On May 8, the County Administrative Board of Skåne, as the lead partner for the LISTEN project, attended the Swedish subcommittee of Interreg North Sea’s meeting to introduce the LISTEN project and its ongoing work. The presentation was made jointly with representatives from the City of Malmö for the Speak Up project, which also is co-financed by Interreg North Sea and focuses on participation under the priority of ‘better governance’.
The Swedish subcommittee:
The Swedish subcommittee consists of a total of fifteen members, each handpicked by the Swedish member regions that are part of the North Sea region (with three members selected from each region). The subcommittee’s primary task is to ensure the successful implementation of the Interreg North Sea program in Sweden by providing information, advice, support, and anchoring. The subcommittee serves as a preliminary assessor and advisor to the transnational decision-making Monitoring Committee, where final decisions are made on which project applications get approved.
About the Speak Up Project:
The Speak Up project started on November 1, 2023, and will run for three years. The project is led by Gemeente Groningen in the Netherlands, with a total of 12 project partners participating. The project aims to improve governance in the North Sea Region by developing and disseminating more effective frameworks and models for citizen engagement and participation. These models will provide better ways for Governments to engage with Citizens (G2C) and offer Citizens improved methods to engage with Governments (C2G).
From left to right: Andreas Andersson Kurdve (The County Administrative Board of Skåne), Monika Månsson (The city of Malmö), Maria Svenning (The County Administrative Board of Skåne)
A lot of things in common:
As LISTEN and Speak Up share many points of contact, we see added value in collaborating with the parties involved in the project. For instance, the County Administrative Board of Skåne will monitor the participation activity ‘summer camp’ scheduled to take place in Malmö from July 1-3, where the focus will be on listening to children and young people’s thoughts about climate change.
We express our gratitude to the Swedish committee for the opportunity to share information about our project, and we look forward to our continued cooperation with the Speak Up project.
Read more about the Speak Up project here: SPEAK UP Speak Up | Interreg North Sea