SSI has pursued an international cooperation program since 1992 within the fi eld of radiation protection and emergency preparedness for radiation accidents with the three Baltic countries as main benefi ciaries. As the Baltic countries are members of the EU since fi rst of May 2004, this bilateral support will now be phased out and replaced with other forms of cooperation. During the years passed, a large number of activities have been launched with a total budget of some 14 million ECU. The Baltic radiation protection authorities have played a big role in the cooperation and Baltic ministries, universities, nuclear technology installations and other industries using radiation have also been engaged in the projects. SKI, SKB, Studsvik and the Swedish nuclear power plants should be mentioned as major cooperation partners on the Swedish side.
During autumn 2004 when such a large coordinated work program was coming to an end, SSI decided to hold a seminar with the purpose to follow up experiences from the work and discuss coming forms of cooperation. The seminar took place on the 18 of November 2004 and gathered some 80 participants, 29 of which from the Baltic countries. It was opened by Lars-Erik Holm, the SSI Director General, and the three Baltic countries then presented their views and impressions from the passed years of cooperation. The seminar was concluded with a panel discussion on “How to proceed from today’s situation”. The result was that SSI invited to a new coordination meeting during autumn 2005 to follow up and discuss coordination of radiation protection around the Baltic Sea together with the other Nordic radiation protection authorities.