State Secretary Uwe Schüler from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Planning of the State of Brandenburg handed over a funding notification for 150,000 euros to District Administrator Gernot Schmidt at the train station in Müncheberg on February 2, 2024.
Berlin and Brandenburg form one of the most influential and dynamic metropolitan regions in Germany and Europe. The Eastern Railway, which runs through here, connects the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region with the Baltic States. A strong cooperation and development area between Berlin and Poland along the Eastern Railway is to become the brand core of this metropolitan region even more than before.
An application for funding was submitted for this on May 31, 2023 as part of the Planning Funding Directive 2023 (PFR 2023). On October 19, 2023, the district received the approval notice from the State Office for Construction and Transport for the maximum permissible funding of such development concepts in the amount of 150,000.00 euros. The planned total costs of the project amount to approx. 241,800.00 euros.
By the end of 2025, a holistic SWOT analysis will now be prepared, consisting of an analysis of strengths and weaknesses and an identification of opportunities and potential for the development of impulse measures. A strategic model for the Berlin – Ostbahn – Poland development axis will then be created on this basis and all the results will be summarized in a "Berlin-Ostbahn development axis" concept.
In addition to State Secretary Uwe Schüler and Gernot Schmidt, other participants included the Alderman and Head of the Economic Office, Rainer Schinkel, the Managing Director of the Interessengemeinschaft Ostbahn (IGOB), Frank Schütz, and the Mayor of Müncheberg and Deputy Chairwoman of the IGOB, Dr. Uta Barkusky.
Background:
On August 31, 2021, the state government of Brandenburg decided to realign the previous basic approach of the Regional Development Strategy (RES) in the state of Brandenburg. The RES pursues the goal of developing and continuously qualifying key projects that can be implemented and have a sustainable, climate-neutral, resource-saving and socio-spatial impact through key regional players. This dialog and work process for the development and further strategic qualification of key projects, which is supported by the Brandenburg State Chancellery, is known in Brandenburg as "REGIONALE". The district of Märkisch-Oderland is assuming the role of a regional key player during this "REGIONALE". In this role, the district of Märkisch-Oderland designed the key project: "Development corridor Ostbahn climate-friendly – innovative – cross-border", which was confirmed by the state of Brandenburg on November 29, 2022.This key project is already implementing important measures to improve infrastructural networking and secure the economic basis in the district of Märkisch-Oderland as part of the regional development strategy of the state of Brandenburg and in compliance with the Joint State Development Plan for the Capital Region Berlin-Brandenburg of April 29, 2019 (LEP HR).
Building on this key project, the aim now is to further develop the existing objectives and measures towards a Berlin - Ostbahn - (Poland) development axis as a cross-border, resource-conserving, sustainable settlement, innovation and cooperation area and to bundle the results in a new axis concept.