Strategic, Urban and Territorial Matters at the VASAB Conference in Warsaw

Baltic Urban Lab was present at the VASAB Conference “Achieving Good Living Environment: Territory Matters. What’s beyond 2030 for Macro-Region?” held in Warsaw on June 7, 2016.

The Conference included talks on strategic orientation, urban matters and territorial matters connected to the Baltic Sea Region as well as discussions that envisaged VASAB’s role in the future. From Baltic Urban Lab’s point of view the most interesting talks were those highlighting the increasing role of the cities, urban revitalization and the importance of bottom-up approaches that include citizens in co-creation processes.

The morning sessions focused on strategic orientation. Among the speakers were representatives of the European Commission, Committee of Regions and the Polish Ministry of Economic Development. Judit Torokne Rozsa from DG Regio declared that “cities will be the laboratories of the future”. She also emphasized the importance of regional actors such as UBC in the Baltic Sea Region. Dutch urban envoy Nicolaas Beets, on the other hand, shed light on the Urban Agenda for the EU adopted through the Pact of Amsterdam, which will give cities an even larger role in the Union. In the Agenda’s presentation film, mayors of European cities highlighted that the future cities of the continent will use innovative methods to create better living conditions for their citizens.

Urban matters were at the heart of the second session where the participants heard talks on a study of the development of cities in the BSR, the role of polycentric development and capital cities as well as a number of national examples of urban development. The Latvian representative from the ;inistry of Environmental Protection and Regiona Development presented cases of urban revitalization from the Baltic country including that of the Spīķeri Block in Riga, where a complex renewal of a deprived neighbourhood was successfully implemented,

In the final session, territorial matters were in the spotlight. Among issues were ET2050 scenarios for BSR, German-Polish border collaboration and cooperation in the Carpathian region. The fruitful conference concluded in discussions on the future of VASAB, the Baltic Sea Region and the whole EU. In one insightful comment the thought was raised that even though it is territories and cities who co-operate, it is in practice the institutions within them and the people who work for them who are the ones that execute the actual cooperation.

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