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The next European elections, the European Parliament elections, will be held in Finland in June. Finland elects 15 MEPs to the 720-seat parliament. The seven regions of Northern and Eastern Finland want to raise awareness of the importance of the European Union and encourage voting. Voting can affect who will represent Finland in the European Parliament for the next five years. Northern and Eastern Finland's election messages can be followed on Instagram (@largest part of Finland) until the election day on 9 June. More information and general information about the elections and the European Union can be found in most of Finland on the ‑ website. The website also provides information on matters of importance to Northern and Eastern Finland, which are decided at European level. The European Parliament is the parliament of the European Union, which legislates and approves the EU budget together with the Council of the European Union. In addition, …

The joint meeting of the Regional Councils of Mainland Finland was held in Turku on 14 May 2024. The 18 regional federations of Finland issued a joint statement on the preparation of the cultural policy report. The purpose of the preparation of the Cultural Policy Report launched by Prime Minister Orpo's Government is to produce an ambitious vision for the future, which will enable the long-term development of Finland's artistic and cultural policy. In addition to the vision of the future, the report presents the actions that will be taken to achieve the objectives. The aim of cultural activities is to support people's opportunities for creative expression and activities, as well as for making and experiencing culture and art, to promote equal opportunities and participation of all population groups in culture, art and education, to strengthen the well-being and health of the population, as well as inclusion and communality, and to create the conditions for the development of vitality.  In this work…

The Northern Ostrobothnia Youth Council met on Monday 13 May 2024. The meeting was chaired by First Vice-Chair Sami Kemi from Siikalatva. At the meeting, the Youth Council decided to draw up two statements. The first concerns securing the financing of social and health services for children and young people. The Youth Council of the Central Ostrobothnia Welfare Region has issued an invitation to the youth councils of the Finnish Welfare Regions to make a joint statement to secure the funding of social and health services for children and young people.  The position paper will be prepared in June 2024. The Youth Council will make a second statement by the end of May. The Youth Council mandated the Presidium to prepare a statement for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs regarding the continuity and resourcing of the Barents Region Youth Council (BRYC). In addition, the Northern Ostrobothnia Youth Council elected Jere Viinamäki from Ii as a member of Pohte's interface board. Representatives were also selected for the annual BRYC meeting, Generation Barents, to be held in Bodö, Norway, from 19 to 22 September. Youth Council at the event …

What is my relationship with nature? What does home mean to me? How can emotions be handled and expressed through art? How can art increase the participation of local residents?  Could art be part of our daily lives? What is art? Can anyone make art?  Could art be used as a means of development? For example, these questions were considered and the answers to them were sought in the recently completed Culture Cell project and its art pilots. In 2023, six art pilots were carried out in Northern Ostrobothnia to meet the development needs of municipalities. They had a total of 97 workshops and produced 29 artworks and events. The pilots were carried out by 17 artists and nearly 3,000 local residents participated. Videos were also made for each pilot. All this extensive work…

Projects funded under this call must meet at least one of the following criteria: - the project supports research, development and innovation activities of SMEs and thus improves the innovation capacity of SMEs - the project strengthens the innovation ecosystem of the region - the project expands the range of parties involved in RDI activities The application period is from 22 April 2024 to 30 August 2024 at 15.00. A maximum of EUR 448 000 is available to fund projects that have arrived in the application round. More information on the AKKE page.

From 2 to 5 April 2024, the Connecting Europe Days took place in Brussels. The event is a biennial key event for EU transport policy, bringing together stakeholders from the public and private sectors to discuss the development of the common European transport network. The event hosted a number of panel discussions and presentations on the hottest issues and future trends in EU transport policy. On Wednesday 3 April 2024, the Connecting Europe by Air event at Brussels Airport was opened by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. Speaking at the event, Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean stressed the importance of the new TEN-T regulation, the role of sustainable propulsion in future air transport, and the need to better connect airports to the rest of the transport network. Jouni Jussinniemi, 1st Vice-Chairman of the provincial council, who participated in the event, says that air traffic is undergoing a major propulsion revolution: ‘In addition to electricity, the propulsion of air transport must take into account hydrogen…

Preparations for the post-2027 multiannual EU budget and programming period are in full swing. The European Commission has invited all Interreg programmes to consult their stakeholders in order to receive feedback for the future planning of the programming period. It is in our interest, as many people as possible, to give their views and comments, because it affects future cross-border programmes. By replying, you can tell us what is currently working well in cross-border programmes and what could be improved. Or do you want to say what kind of reforms the programmes need so that they can do the things that are needed in the region? This is your chance to contribute to the future of the Interreg Aurora programme and the Interreg Baltic Sea programme. Both surveys will be open until 31 May 2024.   Link to Interreg Aurora survey: https://www.interregaurora.eu/news-events/consultation-interreg-post2027/ Link…

The mandate of the current College of the European Parliament and the Commission will end in 2024 and the future of the European Arctic will play an even stronger role when the new Parliament and the Commission start their work. Looking ahead, a seminar on the Arctic was held in Helsinki, focusing on the green transition and security. Speaking at the event, MP Mari-Leena Talvitie called for cooperation to influence the agenda of the next European Commission. – Security and stability in the European Arctic means security and stability in the European Union. One of the key objectives of the Finnish Government is to better prepare and influence the agenda of the future European Commission in advance, he said. The future role of Northern Finland in the seminar organised by the Arctic Working Group of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia and the CPMR Baltic Sea Commission was attended by several national and local …

The Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, in cooperation with the City of Oulu, is launching an ERDF project application for the implementation of the ecosystem agreement signed between the State and the City of Oulu. The content of the Oulu ecosystem agreement consists of the strategic focus areas and spearhead programmes of the Oulu Innovation Alliance for 2021-2027. The projects under the ecosystem agreement support the formation of business clusters and ecosystems in selected target sectors, identify the needs and services of the companies belonging to them, promote longer-term concrete goals and broad entities in line with the target sectors and spearhead programmes of the Oulu Innovation Alliance strategy, and provide added value from digital to the everyday services and built environment of residents. The application round is open 5.4. – 31 May 2024. Priority axis 1 is open for this call. Innovative Finland and its specific objectives 1.1: Improving research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies, 1.2: Exploiting the benefits of digitalisation…

The call for applications for regional ERDF projects will open on 2 April 2024. The application round is open from 2 April to 31 August 2024. In this call for applications, the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia will fund measures under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the EU's Regional and Structural Policy Programme 2021-2027 that implement the Smart Specialisation Strategy for Eastern and Northern Finland. Only projects under Specific Objective 2.1 ‘Promoting energy efficiency measures and reducing greenhouse gas emissions’ and Specific Objective 2.3 ‘Promoting the transition to a circular economy’ of Priority Axis 2 ‘Carbon-Neutral Finland’ will be funded under the call. The aim of the call is to increase cross-regional cooperation in Eastern and Northern Finland. The call will only support cross-regional group projects with co-implementers from at least three different regions of Eastern and Northern Finland. The application period is open at the same time in each Regional Council of Eastern and Northern Finland (Association of Lapland, Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, Central Ostrobothnia…