The Barents Euro-Arctic Cooperation was formally established on January 11, 1993, on an initiative by Norway under foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg. The region includes the administrative regions Nordland, Troms, Finnmark in Norway, Västerbotten County, Norrbotten County in Sweden, Lapland Province, Northern Ostrobothnia, Kainuu in Finland, and Murmansk Oblast, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Komi Republic, Republic of Karelia, Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Russia.
The four countries take turns at chairing the cooperation.
The Norwegian participation in the regional cooperation is supported by the Norwegian Barents secretariat in Kirkenes. Sweden's and Finland's participation is administrated from the respective county administrations.
The Barents Cooperation has a strong regional anchoring with the Barents Regional Council being a platform for interaction between the 13 regions.
Government ministers, and first of all the countries' foreign ministers, meet every second year in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
The regional structures also include a major number of working groups and committees.
In 2008, an International Barents Secretariat was established, meant to help stimulate multi-lateral cooperation within the structures.
Border town spectacle
Pan. Optikum performing IL CORSO (Photo: Jonas Karlsbakk)
The Norwegian border town of Kirkenes is celebrating the Barents Spektakel 2010 festival this week. The festival slogan this year is “Arctic Calling” and the program consists of conserts, theatre, art exhibitions and debates on numerous topics. See a slide-show of photos on this web page.
Barents Spektakel 2010 is the seventh spektakel festival since the first in 2003. The festival has developed as a cultural-political cocktail with contemporary art, performances, literature, theatre, film, seminars and concerts as ingredients, spiced with the current issues related to the Barents Region and the High North in general.
The festival was opened on Wednesday with a spectacular show by the German theatre ensemble Pan Optikum and their show IL CORSO. Key elements to the show are actors, opera-singers, mechanical installations and impressive pyrotechnics.
