International Summer School in Karelia “Arctic Council, Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Council of the Baltic Sea States: regional cooperation and policy-shaping with the EU”

International Summer School in Karelia “Arctic Council, Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Council of the Baltic Sea States: regional cooperation and policy-shaping with the EU” took place at Petrozavodsk State University. The School was organized within the project “EU Center in the Barents Region of Russia”, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

More than 40 people from Russia, Finland, France, Yemen, Italy and Japan took part in the School. Teachers at the School were: Lassi Heininen, DSc, professor of the Artic policy at the University of Lapland, Tapani Kaakkuriniemi, director of educational programs at Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki, Jussi Huotari, researcher at the University of Helsinki, Gerald Zojer, researcher at the University of Lapland, Ilya Solomeshch, PhD, assistant professor at the department of History, Political Science and International Relations, Gleb Yarovoy and Anton Lapshin, senior lecturer of this department.

School’s program consisted of 2 main work forms: lectures and discussion in working groups. In the groups students and lecturers discussed questions, which covered the topic of the day and were interesting to the participants. This work form allowed to address important questions from different perspectives and exchange opinions among all participants.

During the week students of the Faculty of Law, Institute of History, Political and Social Sciences, Institute of Foreign languages of PetrSU, as well as students from the University of Tampere, University of Helsinki, University of Oulu, University of Turku, University of Laval, Canada attended lectures on such topics as regionalism in the Northern Europe, historical background and lessons of regional cooperation in the North of Europe, Arctic Council, Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the Council of the Baltic Sea States, cooperation between the Arctic Council and the EU etc.

On May the 20^th a seminar was held at the Russian Academy of Sciences Karelian research center. Dmitri Sergeevich Kislov, deputy minister of the economic development of Karelia, and Daniel Aleksandrovich Martsenyuk, interim representative of the Ministry of foreign affairs in Petrozavodsk, and Igor Nikolaevich Shevchuk, director of NPO “Sever-Centre”. Daniel Martsenyuk was talking about Russian chairmanship in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, and Dmitri Kislov was talking about cooperation in the Arctic region in general. Speakers were answering participants’ questions, and the students could get more information on the subject, as well as have a dialogue with authorities’ representatives.

A survey held among school participants showed positive feedback about school’s organization, content and format. They pointed out that the school also had practical importance for them, and this week was very beneficial for their future studies and career.