First Working Meeting on the implementation of the EUSBSR was organised on 11 March 2010 in Riga, Latvia where the lessons learned during the starting phase of the EUSBSR’s implementation were discussed.
After more than a year practical implementation of the EUSBSR the main challenges are lack of cooperation between the national and regional development programmes implemented under three different regional development objectives – Convergence (Objective 1), Regional Competitiveness and Employment (Objective 2) and European Territorial Cooperation (Objective 3) as well as lack of cooperation between the national and regional development programmes’ management bodies.
Therefore the main aims of the second meeting were to raise awareness about the national and regional development programmes operating in the Baltic Sea Region; establish and strengthen cooperation between these programmes, the European Fisheries Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development programmes, the Priority Area Coordinators (PAC), the Horizontal Action Leaders and the National Contact Points as well exchange of experience on the implementation of the EUSBSR and implications of the EUSBSR to the programmes; and to have clear and joint understanding of the roles of the programmes, PACs, Horizontal Action Leaders and the National Contact Points.
Latvia-Lithuania Programme presented itself during the exhibition which was organized to present achievements within the Priority Areas of the EUSBSR, the national and regional development programmes, operational programmes of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and European Fisheries Fund, other programmes and institutions.
Around 150 participants were attended the event and had possibility to take part in active discussions during the working groups and share experience with other participants during the exhibition.