The Central Baltic Programme

The Central Baltic Programme 2021-2027 is a EU cross-border cooperation programme. Its scope is to finance high quality projects with European Regional Development Funds in Finland (including Åland), Estonia, Latvia and Sweden, that aim at solving common challenges together and across borders. The programme budget for 2021-2027 is EUR 118 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which can be applied for in the calls.

Central Baltic Programme as such has already a long history. The programme has been existing in its current form from 2007 and cooperation links in the region are well established and developed. The region has formed into a functional cross-border cooperation area with joint interests, striving for cohesion.

The Programme supports projects in 7 Programme Objectives:

1. More exports by SMES
2. More scaled-up companies
3. Joint circular economy solutions
4. Improved coastal and marine environment
5. Decreased CO2 emissions
6. Improved employment opportunities on labour market
7. Improved public services and solutions for the citizens

You can read more about the priorities and their specific objectives from the Programme Objectives pages. 

The main characteristics of a project to be funded from the Central Baltic Programme include:

  • Thematic focus in one of the 7 objectives
  • Cross-border cooperation as a clear added value to address common challenges
  • Project partners from at least two countries of the programme area 
  • Project results that contribute to the result and output indicators of the programme
  • Project results are sustainable and live on after the project ends
  • Project partnublic organisations, NGOs and private partners according to relevance in project implementation
Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020