scholarly journals Analysis of the Competitiveness of the Performance of Baltic Ports in the Context of Economic Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3267
Author(s):  
Vaidas Gaidelys ◽  
Raminta Benetyte

Baltic Seaports are a part of the sustainable global transport infrastructure. The main competitors of the Baltic countries in Baltic Sea region are the ports of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The ports of all three Baltic States are important transit corridors, connecting not only East and West, but also South and North. Periodical investments, modernization, and the construction of new terminals allow the Port of Klaipeda to successfully compete with neighbouring ports and strive for leadership positions. Thus, the aim of our study is to investigate the competitive environment of the Baltic Sea region. We use systematization, grouping, summarization of the scientific literature, data collection, comparison, financial analysis, and capacity calculation. The main results show that the Port of Klaipeda, a seaport on the eastern Baltic coast, is an important hub of the East-West (IXB) transport corridor, connecting roads and sea routes in this direction. With the accession of new members, including Lithuania, to the EU in 2004, the Baltic Sea became the internal Sea of the Union. Many Baltic seaports belong to the same system and organizations (ESPO, BPO). EU ports policy provides them with equal requirements for security, transport regulation, environmental protection, anti-air pollution, and sustainable development. The results obtained enable exploration perspectives. This includes a feasibility study for port development and attracting new investment from foreign capital markets in the Baltic Sea region.

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (78) ◽  
pp. 77-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Nežerenko ◽  
Ott Koppel

Abstract This article analyzes the opportunities of the Chinese initiative “One Belt, One Road”, for the development of the Baltic Sea macro-region (BSR), as a single transport cluster. One of the objectives of the initiative is to strengthen transport linkages from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea Region. Thus, the contemporary macro-regional approach to the development of EU macro-regions can provide an additional impulse to the creation of formal macro-regional inter-cooperation, via in this case, the project that will advance the transport infrastructure of the region. This study examines the situation of the railway sector in the BSR in the period 2004–2015, through hierarchical cluster analysis, to identify countries with similar trends in cargo flow turnover. Taking into account the favorable geographical position of Poland, its transport performance and advanced (in comparison to other Baltic Sea region countries) relations with China, it is concluded that Poland’s conditions are more suitable to promote economic integration with its closest neighbors – the Baltic countries-through the creation of formal macro-regional railway transport within the Rail Baltic project.


Author(s):  
Iwona Śmigerska-Belczak

In 2011 the Baltic Sea region was marking the 20th anniversary of the Baltic countries regaining their independence and the resumption of diplomatic relations with them. This region with the riches of experiences is the region where the currently established methods and practices of cooperation are a source of knowledge and experience for a peaceful striving after stabilization and welfare. The changes that took place 20 years ago have brought development of different forms of cooperation and a lot of regional international organizations were established. The governmental international organization is the Council of the Baltic Sea State, a regional political forum, whose stated aims are to coordinate the cooperation between the partners and to achieve sustainable growth of the region. The Prime Ministers have established a number of the valuable initiatives, such as Baltic21, which was a regional counterpart to the UN Agenda21, the Strategy for the Baltic Sea region or the Northern Dimension Partnership for Health and Social well-being. Also the groups of experts were appointed in order to advance work in the respective areas. Many of these aspects are connected with sustainable development, which nowadays is considered as one of the biggest challenges. The Baltic Sea region is also important for the European Union due to its strategic neighborhood.


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 01029
Author(s):  
Marta Mańkowska ◽  
Dariusz Tłoczyński

The main aim of the article is attempt to get the answer to the question about the impact of services offered by point elements of transport infrastructure on meeting the expectations and preferences of passengers in various modes of transport. Based on the presented objective, the assessment of the competitiveness of air and ferry transport in the service of passenger traffic was carried out through taking into the consideration selected elements affecting the quality of services offered by airports and ferry terminals. One of the key factors of the competitiveness of ports is time availability. The main objective of the research undertaken in the article was therefore to assess the competitiveness of seaports and airports in terms of their time availability. The article uses the case study method of selected airports and ferry terminals located in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The comparative analysis covered the time competitiveness of port ground access. The results of the research allow to make a general conclusion that ferry terminals have better ground access for individual car journeys and airports are becoming more competitive in the case of the arrival and departure function of public transport. This indicates that the system of ground access for seaports and airports is adapted to the segment of passengers having the largest share in transport by the analyzed transport branches, i.e. the motorized passengers in ferry transport and non-motorized passengers in air transport.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-136
Author(s):  
Tiziana Melchiorre

