Objectives
The Northern Dimension is intended to promote security and stability in the region, as well as helping build a safe, clean and accessible environment for all people in the north. It aims at addressing the special regional development challenges of northern Europe. These include cold climatic conditions, long distances, wide disparities in standards-of-living, environmental challenges including problems with nuclear waste and waste water management, and insufficient transport and border crossing facilities. The Northern Dimension is also intended to take advantage of the rich potential of the region, for example in terms of natural resources, economic dynamism, and a rich cultural heritage.
Besides, the Northern Dimension also has the objectives of addressing the challenges arising from uneven regional development, and helping avoid the emergence of new dividing lines in Europe following EU enlargement.
With the enlargement of the Union on 1 May 2004 to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, the importance of the Northern Dimension has increased considerably: eight EU Member States (Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden) surround the Baltic Sea, and the EU’s shared border with Russia has lengthened.
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“Along the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every vocation is chosen and entered upon as a means to a purpose but is ultimately continued as a final purpose in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent stupidity in which we indulge ourselves.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)