Several regions in the South Baltic Arc are characterized by medium-sized cities. These cities are too small to be recognized internationally. They are loosing functions and are often involved in a fierce competition for inhabitants and investments with their surrounding municipalities.  

The main objective of this work package is to create alliances of medium-sized cities (20,000 - 200,000 inhabitants) with their surrounding municipalities, especially for services of general interest and common land-use planning. For this we will  

• use international experience on city-suburban cooperation especially for medium-sized cities,
• initiate some lasting city-suburban alliances as pilot solutions,
• come to concrete agreements on a regional scale and
• transfer the experience gained to international arenas.

The objectives will be achieved by activities like:  

• regional meetings, study trips, international workshops,
• check-list for promising regional alliances, templates of cooperation, negotiations about shared responsibilities in the alliances, draft of common land-use plans

• 11/07: Report of WP1 results - presented at the Final Conference in Schwerin
• 12/06: Conference on city-suburban cooperation in Rostock/DE
• 10/06: Announcement Meeting in December 2006/ Rostock
• 09/06: Results of the Jelgava meeting
• 01/06: Kick-off seminar in Greifswald, Germany. The transnational working group started to work

Ministry for Transport, Building and Regional Development Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (DE)  

DE-19048 Schwerin  

Contact Person: Dr. Bernhard Heinrichs  

Phone: +49 385 588 3081  

Fax: +49 385 588 3082  

E-Mail: bernhard.heinrichs@vm.mv-regierung.de  

Website: www.vm.mv-regierung.de  

• Brochure on German work outcomes in six city-suburban alliances in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern "Initiation of city-suburban alliances to bundle public services and to manage the land-use"(PDF 1,2 MB)
• Output "The study of the problem area of Olsztyn city-suburban zone", available athttp://www.wmbpp.olsztyn.pl/index.php?strona=opracowania (2007)
• "Intermunicipal cooperation in city-suburban areas: chances and problems - the example of planning for industrial zones in the Rostock area" held by Gerd Schäde at the Final Conference in Schwerin (PDF 834KB)
• "Laying foundations for city-suburban cooperation in Poland - analysis of city-suburban interdependencies and identification of above-local tasks in the Olsztyn area" held by Lidia Wójtowicz at the Final Conference in Schwerin (PPT 1,1MB)
• "Issues and instruments for coordinated city-suburban development in Taurage County" held by Nijole Slefendoraite at the Final Conference in Schwerin (PDF 100KB)
• "Cross-border cooperation Valga / Valka: Developing a border town towards a development motor for the Latvian and Estonian border region" held by Dagnija Udre at the Gdynia Conference in April 2007 (PDF 530 KB)
• "First experiences with cooperation agreements in the German city-suburban alliances" held by Peter Hajny at the Gdynia Conference in April 2007 (PDF 1,4MB)
• "Chojnice - Człuchów bipolar urban-rural cooperation and its function for the development of Pomorskie region" held by Arseniusz Finster at the Gdynia Conference in April 2007(PPT 1,5MB)
• "Urban sprawl in context of spatial order and urban quality - the example of Metropolitan Area of Gdansk" held by Jakub Pietruszewski at the Gdynia Conference in April 2007 (PPT 1 MB)
• Presentation on "Experiences in City-suburban Cooperation (the case of Hanover Region)" held by Axel Priebs at Rostock meeting in Dec 06 (PPT 1,3MB)
• Analysis on city-urban alliances in the Pomorskie Voivodship/ PL (Nov 2006) (PDF 995KB in Polish language)
• Target agreement for coordination and reconcilement in the city-suburban area Neubrandenburg/ Germany (May 2006) (PDF 38KB)
• Minutes of the 2nd SEBco conference - Working session 1: city-suburban alliances (PDF 90KB)