History
In 2007, the Nordic Archipelago Cooperation (NSS / the Cooperation) summarized its first thirty years in a report, published, among other places, in the Finland-Swedish magazine Skärgård. By 2017, another ten years had passed, and the fortieth anniversary was celebrated, summarizing the activities from 2008 to 2017.
History 2008–2017
The years immediately before 2010 were dominated by two major initiatives: the gastronomy project Skärgårdssmak and the tourism project Scandinavian Islands. Skärgårdssmak involved a large number of restaurants, food producers, and other entrepreneurs in the archipelago, as well as a significant portion of the Cooperation’s energy and resources. The project has since been converted into a company and continues primarily in the Finnish parts. Scandinavian Islands mainly represented a financial commitment for NSS. It did not produce many concrete results and has in recent years been overshadowed by other initiatives, particularly on the Swedish side by the Stockholm Archipelago cooperation.
In the period immediately following Skärgårdssmak, NSS’s activities were mainly focused on establishing new contacts and developing networks as a basis for new projects. Initiating and managing Interreg projects became an important part of NSS’s activities after Finland and Sweden joined the EU in 1995, providing an opportunity to strengthen the Cooperation’s finances. NSS was even appointed as a preparatory body for Interreg project applications, a role that the governments later transferred to a special steering committee for the 2000–2006 program period.
At this point, two member regions left NSS: Åland in 2010 and Södermanland in 2011. At an archipelago meeting in 2011 in Stockholm County, County Councilor Gustav Andersson (now Gustav Hemming) and Governor Per Unckel criticized NSS’s declining activities. They tasked their board members, the newly appointed Cooperation Board Chair Lena Nyberg, the Stockholm Archipelago Foundation, and Lars Nyberg from the County Administrative Board, to activate the organization and show concrete results within a year. If no improvements occurred, leaving the Cooperation was being considered, which likely would have led to the closure of NSS.
In the following years, the board made efforts to show concrete results, which mainly took the form of a number of seminars on current challenges for the archipelago. The Cooperation also contributed to some larger projects, although it did not commit significant personnel resources to its participation, except for a few seminars related to the projects.
Despite a reduced budget, the revived activities were carried out with annual surpluses. During a visit in the autumn of 2013, the board presented NSS’s improved activities to the Nordic Council of Ministers in Copenhagen. The positive outcome was that the Council of Ministers approved the Cooperation to once again become a border committee. Consequently, financial support was also reinstated, initially for the period 2014–2016, and later extended and slightly increased.
Over the years, the Council of Ministers has considered switching to a project-based funding system for border committees and recently decided on a compromise. This means that base grants are maintained, with a certain increase for NSS. At the same time, the Council of Ministers has reserved funds for projects according to three specific priorities. Of these, sustainable rural development is the most relevant for NSS, but innovative and resilient regions, as well as sustainable cities and urban development, also have points of relevance.
Subject Areas
Entrepreneurship, business, and cultural issues were the priority areas of the Cooperation in the years immediately before 2010. Over time, environmental issues were added, while culture took a back seat. Since 2014, the operational plan has been based on the three concepts of ecological, social, and economic sustainability, as well as the function as a platform for creating projects.
The most comprehensive effort in ecological sustainability has been the Green Islands project, carried out from 2012 to 2014 with financial support from the Cooperation and the Council of Ministers. The project focused on waste, energy, and water and sewage solutions. Prior to that, in connection with the Skärgårdsmässan in Stockholm in 2008, an environmental cooperation day was held with the aim of establishing an environmental network. On two occasions, in 2014 in Stockholm and 2015 in Turku, NSS organized seminars on the increasing number of cormorants, how to manage them, and their impact on fisheries. The Cooperation has continued to actively follow the cormorant issue. In 2017, NSS invited relevant actors to discuss cooperation around the northern Baltic Sea regarding the EU initiative on marine spatial planning. It became clear that NSS’s local and regional network could be useful in this work.
In recent years, the focus of NSS’s activities has primarily concerned social sustainability. In 2009, a seminar on IT services for the archipelago was held in Mariehamn, and in 2017, a seminar on Broadband Expansion and Digital Services took place in Helsinki. In Stockholm in 2016, a seminar on Access to Local Services was organized. Two seminars in 2016, themed The Archipelago Schools of the Future in Stockholm and Helsinki, highlighted the importance of access to quality education, the good results achieved in small archipelago schools, and practical examples of new IT technology.
