Interregional cooperation with a Finnish twist

On 1 July 2019, Finland took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Romania. The overarching theme of the six-month presidency is ‘Sustainable Europe – Sustainable Future’.

While the Finnish presidency is driving forward the Council's work on EU legislation, the EU agenda, and the cooperation among Member States, let’s take a look at how Finland is engaged in Interreg Europe activities.

Active Finnish project partners

Finland is among the most active European countries when it comes to interregional cooperation and participation in Interreg Europe projects. 49 of our ongoing projects have partner organisations from Finland. Furthermore, Finland is well-represented among the new projects approved in our fourth call. These projects are starting their activities this summer. As 24 additional projects with Finnish partners get ready to start their journey, the total number of projects with a Finnish dimension is about to go up to 73.

One of these projects is called BIOREGIO. It facilitates transfer of expertise about technologies and cooperation models to foster bio-based circular economy. The lead partner of the project, Susanna Vanhamäki from Lahti University of Applied Sciences, outlined the inspiration exchanged in the BIOREGIO during ‘Europe, let’s cooperate!’ in April. Have a look at their story below.

Beyond this, there are plenty of other examples of Finn-inspired interregional exchange. Finnish lead partners coordinate seven ongoing projects. The number of projects led by a partner from Finland will soon almost double, as six new projects kick off their activities over the summer under the leadership of partners from Finland. Moreover, the partners are working in projects covering all programme topics. See for instance how:

• S34Growth contributes to developing new industrial value chains;
• BRIDGES supports policy learning to improve implementation of RIS3 strategies, aiming to speed up growth and jobs delivery in regions;
• REMIX brings regions together to work on smart and green mining and raw materials policies;
• iEER boosts regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and supports young entrepreneurs;
• APPROVE promotes the use of renewable energy sources through awareness raising, capacity building, and  public participation;
• CircPro seeks to increase the implementation of the circular procurement to stimulate energy savings, resource efficiency, innovation and markets for clean solutions;

Inspiration and good practices from Finland

Beyond project activities, more inspiration from Finland is available in our good practice database. The experts of our Policy Learning Platform have validated a set of 38 good practices from Finland. Just to give you some examples:

• Have a look at how Kantola industrial estate and Woodpolis centre of competence made use of triple helix collaboration to develop new strategies for the regional wood processing industry. The good practice comes from BRIDGES project.
• Get inspired by the potential of regional cooperatives to boost local tourism sector. Cooperatives in destination development can empower local stakeholders and catalyse news activities benefiting the local economy. The good practice was identified in the Destination SMEs project.
• How about fostering cooperation for long-term results? The Sustainable municipalities approach illustrates how collaboration and joint long-term planning helps to implement energy efficiency measures. The good practice is liked to BIO4ECO project.
• See how the Finnish Industrial Symbiosis System (FISS) promotes and facilitates cooperation between regional actors for more efficient use of raw materials, technology, services and energy. The good practice was submitted by SYMBI project.

Whether you are looking for ideas or new solutions in the field of research and innovation, SME competitiveness, low-carbon economy, or environment and resource efficiency, there are plenty of interesting good practices from Finland that are worth checking out.

Dive deeper into Finland’s participation in Interreg Europe

• Explore Finland’s country page for an overview of the country’s involvement in Interreg Europe activities.
• Browse the list of projects with Finnish partners and draw ideas from the lessons they have learned through cooperation.
• Get inspired by the good practices from Finland and see what you can learn from them.