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B7 to Open a Café for One Day |
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Written by Ere Naat
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For the fourth year in a row, Kärdla, the town of “the coffee-pots” celebrated the Cafés’ Day and opened 15 cafés on August 7. The event brought a record number of tourists to Hiiumaa and all the cafés had plenty of visitors until the very last minute before closing.
This time the B7 was also out with a café of its own, named as Seven at One Blow – B7. The idea to set up a café came from the People to People workgroup, with the aim to introduce the B7 islands and network. The menu included the best from the B7 islands, e.g.: Granny’s apple pie from Hiiumaa, Rügen’s sponge cake, Gotland’s herring sandwich, Aland’s cheese sandwich, Saaremaa’s pan bread and other delicacies. To accompany the coffee, a storyteller told legends from the B7 islands, and music was played.
The B7 café was organised by PtP WG, by the lead of Ermo Mäeots (Hiiumaa), Arne-Grau Amner (Gotland), Martina Shwinkendorf (Rügen) and Inga Teär (Saaremaa). |
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Baltic Sea Days warmed up Hiiumaa spring |
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Written by Ere Naat
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The three days of the B7 Baltic Sea events in Hiiumaa (27-29th of May) warmed up the chilly and windy spring of the island. A lot of exhibitions, music and theatre performances from Finland created a cultural framework for the conference Life in Small Communities. The conference was thematically divided into three parts, covering the topics of life quality, creative industries and tourism. The Finnish cultural programme was provided by the Embassy of Finland in Estonia. The Baltic Sea Days ended with the Garfish Festival at Orjaku harbour on the 29th of May.
On the 26th of May, the B7 started its spring meetings of the Steering Committee and Board in Hiiumaa museum where the Vice Chancellor of the Estonian Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Toomas Kevvai presented the Estonian position on the reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Later in the afternoon session at Soera Farm Museum, the meeting continued with discussions on the political goals of the B7 in the framework of the EU Strategy Baltic Sea Region. The Steering Committee decided to meet in Stockholm on the 9th of September and later on the 15-16th of October in Tallinn at the BSSSC Annual Conference to facilitate common activities among stakeholders in the Baltic Sea area.
B7 is grateful for the co-operation and support of the organisations involved in organising the Baltic Sea Days in Hiiumaa: the Embassy of Finland in Estonia, LEADER LAG of Hiiumaa, Hiiumaa County Government, the Europe Direct office in Hiiumaa and Saaremaa, the EU Interreg project New Bridges, NGO Arhipelaag, NGO Hiiukala. |
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New ferry on Hiiumaa line called Muhumaa |
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Written by Reet Kokovkin
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 For some incomprehensible reason, Saaremaa Shipping Comany has named the new ferry operating between Hiiumaa and the mainland after the third largest island of Estonia – Muhumaa. But nevertheless, this ferry is brand new and sets a record in speed – instead of 1,5 hour travel, the crossing now takes only an hour and 15 minutes.
As an old Hiiumaa tradition goes, a goat is the first to welcome the „iron ship”. This time was no exception, Muusi the goat and the holder of the Hiiumaa tradition, former Mayor of Pühalepa municipality Tõnu Otsasson were inspecting the ship. |
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Written by Silvia Teras, Hiiumaa
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On Sunday, 4rd July the last goodbyes were said between the youngsters who took part of B7 youth meeting in Hiiumaa. On 27th June participants came from Hiiumaa, Saaremaa, Gotland, Öland and Åland, all together there were 81 people. It was very sad to go apart after spending such fun and interesting week together.
During the week students took part in different workshops, which were dancing, photography, arts, music and sports. In addition, they worked in small groups with direct and open discussions about EU and youth opportunities in EU or brainstorms about youth projects in the future, where they faced several themes. All the developed ideas were shown in front of everybody and came out original and stunning. It appeared, that younger generations are aware of their role and their rights in building a better future for their island and thankfully they are all interested in doing it.
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Baltic Sea Days in Hiiumaa |
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Written by Ere Naat
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The B7 Hiiumaa Chairmanship has had two successful meetings in 2010: in Tallinn in January and in Brussels in March. The discussions have covered the topics of implementing common policies for the islands, with a special focus on the EU budget period from 2013, transport links, co-operation on the EU programmes and direct, people-to-people interaction between the islands.
Next week, on 26–29 May, there will be an opportunity to find out more about the co-operation since the B7 will be present in Hiiumaa as one of the organisers of the Baltic Sea Days.
The Baltic Sea Days is a big event which brings together various activities and multiple actors. On 27–28 May, the B7 will help to organise the traditional Rudolf Tobias music days for school children. The B7 will also contribute to the conference Life in Small Communities on 27–28 May, together with Hiiu County Government, the Finnish Embassy, NGO Hiidlaste Koostöökogu, NGO Arhipelaag, Europe Direct and West-Estonia Tourism Association.
The conference will consist of seminars Life-Quality in Small Communities and Creative Industries in Small Communities taking place in Kärdla on 27 May. The third seminar, Tourism in Small Communities starts in Viskoosa village on the morning of 28 May and moves to Tahkuna lighthouse in the afternoon.
The key speaker at the seminar Life-Quality in Small Communities will be the well-known sociologist Jüri Uljas, who has recently carried out a survey “Hiiumaa and Its People”. It is a remarkable survey being the third of its kind within 15 years, providing a good opportunity to study how the attitudes and perspectives of a small and restricted community have been evolving over the years. At the same time, the findings will give a comparison with life quality in big cities.
The Deputy Mayor of Tartu, Vladimir Shokman will speak about the results of a survey on life quality in the town of Tartu, and Mathias Bergman from the Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) will present the suggestions made by the community initiative BSAG on how to improve life quality.
As the seminar is part of the EU Baltic Sea Region Programme project New Bridges, the project leader Sakari Saarinen from Turku, Finland will give an overview of the project objectives and results.
The afternoon of 27 May will be dedicated to the seminar Creative Industries in Small Communities, featuring internationally renowned speakers in the field of creative economy from Finland, the United States and Estonia.
The tourism seminar on 28 May will focus on strengthening links between Finland and Estonia. New tourist attractions in Finland will be talked about as well as the expectations held by tourists and hosts at both ends of the sea.
The conference will be framed by the Finnish Days with a number of concerts, exhibitions, workshops and performances all over Hiiumaa. The Baltic Sea Days will end with the Garfish Festival on 29 May.
See the conference programme at www.kogu.hiiumaa.ee
Welcome to the Baltic Sea Days!
Reet Kokovkin
B7 Chair of the Board 2010 |
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B7 youth meet on Hiiumaa this summer |
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Written by Annely Veevo
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B7 2010 Chairmanship invites the youth from the B7 islands to meet on Hiiumaa this summer!
This year's topic is the EU and Sustainable Development. During the meeting days from June 28th to July 3rd many interesting events and activities will take place - among others, a vision cafe, an info day, workshops on Estonian food tradition, photography, reusable fashion and music as well as sightseeing tours over Hiiumaa. The B7 youth meetings are supported by the EU programs Youth for Europe and LEADER; Estonian Board of Gambling Tax and B7 Secretariat.
For additional information contact Annely Veevo at
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Two Japanese professors, Yoko Ogashiwa from Hiroshima University and Yuma Kawahara from Okayama University, spent five days on Hiiumaa to learn about the B7 network. 