The Three Seas Regions Economic Network is a form of direct co-operation among local governments of all the Three Seas Initiative countries. The initiator of the idea is the Lublin Voivodship. The network will be open for local governments of regions in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary to join in. The network participants will have a chance to find partners for the preparation and implementation of various projects. This will be made possible thanks to regular meetings that are intended to facilitate the exchange of experience among participating local governments.

The main objective of the network is to deepen regional-level co-operation in the Three Seas area. Other aims include making better use of the Three Seas Fund and EU funds in the 3SI region, levelling out economic disparities that originated in the times of political and economic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, joint efforts in getting the economy back on track after the disruption caused by Covid-19, and participation in the implementation of such large-scale projects as Via Carpatia and Rail Baltica or the Carpathian Strategy. The network is to supplement the activities of central governments of the Three Seas countries by involving local governments and stimulate multi-aspect development of local and regional communities.

For the present moment, the Network will operate without any formal structure. However, the European territorial co-operation group is planned to be established in the future. The group, to be named ‘The Three Seas Regions Economic Network’, will be based in Lublin. The legal grounds for its activity is the Regulation (EC) no. 1082/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council dated 5 July 2006 on European grouping of territorial cooperation (EGTC), with later amendments.

During the Local Government Economic Congress of the second Three Seas Forum of Regions to be held in Lublin on 29 June 2021, the declaration on the establishment of the Three Seas Regions Economic Network will be signed (the ‘Lublin Declaration’). The document will be drawn up in the form of a letter of intent, and its signing will be tantamount to joining the network by a given region.

Local governments that will choose to become part of the Three Seas Regions Economic Network may still contact the International Co-operation Department of the Lublin Voivodship Marshal’s Office by phone (+48 81 44 16 784).