President Andrzej Duda, GLOBSEC Forum, 26 May 2017
At this year's summit, presidents are expected to focus on the Decade of the Three Seas format. The aim is to take stock of a decade of integration and set the direction for the initiative for the next 10 years.
More than 20 top and high–level delegations are expected to attend. More countries will also join the Three Seas Initiative.
The Summit will be accompanied by the Three Seas Initiative Business Forum, a platform for pursuing economic synergies and business cooperation.
The Initiative initially brought together 12 EU Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. In 2023, this group was enlarged by Greece and now includes 13 participating countries and 2 associated participating countries – Ukraine and Moldova. The strategic partners of the Three Seas Initiative are United States, Japan, European Commission and Germany.
The establishment of the Three Seas Initiative was initiated by the Presidents of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and Croatia, Kolinda Grabar–Kitarović, during a meeting of the region's leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in 2015. That year is considered the beginning of the Three Seas cooperation, while the Initiative's first Summit was held in Dubrovnik in 2016.
In the Croatian capital, the presidents and representatives of the countries of the Three Seas Initiative deliberated for two days under the motto 'Strengthening Europe: building connections between North and South', and adopted a joint declaration on the creation of the platform. Among other things, the declaration emphasises that „the Three Seas Initiative is open to partnership with interested public or private entities from all over the world, within the framework of specific projects, provided that they respect the fundamental values and principles of the European Union”.
The 3SI is an opportunity for the countries of the region to overcome infrastructural barriers and recognise the mutual attractiveness of their markets. So far, Europe has developed by investing mainly on the East–West axis, so today the main pillar of development is to build the cohesion of the region from the Baltic to the Adriatic and the Black Sea, i.e. the North–South axis, said Andrzej Duda at the time.
In 2017, Andrzej Duda, together with the President of Croatia, hosted the Three Seas Summit in Warsaw. US President Donald Trump was a special guest at the event.
– You have overcome years of oppression and you are all united in the hope that your people will thrive, your trade will grow, and your countries will prosper. I want to congratulate you on the great work you are doing for the region, the American leader said.
In the years that followed, the presidents met annually in Romania (twice), Slovenia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania. President Andrzej Duda represented Poland at all the summits.
We want to measure the results of the 3SI not in the number of mutual meetings and signed declarations, but in kilometres of new roads, upgraded gas pipelines or amounts spent on investments, said Andrzej Duda during the 4th 3SI Business Forum in Ljubljana in 2019.
At the 9th Three Seas Summit in Vilnius, Ukraine and Moldova were granted associate status in the Three Seas Initiative (Wilno, 11 April 2024)
At the 9th Three Seas Summit in Vilnius, Ukraine and Moldova were granted associate status in the Three Seas Initiative.
The achievements of the Three Seas Initiative include:
- Engaging with the so–called strategic partners of the 3SI: the USA, Germany, the European Commission and Japan,
- The creation of a joint stock market index, CEEplus, comprising more than 100 of the largest companies from 7 countries in the region (Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary),
- Establishment of the 3SI Investment Fund,
- Establishment of the 3SI Innovation Fund,
- Launch of the successor to the 3SI Investment Fund.
Currently, there are about 140 projects on the list of 3SI priority projects in 3 infrastructure categories: transport, energy and digital. Some of them have already been fully implemented. The most important ones from the perspective of Poland's strategic interests are: gas interconnectors with Lithuania and Slovakia, the Via Carpatia motorway, the rail corridor of the Baltic–Adriatic TEN–T core network, Rail–2–Sea – rail connection between the ports of Gdansk and Constanta.
One of the milestones in the development of the 3SI format was the establishment of the 3SI Investment Fund worth approximately EUR 1 billion. The Fund has invested in 5 major projects covering all key sectors of the Initiative. The projects implemented have a geographical scope covering almost all the countries of the 3SI, which is an excellent testimony to the effectiveness of cooperation between development institutions in the region.
Another important tool for the development of 3SI cooperation are the Business Forums, which will be organised as side events to the Summits, starting in 2018. These meetings of entrepreneurs and leaders from the countries of the region are based on the slogan that defines the 3SI as a politically inspired but economically driven format.
An important aspect of the Three Seas cooperation, which has developed as a bottom–up initiative, is the Three Seas’ Regions Forum. This is a project initiated by President Andrzej Duda in 2018 in Rzeszów. Subsequent editions, under the name 'Three Seas' Local Government Congress', will be held annually in Lublin and, together with the Economic Forum as a side event, aim to strengthen inter–regional ties and create a sustainable basis for economic development in the fields of energy, transport, digital communications and the economy. In 2021, local government representatives from 15 regions of the 3SI countries signed the Lublin Declaration on the establishment of the 3SI Regions Economic Network.
During the decade of Andrzej Duda's presidency, the Three Seas Initiative has become a useful platform for maintaining relations with third countries. The attractiveness of the 3SI format has resulted in the exceptionally favourable dynamics that have developed around it in recent years. Interest in cooperation within the framework of the Initiative has been signalled or expressed by, among others, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Israel and some Gulf States.
Andrzej Duda has encouraged interest in the platform and investment in the 3SI at numerous meetings with foreign partners, not only from Europe.
Today, the Three Seas Initiative area is one of the fastest growing regions in the world, with a projected GDP growth of 35% by 2030. This cooperation is creating strategic transport routes such as Via Baltica, Rail Baltica or Via Carpatia – corridors connecting Central Europe with the rest of the continent and a gateway for investment from the Middle East and Africa. This is a huge opportunity and I can assure everyone that Poland is ready to seize it,” he said in Dubai on 11 February.