In 2017, two more extensive projects were launched: Housing for Permanent Residents and Tomorrow’s Archipelago Residents. The housing project consists partly of a comparison of relevant regulations in the member countries and partly of a study of housing solutions in collaboration with architecture schools. The demographic project aims to study the challenges faced by working-age archipelago residents in moving to or staying in the archipelago. This is done through a survey of archipelago residents. The results of the survey will form the basis for local seminars aimed at deepening knowledge and increasing local engagement on the issue. NSS has also highlighted the method of Local Economic Analyses (LEA), which shows that islands and archipelagos can be valuable not only in terms of experiences but also economically.
The cultural project Skärgårdskultur – A Resource for Regional Identity and Local Economy was carried out in 2008 as a follow-up to a previous Interreg project. It was followed in 2011 by the project When We Were One, a preliminary study aimed at securing Interreg funding for a continued project on the shared history of the archipelagos. Unfortunately, the project did not receive any Interreg funding, so the work was not completed. NSS organized cultural assemblies over several years, but the 2010 cultural assembly in Åland became the last one to date.
Economic sustainability has long been an important aspect of NSS’s activities, often with a particular focus on young archipelago residents.
In 2011, the project Archipelagos, Youth, and Entrepreneurship (SUF) was launched. This was also a preliminary study aimed at securing Interreg funding for a larger initiative, but it too did not receive funding.
In 2014–2015, the demographic project Egna pengar focused on the employment and livelihoods of young people and adults in the archipelago, with financial support from the Nordic Council of Ministers and NSS. During the project, several seminars were held and the results were documented in a publication. NSS has for many years supported the annual Archipelago Women’s Seminar, where entrepreneurship has been an important topic. The Cooperation has participated in these meetings in recent years.
The growing interest in tourism has been addressed in three seminars: in 2012 in Helsinki, 2013 in Stockholm, and 2015 again in Helsinki, the latter in connection with an Interreg project on small harbors for recreational boats. In 2013, the seminar Fisk(e) så in i vassen on fisheries management and fish tourism was organized. Culinary themes have also remained relevant after Skärgårdssmak. In 2016, the Cooperation participated with speakers at the symposium Finnish Championship in Food Craftsmanship in Ekenäs. A 2017 seminar in Stockholm on Grazing in the Archipelago, aimed at preserving the open archipelago landscape, had links to both food and tourism. A more detailed account of the activities can be found in the annual chronicle below.
Roles of the Cooperation
An overarching principle of NSS’s work is to focus on current archipelago challenges where Nordic cooperation can make a difference. It is therefore not enough that the issues are important. In certain subject areas, established Nordic collaborations already exist between strong and competent actors, which limits NSS’s opportunities to contribute. This applies, for example, to the marine environment.
The Cooperation’s limited resources justify a general approach of initiating initiatives, but then preferably leaving the implementation to other actors. Another principle is that NSS should not engage in policy issues, as this is a matter for the Cooperation’s principals. However, NSS can, when requested, prepare factual material for policy issues. This has been done regarding school education and cormorants, and work is ongoing for permanent housing. To clarify NSS’s roles, the board formulated a mission statement in 2016, which has been gradually refined.
NSS must limit itself to working on a few themes at a time. As a complement and to strengthen continuity in its activities, the board has distributed the monitoring of important archipelago issues among its members. An important contribution to this monitoring is the goal discussions at Council meetings.
NSS is to act as a platform to initiate and support projects with EU funding. Ahead of the EU’s latest programming period, efforts with good results have been devoted to creating new projects. Thus, the projects Sankt Olavs Pilgrimsled, Smart Marinas, and Baltic Wings, funded by the EU’s Central Baltic Programme, are direct results of this work. Acting as a platform for project formation involves networking. NSS develops broad networks with experts in various fields in order to be a competent and useful actor on archipelago issues.
A third task for NSS, in addition to subject areas and network building, is its role as the Nordic Council of Ministers’ border committee. In recent years, the Cooperation has placed increased emphasis on this and actively participates in the meetings of the so-called LOTS group. Border obstacles have been an important issue for many border committees. However, NSS has considered it less relevant and has focused on development issues.