1. The Potential of the
northernmost part of Europe
Pohjois-Pohjanmaan maakuntapäivät/
The Oulu Regional Summit
Oulu November the 5th
Ms. Tytti Tuppurainen, MP
Vice-chair of the Board of the Council of Oulu Region
Member of the Politicians Group of the NSPA

2. Contents
• About Cohesion Policy
• About NSPA
• How can the NSPA contribute to the European
growth
• What do we expect from the EU Cohesion Policy
• Some current remarks about the Oulu Region

3. Cohesion Policy
• Reduces regional disparities in terms of income,
wealth and opportunities in the EU
• Improves the economic well-being of regions in
the EU
• Restructures declining industrial areas and
diversify rural areas
• Shall contribute to the Europe 2020 Strategy for
smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
throughout the EU
• More than one third of the EU’s budget

4. Cohesion Policy tools
• European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• European Social Fund (ESF)
• Cohesion Fund (CF)
Goals:
• Investment for growth and jobs in Member
States and regions
• European territorial cooperation

5. Northern Sparsely Populated Areas
Bringing added value for Europe

6. Our region
• the four northernmost counties of Sweden (Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Jämtland & Västernorrland)
• the seven northernmost and eastern regions of Finland (Lapland, Oulu Region, Central
Ostrobothnia, Kainuu, North Karelia, Etelä-Savo & Pohjois-Savo)
• the three northernmost counties of Norway (Troms, Nordland & Finnmark)

7. Special characteristics
Regions with special geographical characteristics have a legal base in
Protocol 6 of the Accession Treaty for Sweden, Finland and Austria and in
article 174 of the Lisbon Treaty.

8. The NSPA - Strong, specific and
promising
• The geographical position of the future: The new
route between Europe and East Asia is opened
because of the warming climate and melting ice
cap in the north.
• NSPA’s advantageous position includes its
proximity to northwest Russia which is very
much an underused opportunity.

9. The NSPA - Strong, specific and
promising
• The natural resources of the Northern Europe
and the vast Barents Area
• In addition to the energy reserves there are
other mineral resources ranging from the rare
earths to more conventional minerals
• Moreover there are the renewable resources in
forests and other bio-mass.
• However, the most valuable asset of the
northernmost Europe is the well educated
people and there are centres of excellent R & D
and world class universities.

10. Specific Additional Allocation for the NSPA
• In the budget proposal the extra allocation to
NSPA is set to a level of 20 € per capita, a major
decline from the 35 € of the current period.
• The minimum requirement is maintaining the
current level of the extra allocation.
• Peripheral maritime regions should continue to
be funded separately.
• Low level of funding risks the unleashing of the
regional innovative potential of the NSPA.

11. Other Finnish Aspects
• Northern and eastern Finland must be seen by
the Commission as a single Program Area
• The level of expertise in this area must be
elevated to fully exploit the R&D funds of the
Horizon 2020.
• The European Territorial Co-operation tools are
to be used more intensively in the co-operation,
especially with Russia.

12. Oulu Region today
• Recently mainly bad news: major lay-offs in
many sectors
Yet:
• supply of highly skilled labour
• demographic advantage: young population
• continuous R&D investment
Turn obstacles to possibilities!

13. Thank you!
Kiitos!
For more information please visit:
www.pohjois-pohjanmaa.fi
www.nspa-network.eu
www.tytti.info