The NEBI Area Ten Years Later

Abstract

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the German reunification and the collapse of the Soviet Union leading to the creation of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania suddenly created entirely new conditions for the political, economic and social development in the North European and Baltic Sea area, i.e. the NEBI area.¹ The mental map of the area was suddenly widened to encompass the entire region rather than just the Western or the Eastern half.² Optimism and newly awakened visions of a bright future pointed to a Baltic region that was characterised by fast economic development, co-operation, trade, investments and a free flow of people and ideas. The mediaeval network of Hanseatic cities was launched as a symbol — and sometimes even as the core — of the coming integration. Like the rest of Europe, the NEBI region was to re-emerge ‘whole and free.’

A further discussion of the geography of this macroregion is found in Hedegaard and Lindström (1998).

This not only applied to mental maps but even to the production of physical maps. Nordic maps of Scandinavia, which used to end in the middle of the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Finland, now increasingly include states and regions on the eastern side of the water.