EU turns northern vision into reality

	Riga in Latvia is an important transit port as are many of the leading coastal cities in the Baltic States.

An enlargement of the European Union to include Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia has been on the agenda for some years and the process culminated at the Copenhagen Summit late last year when the four countries agreed the final terms of accession. In many ways this was a major milestone in European development. When the four countries formally join up in the next couple of years the Baltic Sea will nearly become an EU “Mare Nostrum”.
The integration process will be a long one, but the perspective is altogether positive, even though cultural and political traditions will present formidable obstacles. They will be overcome in time. One should never forget that it is only relatively recently that the European Community really adopted a policy to include the northern part of Europe. The EU calls it the Northern Dimension and it includes the current members in the region, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, the new members, Iceland, Russia and Norway.
Finland originally took the initiative at the European Council in Luxembourg in December 1997, when they asked the Commission to prepare an interim report on the “Northern Dimension for the policies of the Union”. The report was presented in Vienna and in 1999 the European Council adopted the guidelines for the further EU conduct in the Northern Area.
In a statement back then the Council said that the Northern Dimension “is conceived as a way of working with the countries of the region to increase prosperity, strengthen security and resolutely combat dangers such as environmental pollution, nuclear risks ad cross-border organised crime”. The statement was designed to give the thinking a bit of populist bite, as the EU for years has been dominated by countries with a rudimentary conception of Northern Europe. The enlargement in the Baltics must be judged on this background.

The Northern Region
The EU concept covers a large geographical area from Iceland in the west to North West Russia, from the Norwegian, Barents and Kara Seas in the North to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The region has around 85 million people, of which 24 live in the five Nordic countries, 7.8 million in the Baltic States, 38.6 million in Poland and around 14 million in North West Russia, including Kaliningrad. There are existing fora inside the Northern Dimension such as the Council for Baltic Sea States (CBSS), the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and the Arctic Council, and they will continue their work regardless of the current enlargement.
It is true to say that Norway and Iceland is not fully in the EU focus, even though both countries are now renegotiating their EES agreements. The enlargement in the Baltics has, no doubt, put more pressure on both countries to reconsider their stance to remain outside the European Community. Public opinion in both countries is currently in favour of membership, but the makeup of the current governments makes it difficult to predict when a new application is likely.

Areas of cooperation
When Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia become EU members a lot of the current cooperation will be formalised somewhat differently. However, membership will facilitate cooperation in transport infrastructure, energy, telecommunications and environmental issues. How these issues are handled in new members countries will be formulated in their Accession Agreements. The relations with Russia are already based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which came into force in December 1997. This agreement is important, as the new member countries in the Baltic will be bound by it. It covers trade in goods on the basis of MFN treatment and a range of WTO disciplines.
In 1998 they started to look at possible negotiations to establish a Free Trade Agreement. It establishes principles for business and investments, including supply of services, payments, capital movements, legislation regulating competition and well as economic, cultural and scientific cooperation. The EU-Russia Cooperation Council manages the framework of the agreement.

Trans-European networks
A Trans-European transport network has high priority and a great deal of resources is available to reach this objective. On EU territory the idea is to develop Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN) and an extension to the new member states (the TINA network). Plans are also afoot for Pan-European Transport Corridors and Areas in adjacent countries, including Russia.
There are a number of projects, which have benefitted so far. Among these are Via Baltic, Nordic Triangle (Malmö–Stockholm–Turku–Helsinki–Vyborg), Tallinn–Tarva railway, border crossing infrastructure at Salla, Rajajooseppi, Imatra-Sveotogorsk and Vaalima, a sea rescue service in the Baltic Sea, port developments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and in the Port of St Petersburg and a few others.
There are also feasibility studies for reorganisation of the ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk. A research project is carried out to develop maritime transport between Scandinavia and North West Russia/Northern Siberia. And finally a study has been conducted if the Russian sea-river capacity with their links to the Trans-European Networks.

A bumpy way forward
The way forward towards more integration will be a bumpy one, and one fraught with pitfalls. One only has to look at the struggle Germany has faced after the unification of West and East Germany. It is not readily comparable to the integration of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, but the differences in economic development between these countries and the EU is very tangible.
The fact that the same countries will become members of NATO could easy development to some extent. Military cooperation often has spin-offs into the commercial world. Through the NATO cooperation both Norway and Iceland are involved, while Sweden and Finland are not members of NATO.

Opportunities
It would be wrong, however, only to look at the problems ahead. There are plenty of opportunities, which will benefit all countries involved. After all, the four countries are members of the European cultural family. They all share a common heritage and now also a common future.
A visionary European would say that difficulties are mere technicalities, because common benefits will prevail in the end. There is also the opportunity for the European Union to strengthen links to Russia, even if the Baltic States may want to sever some of the historical ties.
The Baltic Region includes Russia and it would be folly not to take this opportunity to seek greater involvement and cooperation. The EU is already dependent on energy supplies from Russia and plans are in place to extend these supplies.
Piping crude oil to Europe, rather than shipping it through the Baltic Sea makes a lot of sense. Energy cooperation in the Northern/Baltic Region also includes North West Russia with increased shipments from the Murmansk area.
Therefore it is important that this new enlargement with four countries is managed with the view to include those countries which are not members of the EU, namely Iceland, Norway and Russia. Everyone will benefit by common endeavour, as we are all dependent on each other. The result of the Copenhagen summit was, therefore, an historic opportunity, which must be cherished, nursed and developed.

//Petter Arentz

Back to SSG 2, 24 January