This article investigates how the geopolitical interests of states in the Baltic Sea region have determined the emergence and the development of environmental cooperation around the Baltic Sea since the late 1970s. It is shown that the Nordic and the Baltic countries have played a key role in this process and that other actorsm such as the European Union and the United States, also influence environmental cooperation because their geopolitical interests contribute to shape the cooperative links in the region. The United Nations with its legislation and its policies reinforces cooperation in the field. It is also argued that the case of environment around the Baltic Sea is one of the rare successful attempts to establish closer links among states in a particular issue area during the Cold War in Europe. Spanish Este artículo investiga cómo los intereses geopolíticos de los estados de la región del Mar Báltico han determinado la aparición y el desarrollo de la cooperación medioambiental en torno al Mar Báltico desde finales de la década de los setenta. El artículo muestra que tanto los países nórdicos como los países bálticos han jugado un papel clave en este proceso, así como otros actores, entre ellos la Unión Europea y los Estados Unidos, los cuales han influido también en esta cooperación ambiental debido a que sus intereses geopolíticos contribuyeron a dar forma a los vínculos de cooperación en la región. Las Naciones Unidas, a través de su legislación y sus políticas, refuerzan la cooperación en este campo. También se argumenta que el caso de la cooperación medioambiental en el Mar Báltico es uno de los pocos intentos exitosos para establecer relaciones más estrechas entre los estados en un área particular durante la Guerra Fría en Europa. French L'article analyse la naissance et le développement de la coopération dans le domaine de l'environnement sous l'influence des intérêts géopolitiques des États dans la région de la Mer Baltique à partir des années 1970. Les pays nordiques et le pays baltes ont joué un rôle fondamental dans ce processus ainsi que l'UE et les États-Unis dont les intérêts géopolitiques contribuent à former la coopération régionale. Les Nations Unies renforcent la coopération dans ce domaine grâce à leur législation et à leurs politiques. Ce cas de coopération dans le domaine de l'environnement constitue une des rares tentatives réussies pour établir des liens étroits entre les États durant la période de la Guerre Froide en Europe.


Author(s):  
Øyvind Jæger

The author argues that the security situation of the Baltic countries cannot be separated from the way the Balts themselves speak of security. This is a discourse of danger producing insecurity in pursuit of security. Moreover, this article is a study of identity by demonstrating how Baltic security issues are constituted by discourses of danger revolving around Russian Otherness and European Sameness. In conclusion, the following aspects are addressed: the prospects for the coming together of East and West in the Baltic Sea Region – and NATO’s role in this process – and whether this process will come to ease with a parallel between sovereignty and regionality as organising principles for political space, or whether the one will succumb to the other in the course of a prolonged contest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-6
Author(s):  
Silviu-Marian Miloiu

On 28-29 May 2020 in full Coronavirus pandemic upsurge and lockdown conditions the Eleventh Conference on Baltic and Nordic Studies gathered on Zoom instead of The Palace of Culture and The Middle Age Citadel of Târgu Mureș as initially planned. The meeting was summoned in partnership with Rethinking Europe in order to reflect, from the perspective of the Baltic Sea Region, upon the Old Continent in the context of Brexit and the pandemic. Questions on the impact of the recent evolutions on Baltic and Scandinavian states have been raised, but the perspective was much wider looking on how the countries of this region responded to structural changes or alterations of the international environment over time. The two plenary sessions on the EU after Brexit: Perspectives on the Future of Europe and Constructions of Christian Identity and the Idea of the Holy Land in the Northern Periphery: The Sawley World Map in Twelfth-Century England appropriately mirrored the sequential diversity of the conference. Panels have been devoted to Encounters, fantasies and perceptions in shaping Europe, Rethinking Europe in Nordic and Baltic cultures, Rethinking the Baltic Sea Region in Europe during the interwar period, Rethinking Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region in Europe during the two world wars, Intercultural relations in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Reception of Nordic literature, New perspectives on Norwegian literature, Teaching and use of Nordic languages. The main theories, concepts and ideas presented are resumed in the Book of Abstracts published before the conference, while the full papers are assembled in volume 12, issues 1 and 2 of our biannual peer review journal. The Honorary Chair of the Conference, Her Excellency Dr. Violeta Motulaitė, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania in Romania and Bulgaria, Honorary President of the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies, has focused in her lecture, published in this issue, on the Lithuanian perspective of the current European Brexit and Covid crisis, professing that:


