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RELEASE 23 SEPTEMBER 2008, UPDATED 30 OCTOBER 2008
Report from the ESIN conferenceESIN's (European Small Islands Federation) first annual meeting in Finland was held 9-11.9. Kasnäs, in Turku archipelago. The annual meeting was the eight. During three days representantives from nine different countries met and discussed common island-issues. At the beginning of the conference FÖSS's chairperson Pirjo Hoffström wished everybody welcome. The official part of the conference was opened by the Finnish minister of sports and culture, Stefan Wallin, who spoke on the future of the archipelago. He spoke about how important it is that the youth of the archipelago turn back to their home islands after their education. Nowadays a job is not bounded to a certain space so the youth should be encouraged to own initiatives, businesses and companies. From Prime Ministers Office, the EU-secretariat, Councillor Jyri Ollila continued with a talk about EUs Baltic Sea -strategy and EU's connection to small islands. There are many difficult questions concerning both the islands and the sea politics. The questions are w complicated and a challenge for EU is how different ways development can be interwoven and how they could support each other. The member of EU-parliament Ville Itälä visited the conference at the international buffet and informed about current island issues. During the days of the conference ESIN had its annual meeting. Bengt Almkvist from Sweden was chosen to chairperson for another more year. An important future task of ESIN is to develop cooperation between ESIN and the European commission. Bengt Almqvist also stressed the importance of shaping interreg-projects of health, energy and schools. The Interregional Cooperation Programme provides opportunities for cooperation to regional and local authorities and actors across the EU. The Baltic Sea Region Programme aims to strengthen development towards a sustainable, competitive and regionally integrated Baltic Sea Region. The main idea is that national borders can't be an obstacle for developing a balanced and harmonic Europe. The actions are paid by EU's regional development money. An Interreg-cooperation of the Baltic Sea region was started already in Kasnäs. Föss, the Island associations of Sweden and Estonia (Skärgårdarnas riksförbund and Eesti saarte Kogu) decided to apply for an Interreg-project next spring. This means that we, the Estonians and Swedes are now discussing the project-plan. In the programme there are three main thematic priorities: 1) healthy and safe environment, 2) economically competitive and innovative region, 3) attractive and dynamic societies. The first step is to discuss which of the issues we need to focus on. On the last day, after the official part of the conference was finished, we went on an excursion. All together we visited four islands in the archipelago near Kasnäs. On the day before we went to Högsåra where we ate dinner in the restaurant, Farmors kafé ("grandmother's café") in a genuine archipelago house full of feeling. Now the tour went on to Rosala, Hitis and Vänö. In Hitis we visited the church and hade a glimpse of the service- home Solglimten which was built with help of a foundation. In Rosala we visited the Viking's centre. The Viking past of the archipelago comes to life in the Rosala Viking Centre in a museum that among other things presents archaeological findings from the island. There, after we had eaten pike-pearch soup and of course the own bread of the island the ESIN's chairperson Bengt Almqvist and Jean- Yves Bannet signed a contract between ESIN and the area of Bretagne on future cooperation. According to contract ESIN get to use a secretariat. Bretagne contribute to the salary of the secretary and hold a furnished and equipped office for the secretary of ESIN. At the table of the chief in the Viking's centre the contract was signed. After visiting the Viking Centre the trip continued by boat to Vänö which is the chairperson Pirjo Hoffström's home island. At Vänö we heard about a housebuilding-project which aim is to get new inhabitants to the island. The company Ahlstegen at Vänö builds new small rights of tenancy. The programme, speeches and presentations are archived in the release European small islands conference at Kasnäs (19 June 2008). Also visit our media bank: Photos from the Kasnäs ESIN conference (30 October 2008). Next year the ESIN conference will be held in Elba, in Italy. – Kristin Mattsson, secretary Young Islanders Project SwapAfter a busy week in Kasnäs in the South western archipelago of Finland some young islanders from Finland, Sweden , Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, France and Italy have got to know each other and the European Commission programme Youth in Action. It was also the Same programme which enabled this seminar for the island youth to be held by the National Association of Finnish Islands. The aim of this project was to create contact between the young islanders and to work with the ideas they have for what should be done for them on a national and European level. The first day two 4H members, Pia Nurmio-Perälä and Lina Nybjörk told about the Youth in Action programme and the funding available through it. This gave the participants an idea on what tools are available for them to make their ideas come true. No one had heard about the Youth in Action programme before so the participants found the information useful and a good start. The next day five different project ideas were presented. These projects were: inter-island school exchange where the pupils in island based schools would learn English while speaking and writing with pupils from other island based schools in Europe, Inter island soccer competition, "a picture tells a thousands stories" culture project, a internet forum for the ESIN webpage and a Facebook group which is now operating under the following address: www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26593513825. The name of the group is "Young European Islanders". The older participants of the ESIN annual general meeting found the youth projects really interesting, so there is hope that the Young European Islanders will get a chance to meet again. As project manager I have to say that I am quite happy with the results. I think that the most important thing is to give the young islanders a chance to meet and to discover that even though they speak different languages and have different cultures they are really not that different after all. – Eelin Hoffström, youth section chairperson, Vänö, Turku archipelago Additional informationFÖSS, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FINNISH ISLANDS Secretary Youth section chairperson |
