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With a view to the 26 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference on 3- 5 September 2017 in Hamburg, the BSPC Rapporteur on Cultural Affairs, MP Sonja Mandt, Norway, has issued her report 2017 on cultural heritage. “Culture and heritage have an important role to play when it comes to building a more economically sustainable and cohesive Baltic Sea region. Our region should see our cultural heritage as an increasingly important factor of economic and sustainable growth” Sonja Mandt pointed out in her introduction. The Report can be downloaded here and on the Rapporteurs’ webpage.

In preparation of the 26 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Hamburg on 3 – 5 September 2017, the BSPC’s Rapporteur regarding Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea Saara-Sofia Sirén, Member of the Finnish Parliament, has published her report on developments and activities in this policy field. The report informs inter alia about the latest research data on eutrophication and presents a few possible solutions for consideration. “Eutrophication, which is mainly caused by nitrogen and phosphorus loads from land-based sources, is the main cause of the Baltic Sea’s currently challenging status… Much work still lies ahead of us in ensuring that our children have the opportunity to enjoy and sustainably benefit from the Baltic Sea that unites us all.” Saara-Sofia Sirén underlined in the introduction of her report. The Report can be downloaded here and on the Rapporteurs webpage.

In preparation of the 26 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Hamburg on 3 – 5 September 2017, the BSPC’s Rapporteurs on Integrated Maritime Policy, MP Jochen Schulte and MP Jörgen Pettersson have issued their report on developments in the field of Integrated Maritime Policy. The report summarizes the developments in the Integrated Maritime Policy since the 25 th BSPC, informs about a number of important conferences which have taken place throughout the past year and presents legislative developments at the EU level with regard to Blue Growth and overarching aspects, energy-related aspects as well as infrastructural and environmental aspects of maritime policy. The Report can be downloaded here and on the Rapporteurs’ webpage. Report by the Rapporteurs of the BSPC on developments in Integrated Maritime Policy

In preparation of the 26 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference on 3- 5 September 2017 in Hamburg, the BSPC Working Group on Sustainable Tourism has published the Final Report on its activities throughout the two-year mandate of the WG. The report will be presented at the annual conference and contains the main considerations and political recommendations of the Working Group. The report offers also detailed information on the expert presentations and homework carried out by the Working Group and can be accessed here and at the Working Groups website. The political recommendations of the Working Group have been included in the draft resolution of the conference. A printed version – financed by the parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – will be available at the 26 th Conference. Final Report of BSPC Working Group on Sustainable Tourism

In preparation of the 26 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Hamburg on 3 – 5 September 2017, the BSPC’s Observers at HELCOM, Sylvia Bretschneider, President of the Landtag Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saara-Sofia Sirén, Member of the Finnish Parliament, have issued their report on HELCOM-related developments and activities. The Report can be downloaded here and on the Rapporteurs’ webpage. Report on the exercise of the observer status at HELCOM issued

In preparation of the 26 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference on 3- 5 September 2017 in Hamburg, the BSPC Rapporteur on Innovation in Social and Health Care, MP Olaug Bollestad, Norway, has issued her report on developments in this field for the time period 2015-2016. The Working Group ended its work in 2015. The BSPC Standing Committee decided to continue monitoring the developments in that policy field. The report can be downloaded on the Rapporteur’s webpage. Rapporteur on Innovation in Social and Health Care

BSPC President Carola Veit hold a speech at the Baltic Sea Science Congress on 15 June 2017 in Rostock about the role of evidence-based science in decision-making. During their symposium „Science meets Policy”, the Baltic researchers were primarily concerned with the question to what degree scientific findings can be included in political processes in a more systematic fashion than before. Considering the background of political decisions becoming more and more complex, as Veit said in her speech , evidence-based science required a central role. This applied in particular on the international level to questions dealing with environmental policy, such as happens in the BSPC. As part of the 26 th annual conference of the Baltic Sea Parliamentarians, hosted by the Hamburg Parliament in September, the members would accordingly devote themselves in-depth to dealing with the topic of “Science and Research”. Carola Veit, though, warned not to bring excessive expectations to the table by noting, “In pluralistic societies, politics means the encounter of diverse interests and the orientation along majorities as part of political decision-making processes, to find compromises.” Maximum demands from science therefore could not always be implemented as that in the political reality, also because they generally are in competition with other recommendations in terms of their contents and financial requirements. She encouraged the scientists nonetheless to continue accompanying the work of the parliamentarians in their countries as she considered this the only way to create the best possible foundation for political decision-making. The biennial Baltic Sea Science Congress (BSSC) gathers more than 200 leading scientists from the Baltic Sea Region. It was established 20 years ago, joining the research communities of Baltic Marine Biologists, Baltic Marine Geologists and the Conference of Baltic Oceanographers and is, until today, the main international forum addressing a broad interdisciplinary spectrum of Baltic Sea research. The 11 th Baltic Sea Science Congress “Living along gradients: past, present, future was held on June, 12 – 16, 2017 in Rostock, Germany, hosted by the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research and the University of Rostock.

