The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region

The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR), which was presented by the European Commission in June 2009, is the first macro-regional strategy of the EU. In the words of the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn, it was designed to serve as a ‘new model for co-operation’ and ‘to inspire other regions’ (Hahn, 2010, 2) in Europe. From this perspective, the EUSBSR has certainly provided some ‘inspirational successes’, almost triggering a veritable ‘macro-regional fever’ (Dühr, 2011, 3) amongst EU members and partner countries, and pushing the number of countries currently involved in the formulation of macro-regional strategies to 27.1 The EUSBSR targets eight EU member states — Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany, that is, the German Länder of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Hamburg — and also two partner countries (the Russian Federation and Norway) (Figure 6.1); hence, it can almost be conceived as an internal strategy of the EU (European Commission, 2009). In contrast, both the EU Strategy for the Danube Region and the EU Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region are far more diverse in membership and exhibit a strong external focus (see Gänzle, forthcoming; Ágh, chapter 7, Cugusi and Stocchiero, chapter 8 this volume).