Speech by Berit Brorby

Page 1:16th Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceStatement by Berit Brorby, Vice-President of the Nordic CouncilBerlin, August 27, 2007Chair, President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,It is with great pleasure I, on behalf of the Nordic Council, extend the warmestgreetings to the 16” Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference here in Berlin.The Nordic Countries have a long history of close cooperation. A cooperationdriven by the desire to improve living conditions for the citizens in our region.The Nordic Council has been actively involved in this pursuit for over half acentury.As politicians we all wish to improve the living conditions for our citizens, and Ibelieve, that is why we are all gathered here for this conference.To deal with the challenges of today, we have all come to recognise the need forcooperation, not only with our closes neighbours but within regions and alsobetween regions.The fact that close cooperation over time with clear aims gives result is why Ipersonally am engaged in the work of regional parliamentary organisations.The topics chosen for the 16" BSPC are all important; Cooperation, energyissues, labour and social welfare, and integrated maritime policy.Page 2:Labour issues and social welfare are the fundament of our societies. Some of ourcountries are experiencing a shortage of labour, while others haveunemployment. Clearly our cooperation in this field is to the benefit of allparties; individuals, families and countries. In general I was not a great admirerof Margaret Thatcher, but she once said; “We are not in politics to ignorepeople’s worries; we are in politics to deal with them”. I do find that a goodreminder for all of us why we are in politics.Securing that migragt workers are earning a decent wage is crucial to fightsocial dumping and {ts consequences. My belief is that societies with too muchof a gap between rich and poor are unstable societies. Together I feel certain thatwe can work together to secure stability in our regionChair,I just returned from a meeting in Greenland with the West Nordic Council.Environment and climate issues are therefore at the front of my mind. As we allknow climate changes are most evident in the Arctic. The speed of changes isdifficult to grasp. I am now, more that ever, committed to work for strongercooperation between the EU and the Arctic countries on research andmonitoring of the Arctic region. The New Northern Dimension of the EU mustbe a strong instrament for handling the changes in the High North. I am glad weare establishing a Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum as a follow-up ofthe meeting we had in Brussels last winter. This will be an important meetingplace to monitor the governmental action on the changes and development in theArctic Region.Environmental changes are happening everywhere. We should both reduceemissions of greenhouse gases rapidly, and make strategies for adapting to thechanges. Finland has such a strategy already, which makes it possible toPage 3:incorporate climate changes inio future planning | am glad energy Is on theagenda for this meeting. and J am sure we will all discuss climate changestogether in years to come.The Nordic Council] has a close cooperation with BSPC, the Baltic Countriesand regional and national politicians in Russia on many issues. On behalf of theNordic Council 1 can say that we look forward to continuing this valuable workto make the northern part of Europe a prosperous region. A region that take ourshare of social and environmental responsibility.To round off I would like to thank the organisers of the conference for theirexcellent work. I had the pleasure to take part in the social program yesterdayand can only describe it as highly successful.Success of this conference is dependent on what each one of us brings back todaily politics in our parliaments, and with these words ] wish you allasuccessful conference!Thank you for your attention.