State of the Region Report 2009: Boosting the Top of Europe

The 2009 State of the Region Report, the sixth in this series of annual evaluations of competitiveness and cooperation across the Baltic Sea Region, provides a perspective on the radical change in the economic climate of the Region over the last year. The Report puts the dynamics of the crisis into the context of the Region's fundamental competitiveness to assess the impact on the trajectory of the Region over time. In light of the high pressure for short-term policy reactions and a frequently changing outlook, the objective of the Report is to inform decisions that address current challenges with a view to their long-term impact on the Region's economic position. Part A of the Report tracks the context for competitiveness and cooperation in the Region. A large share of the discussion is devoted to the macroeconomic situation across the Region, with the remainder of the section documenting the activities of the main regional institutions over the last year. Part B gives an overview of different aspects of competiveness. Part C is devoted to the EU Baltic Sea Region strategy, providing an overview of its emergence and content, an example of the activities it will generate, and an assessment of what the strategy process has achieved.