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The EU Office for Eastern and Northern Finland (East & North Finland) in Brussels moves temporarily, but only to a neighbour. The new address of the office is: Avenue Palmerston 26. 2nd floor.  The EU Office for Eastern and Northern Finland will return to its former premises in approximately six months' time. The postal address remains the same as before. It is therefore still: Avenue Palmerston 24, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. The EU Office for Eastern and Northern Finland in Brussels oversees the interests of actors in South Savo, Kainuu, Central Ostrobothnia, Lapland, North Karelia, North Ostrobothnia and North Savo. Through advocacy in cooperation with the Regional Councils, the EU Office improves the competitiveness and operating conditions of the business sector in Eastern and Northern Finland.

The Northern Ostrobothnia EU Info Point celebrated Europe Day, focusing on the solidarity of Europe and the European Union with Ukraine. The main event of Europe Day in Northern Ostrobothnia was held in the shopping centre Valkea Oulu, where Hanna Honkamäkilä, Head of International Affairs at the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, and Ville Koivuniemi, spokesman for the EU Information Point of Northern Ostrobothnia, answered questions about the European Union. The theme of the discussion was Finland's new position as part of Europe and especially as part of the Arctic region. In addition to Honkamäkilä and Koivuniemi, who hosted the event, Mari-Leena Talvitie, Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Council of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia and member of the Finnish delegation to the Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, and Markku Heikkilä, Head of Science Communications at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland, participated in the discussion. In the discussion, it was first and foremost pointed out that the policy of the Arctic region is currently …

  The Northern Ostrobothnia EU Info Point celebrates Europe Day in the Valkea shopping centre in Oulu on 9 May from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Those interested can then come and talk about the European Union with experts from the Northern Ostrobothnia Information Centre and the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia. There are also European-themed distributive items available. At 1.30 p.m., the White Stage will discuss European values and unity. Markku Heikkilä, Head of Science Communications at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland, Mari-Leena Talvitie, Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, and Hanna Honkamäkilä, Head of International Affairs at the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, will speak as experts. The event will be hosted by Ville Koivuniemi, spokesperson for the North Ostrobothnia EU Information Point and the Regional Council of North Ostrobothnia. Honkamäkilä and Koivuniemi can also be found on Valkea pedestrian street from 12 noon to 5 p.m. The European Day of Peace and Unity is celebrated every year on 9 May. Europe Day is the celebration of peace and unity in Europe…

The results of the Interreg North EU programme have been compiled into a portfolio of projects, which can be found here. The EU programme Interreg North supports cross-border cooperation and aims to strengthen economic and social development in the 2014-2020 period. The overall objective of the Northern programme is to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of the programme area. The programme covers northern Sweden, northern Finland, northern Norway and the Sámi regions.

"By working together, we can achieve more and achieve more impactful results", summarises Esa Aunola, who was elected chairman of the North Ostrobothnia NGO Advisory Board. Aunola is an experienced association operator.  He represents the Villages of Northern Ostrobothnia in the Advisory Board of Organisations. Heli Hietala from the Finnish 4H Association was elected as Vice Chairman. At its first meeting, the Advisory Board discussed the basic principles of its activities. The field of organisations is diverse and the activities are broadly oriented towards different sectors of society, but there are also connecting factors. Promoting the well-being of people in Northern Ostrobothnia is at the heart of the activities of all organisations involved in the Advisory Board, and one of the basic objectives of the Advisory Board is also to promote the well-being of people in Northern Ostrobothnia. Concretely, this will be promoted, for example, by participating in the steering group work of the POPSOTE project, for which the Advisory Board appointed Arja Sutela from the Young Friends Association as its representative and Tanja Tanhua from the Oulu Deaconess Institute Foundation as her deputy. The Advisory Board aims to bring organizational work…

AKKE - Supporting the sustainable growth and vitality of regions and AIKOO - Regional Innovations and Experiments funding from the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia is now open. The application round for the AKKE grant is the fifth in its order and the application has become a continuous application. It is also open to launch regional innovations and experiments, i.e. to apply for the AIKOO grant. The AIKOO appropriation is intended to be used for strengthening the resilience of regions in a changing operating environment, for measures of anticipated structural change, for the renewal of livelihoods and for smart adaptation to measures of anticipated structural change. AIKOO funding is applied for on the same application basis as AKKE funding. For the time being, both apply continuously until funding ends or a separate theme search is launched. Applications for both allocations received by 8 June 2022 will be processed as of 9 June 2022. More information about the search here

Clusters and industries have recovered rapidly from the fall in 2020 caused by the coronavirus. After the dip, the clusters started to grow strongly in the number of personnel and especially in turnover, which can be seen, for example, in the astonishing rise of the metal cluster. The revenue growth of the creative economy cluster has also been surprisingly strong. Exports have recovered well and could already peak in 2007 in a few years' time. The only downward trend is the number of employees in the construction sector. When comparing structural data for 2019 and 2020, it can be seen that the importance of Northern Ostrobothnia relative to the whole country has strengthened in all clusters monitored. In the wood and ICT clusters, the share of Northern Ostrobothnia has increased by almost one percentage point. The share of tourism has increased even more. When interpreting the figures, it should be noted that the data originated from …

The Government has decided to appoint Finland's representatives to the Interreg Aurora, Central Baltic and Baltic Sea Region programmes for the 2021-2027 programming period. Tiina Rajala, Development Director at the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, and Hanna Honkamäkilä, Head of International Affairs, will be appointed to the Aurora Programme Monitoring Committee. Programme proposals for Interreg programmes have been submitted to the European Commission. The programmes are expected to be adopted by the European Commission during the summer and autumn of 2022. The implementation of the programmes starts with the approval of the programmes by the European Commission.

Pellervo Economic Research PTT updated the regional economic impacts of the peat industry based on the latest 2020 statistical data. The study serves as a material for the counties' just transition plans guiding the use of JTF funding. The counties' transition plans are currently being reviewed by the European Commission. The European Commission's feedback on the plans is expected in spring 2022. The study determined the direct and indirect regional economic impacts of the peat industry by region and sub-regional unit with 2020 data, measured by gross and added value of production and employment. In 2020, the gross value of production in the peat industry was EUR 391 million and employment was 1200 person-years. In the entire production chain, the industry employed 2,200 person-years. The peat industry is particularly concentrated in three provinces: North Ostrobothnia, South Ostrobothnia and Central Finland. The gross value of production in the peat industry in North Ostrobothnia was EUR 71.3 million and employment was 256 person-years. Throughout the production chain, the industry employed 461…

Lucille Ehrhart, Secretary General of the Baltic Sea Commission, visited North Ostrobothnia, including Tyrvävä as a guest of Jussi Ylitalo, Chairman of the Board of the Regional Council of North Ostrobothnia. Lucille Ehrhart, Secretary General of the Baltic Sea Commission, visited Northern Ostrobothnia towards the end of March to learn about the activities of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia and its diverse advocacy activities in the region. The Baltic Sea Commission is one of the six commissions of the European CPMR (Union of Peripheral Maritime Regions). It carries out advocacy work towards the European Union, in particular on regional policy, transport, energy, climate and maritime issues. North Ostrobothnia will contribute to achieving Finland's carbon neutrality target for 2035 in line with the EU's objectives. Ritva Isomäki, Specialist in Natural Resources, Bioeconomy, Circular Economy and Climate Issues at the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, presented to Ehrhart the Northern Ostrobothnia Climate Roadmap 2021-2030, which was completed as a result of a two-year comprehensive process. “I got to know the activities of the union and the region in a variety of ways.…