25 February 2026

General Assembly: focus on cross-border links and urban nodes

On 6 February 2026, political representatives of the Scandria Alliance member regions met to discuss priorities for 2026.

During an online meeting of the Scandria Alliance General Assembly, high-level representatives of the Scandria Alliance’s full members discussed political priorities related to the clean, smart and resilient transportation connecting their regions.

Tuija Telén, Regional Mayor of Helsinki-Uusimaa and vice chair of the Scandria Alliance, Anjes Tjarks, Minister of Transport and Mobility Transition in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Wolfgang Blank, Minister of Economics, Infrastructure, Tourism and Labour of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Anne Strømøy, Vestfold County Mayor, Heidi Saaristo-Levin, Planning Director at the Regional Council of Southwest Finland, and Manuela Hahn, head of Joint Spatial Planning Department Berlin-Brandenburg used the 1.5 hours to update each other on important developments in their regions and to discuss a common policy position towards the European Commission’s proposals for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028–2034.

Despite specific regional challenges, representatives of all member regions unanimously agreed on the need to put stronger focus on cross-border links and their hinterland connections as well as urban nodes to realise the full potential of the TEN-T corridors for the free movement of people and goods across Europe.

As a consequence of the changed geopolitical situation, General Assembly members underlined it is essential to strengthen the connectivity between Northern Europe and the European mainland with the Scandinavian-Mediterranean European Transport Corridor as the backbone. The transport system must be made more resilient, more sustainable and adapted to climate change. To efficiently address both security and regional development tasks, dual use of transport infrastructure was regarded as an optimum scenario.

Vestfold County Mayor Anne Strømøy invited her colleagues to the Transport Conference “Cross-border Connections in Northern Europe” in Oslo on 18 May 2026 to continue discussion with representatives of further initiatives, national government and the European Commission.

During the meeting, the General Assembly also approved the request for associated membership by LIMOWA Association. LIMOWA is an industry-led not-for-profit association focusing on the development of logistics centres and innovation activities in the logistics sector.

cross-border links financing General Assembly urban nodes