Baltic Region in Becoming: from the Council of the Baltic Sea States to the EU‘s Strategy for the Baltic Sea Area
Baltic Region in Becoming: from the Council of the Baltic Sea States to the EU‘s Strategy for the Baltic Sea Area

Summary/Abstract: The first decade of the 21st century approaches its end and now it is possible to recognize clear signs of returning of visionary thinking to depict the Baltic Sea Area (BSA). The BSA has again become politically attractive. At the moment the most prominent sign of the return of the BSA into political agenda is the European Union’s Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. High hopes but also skepticism have been associated with the strategy during an intensive and in many parts extraordinary era of planning. In this article the current revival of the BSA is compared with ‘golden days’ of the Baltic Sea cooperation in the 1990s and the main changes since then are pointed out.

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