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin C Williams ◽  
Ioana Alexandra Horodnic

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance a new way of explaining and tackling the illegitimate wage practice where employers pay their employees an undeclared (envelope) wage in addition to their formal salary. Drawing upon institutional theory, it is here proposed that envelope wages result from the lack of alignment of a society’s formal institutions (i.e. the codified laws and regulations) with its informal institutions (i.e. the socially shared unwritten understandings which reflect citizens’ norms, values and beliefs). Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate this, data are reported from a 2013 Eurobarometer survey involving 1,738 face-to-face interviews with formal employees in four Baltic countries, namely, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Findings – The finding is that the greater is the asymmetry between the formal and informal institutions (i.e. the level of disagreement of citizens with the codified laws and regulations of formal institutions), the higher is the propensity to pay envelope wages. This is the case at both the individual- and country levels. Practical implications – To reduce the prevalence of envelope wages, the resultant argument is that the values of employers and employees need to be aligned with the formal institutions. This requires alterations not only in the informal institutions, using measures such as tax education, awareness raising campaigns and normative appeals, but also changes in formal institutions so as to improve trust in government by fostering greater procedural justice, procedural fairness and redistributive justice. Originality/value – This is the first paper to apply institutional theory to explaining and tackling envelope wages in the Baltic Sea region.


Baltic Region ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-24
Author(s):  
Alexander A. Sergunin

This study discusses whether the concept of societal security is embedded in the Russian official and informal discourses as well as in the Russian strategic documents on national security and the Baltic Sea region. Particularly, the paper describes four paradigms of international relations (neorealism, neoliberalism, globalism and postpositivism) and theoretical approaches to the concept of societal security formulated in them. On a practical plane, Russia managed to develop — together with other regional players — a common regional approach to the understanding of societal security threats and challenges in the Baltic Sea region. These challenges include uneven regional development, social and gender inequalities, unemployment, poverty, manifestations of intolerance, religious and political extremism, separatism, large-scale migration, inconsistencies in education systems, climate change, natural and man-made catastrophes, transnational organized crime and cybercrime, international terrorism, so-called hybrid threats, etc. Russia and other Baltic countries agreed that the Council of the Baltic Sea States should be a proper regional institution to implement a common societal security strategy exemplified by the Baltic 2030 Agenda Action Plan (2017).


Author(s):  
Evgenia Salin ◽  
Jeremy Woodard ◽  
Krister Sundblad

AbstractGeological investigations of a part of the crystalline basement in the Baltic Sea have been performed on a drill core collected from the depth of 1092–1093 m beneath the Phanerozoic sedimentary cover offshore the Latvian/Lithuanian border. The sample was analyzed for geochemistry and dated with the SIMS U–Pb zircon method. Inherited zircon cores from this migmatized granodioritic orthogneiss have an age of 1854 ± 15 Ma. Its chemical composition and age are correlated with the oldest generation of granitoids of the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt (TIB), which occur along the southwestern margin of the Svecofennian Domain in the Fennoscandian Shield and beneath the Phanerozoic sedimentary cover on southern Gotland and in northwestern Lithuania. It is suggested that the southwestern border of the Svecofennian Domain is located at a short distance to the SW of the investigated drill site. The majority of the zircon population shows that migmatization occurred at 1812 ± 5 Ma, with possible evidence of disturbance during the Sveconorwegian orogeny.


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