"Euroregion Karelia" - 20 Years of Cooperation

On December 15, the anniversary seminar "Euroregion Karelia" - 20 years of cooperation was held via video conferencing.

Over the long history of its existence, the Karelia Euroregion has proven to be an effective tool for enabling a dialogue between Karelia and Finland and defending the interests of the border regions at the highest level as well.

Pekka Haavisto, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and Artur Parfenchikov, Head of the Republic of Karelia as well as heads of the regional unions of North Ostrobothnia, Kainuu and North Karelia, representatives of ministries and departments of the Republic of Karelia, experts on cross-border cooperation participated in the meeting.

The seminar "Euroregion Karelia" - 20 years of cooperation was held online and streamed on YouTube.

Over 120 people participated in the seminar on both sides of the border.

Pekka Haavisto, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and Artur Parfenchikov, Head of the Republic of Karelia, welcomed the participants. The ministers highly appreciated the results of the Euroregion activities and wished interesting discussions.

Valery Shlyamin, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Advisor to the Rector, academic director of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU, one of the founders of the Euroregion, analyzed the results of its activities and established a number of project initiatives in the report "Euroregion Karelia as a Model of Cross-Border Cooperation".

During the seminar, a rather lively discussion took place, which particularly involved the co-chairs of the Euroregion Management Committee, Dr. Tarja Cronberg, Valery Shlyamin, as well as Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce CEO Jaana Rekolainen, Minister of Economic Development and Industry Karelia of the Republic of Karelia Oleg Ermolaev, Russian and Finnish experts, cultural professionals.

It is well-known, Petrozavodsk State University has been annually involved in many joint projects since the foundation of Euroregion Karelia. Nowadays, PetrSU is recognized as a think tank of cross-border cooperation of the Republic.