BSR Cultural Pearls project hosts Dialogue on Culture, Social Resilience and Regional Cooperation in Brussels

The event ‘A Dialogue on Culture, Social Resilience and Regional Cooperation’, held on 3 December 2025 at the Hanse-Office in Brussels, brought together regional and local stakeholders, particularly from the BSSSC network, to explore the role of culture in strengthening community resilience.

In this follow-up event to the strategic roundtable hosted during the Macro-regional and Sea Basin Strategies Days in September, Felix Schartner Giertta, lead partner of the project at the Council of the Baltic Sea States, presented insights from three years of the BSR Cultural Pearls initiative, complemented by evaluation findings from KEA European Affairs that underscored its added value.

The project demonstrates how social ties can be reinforced through inclusive and participatory cultural formats. To illustrate these findings, representatives from the Cultural Pearls cities Jakobstad/Pietarsaari (FI), Kaskinen/Kaskö (FI), Smiltene (LV), as well as from the sister project RESCOM, shared how culture has empowered their small communities and fostered local pride and participation.