Policy Briefs

Regional authorities address these challenges through two main strategies: the Regional Strategy, called “Lapland Agreement” and the Sustainable Smart Specialisation Strategy. Both focus on sustainable growth by promoting responsible business practices. Connecting these strategies, Lapland developed a Social Handprint model that consolidates projects to support regional development. The main aims of this model are to facilitate employment for disadvantaged groups, promote corporate social responsibility, and support workplaces in embracing diversity. This demonstrates the regional focus on the social economy and aligns with the strategic importance of social entrepreneurship. Lapland is committed to advancing toward a holistic local economy where social, ecological, and economic sustainability are balanced. Purely economic success is no longer considered sufficient for the region’s future; rather, long-term prosperity requires attention to the well-being of residents, the availability of a skilled workforce, and the preservation of Lapland’s pristine nature and Arctic dimension as key attractions. Maintaining these values is essential for ensuring that Lapland remains vibrant and appealing for generations to come. A holistic local economy broadly supports regional well-being and employment, while safe-guarding the unique Arctic natural environment. Advancing social entrepreneurship and social innovations is central to building a Lapland where community, responsibility, and sustainable development go hand in hand with economic renewal. The overarching aim of Lapland’s regional programme is to foster success in a sustainable manner in the world’s purest region (Regional Council of Lapland, 2025).

Policy Brief 2025_1 Innovative Businesses in Rural Areas: Social Entrepreneurship in Finnish Lapland (PDF)

Vassilis Kitsos, Prof. Dr. Christine Tamásy

This policy brief analyses the construction of policy spaces across the Baltic Sea macro-region, focusing on the LEADER/CLLD approach. A LEADER region is rural in character and covers a clearly defined area. Local actors in rural areas are involved by forming Local Actions Groups (LAGs) which design and implement strategies. At the beginning of an EU funding period, a regional development strategy which defines objectives and fields of action has to be developed. With this strategy, a designated LEADER region can apply for funding in the respective regional administration or national state. While this policy is well researched, we take a step back and observe that the spatial features of these designated regions are not often brought together in a macro regional perspective. We investigate how such LEADER regions have been spatially constructed within the Baltic Sea EU member-states and what kind of common characteristics or differences they have. Addressing this topic may offer a fresh perspective to policies for integrated (rural) development from a spatial perspective.

Policy Brief: European Policy Spaces Across the Baltic Sea Region (PDF)

Dr. Frauke Richter-Wilde, Prof. Dr. Daniel Schiller

Countries surrounding the Baltic Sea are characterized by a comparatively high amount of rural areas (Eurostat 2023). The supply of public infrastructure and services of general interest depends on a critical mass of demand within a given region to ensure accessibility for the population. In ruralperipheral regions, demand is often insufficient because of low population density or long distances to agglomerations. Nevertheless, infrastructure and services for education, social and health care as well as recreational, sports and cultural entities need to be provided to a certain degree in all regions. It is already stated in the literature that the provision of services of general interest has a positive impact on local welfare (Li et al. 2022 & 2020). These services of general interest offered at the local level and the different models to finance them are at the core of our research. To examine the role of local governments in different countries of the Baltic Sea Region, we distinguish public finance systems and decisionmaking power by their degree of decentralization. More centralized states seem to be more efficient in supplying infrastructure and services in administrative terms. Nevertheless, decentralization may lead to a better supply of public goods in all kinds of regions because municipalities know their citizens' preferences best (fiscal federalism, Oates 1972 & 1999).

Policy Brief: Fiscal Decentralization and Task Responsibilitites in the Baltic Sea Region (PDF)

Dr. Clemens Lisdat, Prof. Dr. Christine Tamásy

Currently, research increasingly focuses on the spread of political initiatives in space and time. This is not a matter of copying an innovative polical initiative, but of transferring ideas that emerge in a specific regional context and are then transferred to another regional context with characteristic social and political conditions. However, most research on the spatial mobility of policy initiatives and ideas focuses on urban policies.

This policy brief is dedicated to the rural Baltic Sea region. It starts with a clarification of how rural areas in countries bordering the Baltic Sea are defined. Then, shared themes in rural policies are identified and analysed.

Policy Brief: Policy Mobilities in the Rural Baltic Sea Region (PDF) [de]