Towards a Baltic Sea Region Strategy in Critical ... - Helsinki.fi

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION
1.2 THE HETEROGENIC BALTIC SEA REGION
This book is about CIP in general, but it has a specific BSR perspective. While
there are several definitions of the region, in this study it is understood – if not
otherwise indicated – as consisting of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the
northernmost Bundesländer of Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, 6 Poland,
Sweden, and some regions of Northwest Russia 7 . (Figure 1) 8
Figure I—1 The Baltic Sea Region.
6 Norway is almost always treated as a BSR country, even though it does not literally border the
Baltic Sea. Norway is also a member of the CBSS.
7 The Northwest Russian regions, which are included in the BSR, also vary in different contexts;
and in some EU-BSR programmes, for instance, more regions are included than in Figure 1, while
sometimes the whole official administrative region of the Northwest Federal District of the
Russian Federation is included. The role of Belarus is that of a kind of semi-BSR country, mainly
for political reasons. While intergovernmental contacts are rather frozen and Belarus is not
accepted as a member in any intergovernmental BSR institution, cooperation between regional,
local or non-state actors of Belarus and other BSR countries exists; and for example the country is
full eligible partner in the EU BSR Interreg IVB programme.
8 In some of the tables of this study Iceland is treated as one of the BSR countries. Indeed, despite
the geographic distance, in Nordic connections Iceland is always treated as an equal partner, and is
in many occasions, and in formal intergovernmental regional organizations, regarded as a BSR
country. For instance, Iceland is a member of the CBSS.
6 NORDREGIO REPORT 2007:5