Economic Integration and Cohesion in the Baltic Sea Region: A Critical Perspective From the Baltic States

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Notes

Notes

1 The EU Baltic Sea Strategy website lists more than 30 Baltic Sea Region actors, excluding the national governments of the region. For the full list see http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/cooperation/baltic/index_en.htm

2 Since this paper was originally written similar issues have been addressed by Olsson et al. (2010) in a paper entitled ‘Is There a Baltic Sea Region? A Review of Two Decades of Economic Developments in Trade and Investment Flows in the Light of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region’.

3 A significant part of Estonian FDI in Latvia is ultimately Swedish financial sector investment that has been channelled through Estonia.

4 In both Estonia and Latvia, there is a small untaxed income allowance.

5 In the absence of local taxes a share of the income tax is in practice the major financing instrument of local authorities in the Baltic states. In Lithuania, personal income tax has been subject to considerable changes, with the basic rate going down from 33% to 24% over several years. There has also been an attempt to simplify a rather opaque system of allowances and special rates. Nevertheless, the overall burden of personal income tax has been low.

6 See Statistics in focus http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-02062009-BP/EN/3-02062009-BP-EN.PDF

7 See http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-DO-09-001/EN/KS-DO-09-001-EN.PDF

8 See http://www.worker-participation.eu/