Conceptualizing the ‘New’ Northern Dimension: A Common Policy Based on Sectoral Partnerships

Abstract

The Northern Dimension (ND) initiative officially launched by the EU a decade ago has recently been transformed in order to better reflect the current situation in Northern Europe, where four Baltic Sea states became EU members in 2004 and where Russia and the EU are developing their relationship based on four Common Spaces. From initially being developed as an EU foreign policy initiative, the ND is today considered a ‘common policy’ of four equal partners—the EU, Russia, Norway and Iceland. The rather innovative elements of the ‘new’ ND policy make it challenging to address from a conceptual point of view. In the study at hand the author addresses the characteristics of the ‘new’ ND in relation to its development over the last decade. The author argues that insights drawn from international regime theory seem pertinent when it comes to conceptualizing the transformation of the ND into a ‘common policy’ of four equal partners based on a number of emerging sectoral partnerships, contributing to its concrete implementation.

Keywords:

• Northern Dimension
• EU foreign policy
• Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership
• Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being
• EU–Russia relations

Notes

¹ Indeed, at a Nordic prime ministers' meeting in Malmö, Sweden, in June 1998, the ND was identified as one of the themes that the Nordic EU members would cooperate in promoting with an eye to the forthcoming EU presidencies of Finland (1999), Sweden (2001) and Denmark (2002) (cf. Arter, 2000, p. 692). (For a deeper study on the role of the Nordic EU Presidencies in the development of the ND, see Haglund, 2004.)

² The Danish EU Presidency also organized a second conference in relation to the ND on the so called ‘Arctic Window’ of the ND, in Ilulisaat, Greenland, with the ambition of bringing Arctic issues into the ND.

³ This was organized in connection with the general EU–Russia Summit.

⁴ Xenakis has in this context used a similar approach by applying regime theory to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, which is conceptualized as an embryonic multidimensional international regime that involves many issue areas (see Xenakis, 1999, 2000; Xenakis & Chryssochoou, 2001, pp. 14 & 108).

⁵ For this reason the Board of Directors of the EBRD approved specific rules and established a set of principles for the Support Fund in December 2001.

⁶ The conclusion of the Multilateral Nuclear and Environment Programme in Russia (MNEPR) agreement has been seen as a precondition to opening the ‘nuclear window’, which was finally signed at a meeting in Stockholm on 21 May 2003. The MNEPR establishes a legal framework for assistance and cooperation allowing effective implementation of environmental projects dealing with nuclear safety and waste management, particularly in Northwest Russia (Commission of the European Communities, 2002b).

⁷ In September 2007 the most substantial NDEP grant agreement of €10 million was signed between the EBRD (as the NDEP fund manager) and the Kaliningrad water utility Vodokanal.

⁸ The President of the NIB was its first chair in mid 2001, was followed by the Head of the EBRD. Since July 2007 the Steering Group has again been chaired by the President of the NIB.

⁹ The partner countries are: Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, poland, Russia and Sweden. The partner organizations are: the European Community represented by the Commission, BEAC, Baltic Sea States Sub-regional Cooperation (BSSSC), CBSS, ILO, IOM, NCM, UNAIDS and WHO. Eligible NDPHS partners are the founding partners, the EU member states and ND partners, the European Commission and other relevant institutions and IFIs. Eligible participants are interested sub-national administrative entities in the ND area. Other countries or organizations associated with the ND may become partners or participants of the NDPHS in accordance with national legislation or statutes and through a procedure to be established by the CSR (see Oslo Declaration, 2003).

¹⁰ Since 1 February 2007 the partners have been working to implement the NDPHS project ‘A Database on Public Health Projects in North Eastern Europe and its Neighbouring Countries’. It is co-funded by the NDPHS partner countries and the European Commission and has the duration of two years.

¹¹ In 2006 a new NDPHS application was developed within the EU Public Health programme for funding that would allow the partnership to implement those priorities mentioned. This application, which was the highest ranking proposal, was awarded funding by the Community. Co-funding will come from 10 NDPHS partners and its Secretariat (Commission of the European Communities, 2007, p. 31).

¹² Efforts are currently being made to reach an agreement on the Secretariat's legal status, which will make it independent and more effective (see Northern Dimension Senior Officials Meeting, 2007).

¹³ There are currently two Associated Expert Groups, namely the CBSS Working Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk (WGCC) and the Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety (BSN).

¹⁴ Also, at the European Parliament's Conference on the ND in February 2007 the participants asked all ND partners to examine the possibility of applying the partnership model in these two areas (Parliamentary Conference on the Northern Dimension, 2007, p. 2).

¹⁵ In addition to the partnerships there has been a sector-specific Northern eDimension Action Plan (NeDAP), contributing to concrete implementation of the ND. This was developed by the CBSS in partnership with the Commission in January 2001, and formally adopted at a meeting of Information Society ministers in Riga in September 2001. The objective of the NeDAP has been to strengthen the Baltic Sea region's position in the information society in line with the eEurope initiative, to provide added value through accelerating the transition to an information society in the region, ensuring greater cooperation and integration amongst the states involved, improving the environment for information and communication technologies (ICT) initiatives and investments and supporting the implementation of a harmonized regulatory framework. The first NeDAP covered the period 2002–2004, with the second covering the period 2005–2006. It has been coordinated by a Steering Group—the Senior Officials for the Information Society (SOIS). While the NeDAP has been considered to having served its purposes well, the SOIS Group decided to suspend its mandate/activities for the time being at its meeting in Oslo in December 2006 (Riga Ministerial Meeting, 2001; Commission of the European Communities, 2007, p. 22).