The final session of the BSPC Working Group on „Sustainable Tourism“ took place from May 29 to May 30 on the Åland Islands after almost two years of intensive work. Jörgen Pettersson , Vice-President of the BSPC and Sara Kemetter , Vice Chair of the Working Group, welcomed the members on behalf of the delegation of the Åland Parliament to the BSPC. „In our final session, we developed eleven important and concrete recommendations to the governments of the regions of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference. The theme is highly topical for all of us, given that the United Nations has declared 2017 the official Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. We will use our work and recommendations in order to make a contribution that will strengthen sustainable tourism in the whole Baltic Sea Region“, concluded Sylvia Bretschneider , Chair of the BSPC Working Group on “Sustainable Tourism” and President of the Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Experts began the meeting by presenting the numerous developments concerning sustainable tourism that have already been achieved or will yet be implemented on the Åland Islands. The Deputy Head of Government of Åland, Camilla Gunell , presented a Development and Sustainability Agenda that is central to these developments, featuring seven strategic goals. Furthermore, the members of the Working Group were briefed on concrete tourist projects in the archipelago, providing sustainable and naturalistic offers. Above all, comprehensive recommendations and a call for action for this year’s resolution of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference were advised and adopted. The members also began laying the groundwork for the final report of the Working Group. This report will be published at the beginning of September and will present the key points and results of the two years of work.w

BSPC President Carola Veit took part at the 15 th Conference of the Parliaments of the Southern Baltic Sea Region in Szczecin West Pomeranian region. In her speech, she underscored that it is of crucial importance to promote areas of common interest, to bundle forces and to intensify the exchange of opinions on political and on working level. She appreciated very much that the BSPC was enclosed in the work of the Parliamentary Forum Southern Baltic Sea. The overall theme of the Forum “Cultural Routes” and the Resolution would fit well into the session of the 26 th BSPC 3-5 September 2017 on “Sustainable Tourism”. She invited therefore the President of the Forum and President of the Seijmik Zachodniopomorskie Teresa Kalina to give a speech at the Annual Conference of the BSPC in Hamburg. Culture and tourism combine the past and the present in a very coherent way. The main questions for Carola Veit were: how can we impart to the future generations our common cultural heritage? And how can we use it also to further develop our regions, to preserve the past, to adapt it to the present and to make it accessible to future generations? Cultural routes are on the one hand able to build bridges between countries, and are on the other hand able to contribute to a positive development of the tourism sector, she pointed out. Carola Veit appreciated very much, that the Parliamentary Forum Southern Baltic Sea was incorporating young people and the results of their discussions in its work. She informed the participants about the results of the BSPC Working Group on Sustainable Tourism and how the Working Group included young people from the Baltic Sea Region in its discussions and decision making process.

