Baltic State Cooperation

The Republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are collectively known as the Baltic States and are located on the eastern littoral of the Baltic Sea in Northeastern Europe. Interstate cooperation between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania has its roots in the treaty on Understanding and Cooperation, which was signed in 1934 in Geneva. The treaty's principles of cooperation in foreign affairs were reaffirmed by the leaders of the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Socialist Republics when they established the Baltic Council in 1990. After regaining independence, the Baltic Assembly (BA) was founded in 1991 to facilitate interparliamentary cooperation. Intergovernmental cooperation is coordinated through the Baltic Council of Ministers (BCM), which was established in 1994. The Baltic Council now serves as a forum for enhancing cooperation between the BCM and the BA.

The role of the chairperson of the BCM rotates between the three states annually. The BCM consists of the Prime Ministers' Council, the Cooperation Council (chaired by the three Foreign Ministers), a Secretariat, and Committees of Senior Officials. In 2003, the Prime Ministers' Council announced that it would play the leading role in agenda and priority setting for intergovernmental cooperation and reduced the number of Committees of Senior Officials from twenty-one to five. These committees explore areas of common or potential interest and make recommendations in the following fields: energy, transport and communication, defense, environment, and home affairs.

The BA houses sixty parliamentarians, with the national delegations consisting of twenty parliamentarians drawn proportionally from the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian parliaments. There are six standing committees, which draft declarations and statements on behalf of the assembly and also proposals and recommendations for the consideration of the Baltic Council and BCM on economic affairs, communication and informatics, education, science and culture, environmental protection and energy, legal affairs and security, social affairs, and budgets.

Interstate cooperation between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the post-Soviet era is deeper, broader, and more institutionalized compared with the interwar period. Efforts are currently underway to coordinate work on educational reforms, developing business and tourism prospects, border crossings, the fight against organized crime, defense, energy, and transport. Yet, there has been skepticism about the level of commitment given to Baltic State cooperation. It has been argued that it was merely a tool for advancing European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership prospects, rather than addressing, promoting, and protecting common interests and concerns. The lack of progress in establishing a Baltic Customs Union and Common Baltic Economic Space has been used to support this view.

Yet cooperation in a number of fields is fairly well developed. The most frequently cited cases of enhanced cooperation are found in the military sphere. For example, the Baltic Battalion (BALTBAT), Baltic Naval Squadron (BALTRON), Baltic Air Surveillance Network (BALTNET), and Baltic Defence College (BALTDEFCOL) are regarded as positive instances of Baltic cooperation, which can operate within a broader multilateral framework, such as NATO. Therefore, the BA, BCM, and Baltic Council continue to function, despite the fact that the Baltic States are now members of the EU and NATO because there is still a need for institutionalized cooperation mechanisms for coordinating common positions to promote or defend shared foreign and defense policy interests.

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