On 16 June, Viktoriya Dozhdeva of EPRC participated in the Talking Barents seminar that took place at Norway House in Brussels. Organised by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat and the North Norway European Office, the seminar aimed to present and discuss best practice examples as well as challenges and opportunities for cooperation in the Barents Region. Despite the broader geo-political tensions, people continue extensive cross-border cooperation in this area, covering the northernmost parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Northwest Russia. The importance of 'people-to-people' interactions in the region and the future of the Barents cooperation were among the issues discussed at the seminar. EPRC has a long standing interest in European inter-regional, cross-border and transnational cooperation activities as well as the involvement of Russian regions in European territorial cooperation initiatives.