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Thorvald Stoltenberg Ambassador Chairman of the Editorial Advisory
Board Most of us have been overwhelmed by the speed and extent of
the changes that have been taking place in Europe since the late
1980s. Over the span of a few years, we have witnessed the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the unification of Ger many. This process
has had far-reaching implications for Northern Europe: the Baltic
states have attained independence, and with the establishment of
the Baltic Sea regional co-operation and the Barents co-operation,
a new type of East-West relations has come into being. The process
of change continues. Its latest manifestation is the agreement
between Russia and NATO, and NATO and EU enlargement is expected to
take place over the next few years. With such far-reaching
transformations, we need to reflect on what is hap pening. We need
a more coherent picture of the new situation in Northern Europe and
of where we are heading. This Yearbook is an attempt to fulfil this
need. I would like to thank the editors for taking this initiative,
which has been long awaited by those of us who have been actively
interested in the improved relations between the former East and
the old West that have been made possible by the end of the Cold
War - and particularly in the new opportunities for cross-border
co-operation and integra tion in the North European and Baltic
space."
Bjllrn Tore Godal Norwegian Ambassador to Germany Chairman of the
Editorial Advisory Board Several of the contributions to the
present volume of The NEBI Yearbook have been inspired by the fact
that roughly speaking, ten years have passed since the first steps
were taken to initiate cross-border co-operation in the Barents and
Baltic Sea areas. One of the most important co-operative
organisations in the European Northeast, i. e. The Council of the
Baltic Sea States, was launched in 1992. The Barents Euro Arctic
Council was established in 1993. An avalanche of co-operative and
cross-border initiatives has since hit this part of Europe with all
kinds of actors participating - states, regional and municipal
authorities, univer sities, national organisations, businesses and
private interests. Even international organisations and actors from
outside the immediate NEBI area have taken a special interest in
this dynamic part of the world. Among the most important is the
European Union, whose Finnish-inspired Northern Dimension
initiative has become a permanent fixture. As many of the chapters
in NEBI 2003 testifY, integration in the NEB I area - across old
political and ideological borders and cultural and socio-economic
divides that are among the most pronounced anywhere in the world -
has on the whole been a great success."
Thorvald Stoltenberg President of the Norwegian Red Cross Chairman
of the Editorial Advisory Board Despite the very optimistic
language on the imminence of new accessions to the European Union
that came out of the June 2001 European Council in Gothen burg, it
will serve no good purpose to neglect the fact that EU membership
for the Central and Eastern European applicants remains a difficult
process. Painful experience makes it prudent to exercise caution in
predicting developments with in the European Union. Negotiations
may drag out, snags may appear and some thing may happen on the way
to ratification. So perhaps it is wise to take a broad er view of
European integration - and therefore integration within the North
European, Barents and Baltic Sea region that is the focus of this
Yearbook. EU membership for those countries that are able to
satisfy the Copenhagen requirements - and the chapters of the
acquis communautaire that have subse quently been specified - is
certainly a prize worth fighting for. But all is not lost if some
of the applicants end up not joining the Union as a result of the
current enlargement round. Even more important than formal
membership is the process of growing together that has taken place
simultaneously with the membership negotiations. We are dealing
here with integration in the real world of trade, investments,
division of labour, politics, environment, hard and soft security,
people-to-people relations etc."
This is the fifth volume of The NEBI Yearbook, whose aim it is to provide a balanced picture of integration in the North European and Baltic Sea areas. The special focus of NEBI 2003 is to survey the lessons learned and the experience gained as a result of a decade of intensive pan-Baltic and Barents co-operation made possible as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Like the previous volumes, NEBI 2003 contains a unique Statistical Section covering the entire NEBI area.
The NEBI Yearbook 2001/2002 provides a balanced picture of integrationist developments in the North European and Baltic Sea area. For this purpose it brings together scholars from several countries and a wide range of scientific areas. The Yearbook emphasises all major aspects of integration, i.e. basic economic integration; environment and infrastructure; cross-border regional integration; and hard and soft security. The special focus of this volume is the impact of EU enlargement on developments in the North European and Baltic Sea area.
Thorvald Stoltenberg Ambassador Chairman of the Editorial Advisory
Board Most of us have been overwhelmed by the speed and extent of
the changes that have been taking place in Europe since the late
1980s. Over the span of a few years, we have witnessed the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the unification of Ger many. This process
has had far-reaching implications for Northern Europe: the Baltic
states have attained independence, and with the establishment of
the Baltic Sea regional co-operation and the Barents co-operation,
a new type of East-West relations has come into being. The process
of change continues. Its latest manifestation is the agreement
between Russia and NATO, and NATO and EU enlargement is expected to
take place over the next few years. With such far-reaching
transformations, we need to reflect on what is hap pening. We need
a more coherent picture of the new situation in Northern Europe and
of where we are heading. This Yearbook is an attempt to fulfil this
need. I would like to thank the editors for taking this initiative,
which has been long awaited by those of us who have been actively
interested in the improved relations between the former East and
the old West that have been made possible by the end of the Cold
War - and particularly in the new opportunities for cross-border
co-operation and integra tion in the North European and Baltic
space."
Thorvald Stoltenberg President of the Norwegian Red Cross Chairman
of the Editorial Advisory Board The 2000 edition of the NEBI
Yearbook goes to press a few weeks before the of the fIxed 0resund
Link between Copenhagen and Malmo, and the opening celebrations of
this magnifIcent construction have already begun. Way back in the
nineteenth century visionaries started dreaming of this connection
between lands that used to belong together but had been torn apart
by the visitations of the modern era: fanaticism, war, genocide and
competing nationalisms. To be sure, the 0resund Link will have
major economic impacts in both halves of the Zealand-Skane 0resund
region, and the benefIcial consequences can already be detected in
the shape of rising investments and falling unemployment in both
the Greater Copenhagen and the Malmo-Lund areas. But to understand
the true measure of the Link, one has to consider its political and
even symbolic implications. The bridge is nothing less than the
physical embodiment of a most welcome reversal of historical trends
towards division, isolation and strife that have for too long
afflicted not only Denmark and Sweden bur influenced rela tions all
around the Baltic Sea and in the territories adjacent to the
Barents Sea in the far north - in short the entire NEBI area."
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