A brief historical overview

What has happened since then and what areas has the Öresund Committee worked with? Here is a brief review of some of the major landmarks since 1993.

 

The Öresund Committee was formed in 1993, when it was headed jointly by Joakim Ollén, Chair of the Municipal Executive Committee in Malmö, and Jens Kramer Mikkelsen, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen.

 

Today the committee comprises seven Danish members (Capital Region of Denmark, Region Zealand, City of Copenhagen, City of Frederiksberg, Bornholm Regional Municipality and the Local Government Regional Councils for the Capital Region of Denmark and for Zealand) and five Swedish members (Region Skåne, City of Malmö, City of Helsingborg, Lund Municipality and Landskrona Municipality).

 

The Öresund Committee is the political body that has – and still does – put the Öresund Region on the political agenda. In its early years the Committee worked to initiate and implement a number of projects. The Översund Cup in athletics and handball was held in Landskrona (Sweden) and the following year in Hørsholm (Denmark). From 1994 and for the following five years the Öresund Committee arranged the Öresund Cup in sailing and the Öresund Days in Roskilde. In collaboration with SAS Scandinavian Airlines, the Öresund Committee also produced a film “The Sound of Green and Blue” for use as an in-flight film on the airline’s long-haul routes.

 

The Öresund Committee also turned its attention to education, publishing a student’s handbook between 1995 and 1998 that described all the higher education courses available in the Öresund Region. It also hosted a cross-border Education Fair in Copenhagen and a “matchmaking” conference for upper secondary school students in Malmö. This ultimately led to bi-lateral collaboration between Christianshavns Gymnasium High School (Copenhagen) and Katedralskolan in Lund (Sweden), and between Metropolitan skolen (Copenhagen) and St Petri School (Malmö). One of the results of this collaboration was a three-year “Öresund High School” course.

 

The Öresund Committee also took the initiative to formalise cooperation between the 13 universities, university colleges and institutions of higher education in the Öresund Region.

 

To address regional cultural issues the Cultural Forum was set up by the Öresund Committee in 1995. The forum, made up of managers and administrators working with cultural matters in the committee’s member organisations, met six to eight times a year to inform members about individual projects, coordinate financing and staffing for joint projects, plan conferences and discuss the regional authorities’ attitudes to major new cultural projects, etc.

 

Among the lasting concrete results of the Cultural Forum’s activities is the establishment of the online cultural database www.kultur-oresund.net, with information about more than 3,000 events including dance, theatre, films, exhibitions, lectures, music, etc. In addition, in collaboration with Öresund University, the Cultural Forum established an in-service course for academics.

 

In 1994 the Öresund Region was approved to receive support as a border region from the EU’s structural funds. As a result of this, more than 250 regional projects have been part-financed by the Interreg IIA and Interreg IIIA programmes. The EU has contributed approximately DKK 325 million (approx. 44 million euros) and, together with regional funding, this has meant that a total of more than DKK 650 million (approx. 88 million euros) has been invested in the development of the Öresund Region. Without this injection of cash the Öresund Region would not have progressed as far as it has today.

 

Listed below are some of the most important past and present Interreg projects that represent milestones in the region’s development. The majority of the projects were initiated by the Öresund Committee.

 

The projects above illustrate a number of areas in which the Öresund Committee has played an active role in initiating the project, but where other parties have been instrumental in the actual implementation process and/or the organisational structure.

 

The Öresund Committee secretariat has itself taken an active role in conducting a number of projects that include: