In January 2019, the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre in Gdańsk hosted 9th Strategic Project Development Workshop “The Power of Culture & Creative Sectors to increase Youth Participation in the BSR – Supporting the Baltic Sea Region Youth Camp in Summer 2019”co-organized by EUSBSR PA Culture.

Seminar on the subject "Development of the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) integrated multimodal transport links with third counties" was held in Vilnius on 8 October 2018 with the aim to facilitate implementation of actions anticipated in the EUSBSR Policy Area Transport Action Plan on the improvement of transport cooperation with the third countries.

In September, four new flagships were approved in the National Coordinators' meeting. The actions of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region are implemented by means of Flagships. Flagships demonstrate the progress of the Strategy, and may serve as pilot examples for desired action in a given field.

We interviewed the projects and asked what the status means to them.

The sun lovers of the Baltic Sea countries were bathed in the much awaited heat wave in summer 2018. But too often the perfect summer day at the beach or sailing boat was spoilt by toxic blue green algae in the sea. In many coastal countries, emotions ran high on traditional and social media to find the culprits to the algae overload. Manure was one of the accused.

The period of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) promotion campaign (marked with #EUSBSRBetterTogether) has been an exciting time for Baltic TRAM, a project which is part of the Baltic Science Link flagship of the Policy Area Innovation.

Made of Courage is a short video series produced by the PA Bioeconomy. The series consists of five videos telling stories of people driving the development of the bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region. It celebrates entrepreneurial spirit, disruptive innovation and those who challenge the use of fossil and artificial resources by creating viable options that already work.

It’s been ten years since the global financial crisis expanded from the United States to the European Union. Among other negative effects, the Baltic Sea region was unpleasantly surprised by an emigration crisis in the east and intensive immigration to the west of the region. Transnational Interreg cooperation was vital not only to help people struggling with the different labour markets, but also to foster European integration for a more competitive Europe on a macro-regional level.

Despite the progressing age of communities in the Baltic Sea region, needs of the elderly are not being sufficiently addressed by producers of furniture and home equipment. In the project BaltSe@nior, co-financed by Interreg Baltic Sea Region, by developing prototypes of intelligent furniture and upgrading design trends, companies are offered thriving opportunities to develop more suitable products for the elderly. Transnational cooperation that increases the comfort of life of seniors and at the same time fosters a more competitive Europe drew the attention of EU Commissioner Corina Crețu, who recently paid a visit to the project.

The Baltic Sea is a special region in many ways. It is one of the busiest maritime areas in the world, it is also one of the largest brackish water areas in the world and has a very sensitive and unusual combination of freshwater and ocean species, and it is surrounded by nine countries which all work hard on holistic regional collaboration.

Pharmaceutical residues create an environmental problem in the Baltic Sea. Cooperation is essential to reduce emissions, but how to bring stakeholders and projects together? An EUSBSR flagship Baltic Sea Pharma platform offers one solution. The platform and PA Hazard's work to reduce pharmaceuticals have been acknowledged by HELCOM Ministerial Declaration in March 2018. Policy Area Hazards coordinators Jenny Hedman and Maxi Nachtigall were interviewed by the Communication Point of the EUSBSR.