About Platform North
Norway, Sweden and Finland has established a cross-border cooperation called Platform North.
The ambition of Platform North is to be an umbrella cooperation for exchange of information, to enhance a system perspective, and to coordinate and collaborate efforts for development, complementing the several on-going initiatives in specific geographies and issues, within the Northern Nordics. The Platform North serves as a network for a wide range of stakeholders.
The motivation behind the initiative is threefold:
- industrial investments in the north
- the green transition
- increased focus on military mobility
Objective
- Adaptation of the infrastructure to the needs of infrastructure users, such as business life, citizens and the military
- Reduced barriers to seamless cross-border transport, both physical (infrastructure) and administrative (laws, regulations, systems, etc.)
Purpose
- Provide a regional cross-border forum where issues can be raised and discussed that are important to meet the growing demand for transport in Northern Europe, as part of the TEN-T
- Strengthen the development of the transportsystem to facilitate business start-ups and expansions, labour supply etc. in order to enhance Europe’s competitiveness
- Strengthen the development of climate neutrality infrastructure and transport
- Contribute to stakeholders in gaining a common overview, understanding and information
- Support stakeholders with the conditions to plan their activities at an early stage, individually and collectively
- Strengthen collaboration between different stakeholders
- Focus on key areas such as financing, information sharing, transport planning, transport
Prioritezed measures
On May 15, 2024, transport authorities met in Luleå, where the three most prioritized areas were developed:
- joint transport plan for Northern Nordics
- financing (funding opportunities and coordinated applications)
- information platform
The work was formally started in the spring of 2024. Platform North is a collaboration between the transport administrations in all three countries.
Platform North aims to optimise the exchange of information and strengthen the system perspective, in addition to being a collaborative platform for development work and coordination of planning strategies.
The purpose of the initiative is to create a regional cross-border cooperation forum. The most important stakeholders are infrastructure managers for all modes of transport, in collaboration with other stakeholders, for the desired development.