemed essential to the northern countries: the economic side of trade and infrastructure, the development of human resources – education, culture, research and health – the environment and nuclear safety, cross-border cooperation and, finally, justice and home affairs. Moreover, Kaliningrad and the Arctic are considered as cross-disciplinary themes to be integrated into the five priorities.
The action plan emphasises the notions of subsidiarity and of dynamic interplay between the various actors in the Northern Dimension. These two ideas guarantee full participation by all the parties in implementing the action plan, the parties concerned being, in particular, the partner states, the regional organisations, the regional and local authorities, the educational establishments and research institutes and, finally, civil society, not forgetting the EU itself. In particular, I should like to stress the importance of the role played by the CBSS (Council of Baltic Sea States) and the BEAC (Barents Euro-Arctic Council), as well as the councils’ activities and projects. The Commission is a member of these two organisations and remains fully involved with them.
Since the beginning, the initiatives adopted within the framework of the Northern Dimension have been implemented thanks to the existing Community programmes or to the respective budgets of the parties concerned with this dimension, whether they be states or regional organisations. At present, the European Union’s financial instruments devoted to Northern Dimension policy are the TACIS programmes, the national and regional programmes, including what are known as the neighbourhood programmes, Interreg and, to a lesser degree, the other Community policies affecting the Northern Dimension indirectly.
The Northern Dimension also benefits from the greater scope for loans granted to Russia by the European Investment Bank. The Commission has proposed that, as from 2007, the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, that is to say one of the four new instruments for funding external actions, constitute the main source of Community funding for Russia and, hence, for Northern Dimension policy.
The institutional framework put in place by the second action plan has operated as anticipated, with ministerial meetings organised every two years and, in between, meetings of senior officials. The first meeting of senior officials took place in Brussels on 21 October 2004 and brought the following together: all the states involved with the Northern Dimension, together with all the other Member States of the European Union; the four Northern region organisations, that is to say the Council of Baltic Sea States, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Arctic Council; the international financial institutions operating in Northern Europe; and representatives of the European Union institutions. Canada and the United States have also taken part as observers.
The 2005 ministerial meeting, which will be held on 21 November in Brussels on the initiative of the British Presidency, will be important as its purpose will be to approve the guidelines for preparing a political statement and a framework document for implementing the policy to be considered in the years following 2006, that is to say upon expiry of the second action plan."@en1
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