The High North of Europe - prepared to face the future?

The NSPA network cordially invites you to the next NSPA Forum, in Umeå,Sweden, on the 24-25th of October 2013, in cooperation with Europaforum Northern Sweden.

Join the discussion in Umeå to show the strong, specific and promising NSPA!

The message from the EU to our Northern Sparsely Populated Areas is very clear:

"Show us how the NSPA-cooperation can help to overcome your common challenges and make it worthwhile for the EU to support your work".  

The burning issue here and now, is to find smart ways to create the 'Smart Northern Sparsely Populated Areas' in the increased competition between European regions to work with the EU smart specialisation concept. This is the last possibility for us to have a dialogue with the European Commission and to influence the outcome for the NSPA in the upcoming Interreg programmes and other EU-programmes.

The NSPA Forum will start on the evening of 24th of October directly following the event of Europaforum Northern Sweden, and continues the 25th of October with a half-day programme with presentations and working groups.

Both conferences will focus on our special conditions for development and prosperity in the North. In 2014, we are entering a new phase of European cooperation and regional development; development of future industries, structural change and the green transition must be made (even) in our regions where the population is concentrated in a number of growing cities but with otherwise sparse population and long distances in general. What are the future strategies and how shall we interact in order to benefit from each other?

The NSPA forum aims as always to bring people together from
the NSPA-regions as well as European institutions to outline joint
challenges and priorities in the northern areas.
At this forum we aim to recapitulate the joint vision of
our regions expressed in the report "Strong, specific and
promising" 2009.

Erik Glöersen, the main author of the report, together with
colleagues will contribute to our discussions during the forum.
Our ambition, with the report functioning as a baseline for
our discussions, is to take the next step in our cooperation.
Of course we will also face the challenges raised by the
European commision, and pinpointed in the budget allocation
to the sparsely populated areas.

Join the discussion in Umeå to show the strong, specific and promising NSPA!

Programme

We kindly invite all participants to the NSPA-forum to register for
the joint first day afternoon programme of Europaforum Northern
Sweden that will be arranged 24th of October.

Registration to the NSPA Forum and the Europaforum Northern Sweden

Please register by the 7th of October.

Europaforum Northern Sweden is a network for the four northernmost counties of Sweden for cooperation on influencing EU policies.

More information www.europaforum.nu

For more information, please contact:
Fredrik Gunnarsson Region Västerbotten
fredrik.gunnarsson @ regionvasterbotten.se or +46 70 325 57 17