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Under the chairmanship of BSPC-President Carola Veit, the President of the Hamburg Parliament, the BSPC Standing Committee gathered in Hamburg on 28 April 2017 to discuss the contents and preparation of its next annual conference on 3-5 September 2017 in Hamburg, including the preliminary draft of the resolution as well as the implementation of the 25 th BSPC resolution from Riga. Carola Veit began the meeting by expressing her sympathies to the Russian and Swedish peoples over the terrorist attacks that had taken place in Saint Petersburg and Stockholm in April. The attacks posed a challenge for open, liberal societies but, as she underlined, “we are not divided by those attacks, and we are a continuous example of open, tolerant societies bound by democratic principles and the rule of law”. In his expert presentation, Dr Jan-Hinrik Schmidt from the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research at the University of Hamburg lay the groundwork for the parliamentarians’ subsequent discussions, with his presentation on „The Participation Paradox – How the Internet is Shaping and Changing Democratic Involvement”. In his very informative speech he showed that social media platforms provide information from a large variety of different sources, ranging from professional journalism over celebrities to personal contacts. They present this information not as discrete packages of content, but as a constantly updated flow of microcontent. Selection and filtering, he said, were moving from editors to the users and to algorithms. Mr. Schmidt drew attention to the fact that the criteria and parameters applied in algorithmic filtering were largely unknown and intransparent. Empirical studies show, he continued, that for certain groups and contextssocial media would provide people only with information in line with their previous interests, allowing people to remain (or retrench) in groups which constantly affirm their established opinions and world views, partially also fostering the spread of harmful, racist, hostile, sexist, etc. communication which impedes constructive debates (Hate Speech Scenario). The speaker underlined that this was not a general pattern for all users. He further described other relations between participation and social practice, concluding that “The Internet, and social media in particular, foster participation by active citizens – and at the same time re‐affirm existing inequalities and challenge the foundations of democratic debate”. Based on this speech, the Standing Committee discussed among other topics Social Media Governance in particular. The meeting further prepared the 26 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, discussed the follow-up to the resolution of the 25 th BSPC in Riga, informed itself about the work of the BSPC Working Group on Sustainable Tourism and discussed options of including young people in the work of the BSPC, referring to the successful Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth Forum several weeks earlier. The Standing Committee also unanimously agreed to establish a new Working Group on “Migration and Integration”. Thereby, the BSPC will deal over the next 2 years “with one of the biggest challenges of our time”, BSPC President Carola Veit concluded. A day before the meeting, the participants of the Standing Committee had been welcomed at Zollenspieker Fährhaus by Mr Börries von Notz, sole management board member of the foundation “Historical Museums Hamburg”. Mr Börries had presented the wide range of activities carried out by the three museums united in The Historic Museums Hamburg with 9 different locations including their branch sites and about 360,000 annual visitors. The mission of the historical museums of Hamburg, he’d said, was to render the present, in its complexity, understandable by showing the relationships in the history of the region, with its national and international connections, and making them accessible, thus contributing to a free and peace-loving society. “Only in an intensive continuing dialogue can we preserve the benefits of peace and prosperity,” the speaker concluded.

Upon the invitation of the Landtag Schleswig-Holstein, the sixth meeting of the BSPC Working Group on Sustainable Tourism took place in Kiel on 13 and 14 March 2017. Young people appointed by the BSPC members were included in the discussions of the Working Group. The parliamentarians as well as the young delegates took part in the expert presentations on the first day. Four experts presented different challenges for the tourism sector in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The core of the discussions were the cross-border presentations on the BSR, maritime tourism as well as touristic infrastructure and mobility. The integration of rural areas, especially with a view to the local economy and the environment, had been deepened. As an excursion, the participants were informed about a project by a private investor intent on contributing to the sustainable development of the rural area with an outdoor academy and an integrated hotel. The second day, the parliamentarians and young adults evaluated the presentations and discussed several proposals, ideas and impulses. The topics included several aspects of sustainable tourism – education, digitalization, the question of a common “Baltic Sea Brand”, music festivals or special forms of tourism like cycling tourism. The youth delegates expressed the idea of an “Interferry ticket” – similar to the “Interrail” project – that could improve the travel opportunities for young people in particular in the BSR as well as the development of an International Program for Sustainable Tourism in the entire Baltic Sea Region. The objective is to transmit these jointly elaborated proposals to the BSPC so that they can influence their future work. The youth delegates then presented the results of their work in front of the European Affairs Committee of the Landtag Schleswig-Holstein on 15 March 2017. The chair of the BSPC Working Group, President of the Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Sylvia Bretschneider, said after the end of the meeting: “We should continue and perpetuate the integration of young people in the work of the BSPC. The youth symbolizes the future of our countries and of the whole region. It is important for them to make cross-border contacts with peers. We would do well to provide space for the creativity of young people in our region and to involve them in our discussions.” Presentation Meeting 5 Gerlach Presentation Meeting 5 Pfeiffer Presentation Meeting 5 Sørensen