BSPC 25th Anniversary Booklet

25 BSPCYEARSBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conference25 Years of Baltic SeaParliamentary ConferencePlatform for cooperation,commitment and competence inpolitical dialogue of parliamentsin the Baltic Sea Region52Y E A R S25 BSPCYEARSBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conference25 Years of Baltic SeaParliamentary ConferencePlatform for cooperation,commitment and competence inpolitical dialogue of parliamentsin the Baltic Sea Region225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference(BSPC) was established in 1991 as a forum for© BSPC Secretariat political dialogue between parliamentariansfrom the Baltic Sea Region. BSPC aims at rais-Texts: Andrzej Januszewski, Päivikki Lindroos, ing awareness and opinion on issues of currentJan Widberg, Malgorzata Ludwiczek, political interest and relevance for the BalticFlorian Lipowski, Bodo Bahr Sea Region. It promotes and drives various in-itiatives and efforts to support a sustainableEditing: Bodo Bahr environmental, social and economic develop-Layout: produktionsbüro TINUS ment of the Baltic Sea Region. It strives at en-hancing the visibility of the Baltic Sea RegionPhotos: Jan Widberg, Bodo Bahr, and its issues in a wider European context.on the photos named photographers BSPC gathers parliamentarians from 11national parliaments, 11 regional parliamentsPrint: produktionsbüro TINUS and 5 parliamentary organisations around theBaltic Sea. The BSPC thus constitutes aCopies: 200unique parliamentary bridge between all thePrinted on environmentally-friendly paper EU- and non-EU countries of the Baltic SeaRegion.Printed in Germany BSPC external interfaces include parlia-mentary, governmental, sub-regional and oth-er organizations in the Baltic Sea Region andthe Northern Dimension area, among themCBSS, HELCOM, the Northern DimensionPartnership in Health and Social Well-Being(NDPHS), the Baltic Sea Labour Forum(BSLF), the Baltic Sea States Sub-regional Co-operation (BSSSC) and the Baltic Develop-ment Forum.BSPC shall initiate and guide political ac-tivities in the region; support and strengthendemocratic institutions in the participatingstates; improve dialogue between govern-ments, parliaments and civil society; strength-en the common identity of the Baltic Sea Re-gion by means of close co-operation betweenBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conference national and regional parliaments on the basiswww.bspc.net of equality; and initiate and guide political ac-tivities in the Baltic Sea Region, endowingBodo Bahr them with additional democratic legitimacyHead of BSPC Secretariat and parliamentary authority.bb@bspc.net The political recommendations of the an-nual Parliamentary Conferences are expressedin a Conference Resolution adopted by con-sensus by the Conference. The adopted Reso-BSPC Secretariat lution shall be submitted to the governmentsc/o Lennéstraße 1 of the Baltic Sea Region, the CBSS and the19053 Schwerin EU, and disseminated to other relevant na-Germany tional, regional and local stakeholders in thePhone (+49) 385 525 2777 Baltic Sea Region and its neighbourhood.3ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferences 1991–2016 . . . . . . . . . 91st BSPC – 1991 Helsinki, Finnland .................... 102nd BSPC – 1992 Oslo, Norway ....................... 133rd BSPC – 1994 Warsaw, Poland ...................... 174th BSPC – 1995 Rønne, Denmark ..................... 195th BSPC – 1996 Riga, Latvia ......................... 216th BSPC – 1997 Gdansk, Poland ..................... 237th BSPC – 1998 Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein ............. 258th BSPC – 1999 Mariehamn, Åland Islands .............. 289th BSPC – 2000 Malmö, Sweden ...................... 3010th BSPC – 2001 Greif s wald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern .... 3211th BSPC – 2002 St. Petersburg, Russia .................. 3512th BSPC – 2003 Oulu, Finland ....................... 3813th BSPC – 2004 Bergen, Norway ...................... 4114th BSPC – 2005 Vilnius, Lithuania .................... 4515th BSPC – 2006 Reykjavik, Icel and .................... 4816th BSPC – 2007 Berlin, Germany ..................... 5017th BSPC – 2008 Visby, Sweden ....................... 5318th BSPC – 2009 Nyborg, Denmark .................... 5619th BSPC – 2010 Mariehamn, Åland Islands .............. 5820th BSPC – 2011 Helsinki, Finland ..................... 6121st BSPC – 2012 St. Petersburg, Russia .................. 6522nd BSPC – 2013 Pärnu, Estonia ....................... 6923rd BSPC – 2014 Olsztyn, Poland ...................... 7624th BSPC – 2015 Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ...... 84Impressions from some Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 5INTRODUCTIONAs the President of the BSPC2015-2016, it is my great pleas-ure to be the host of the 25thanniversary of the Baltic SeaParliamentary Conference inRiga on our organisation’s SilverJubilee.Under the motto “High QualityEducation and Labour – TheFuture of the Baltic Sea Region”,the conference will focus on is-sues related to the labour marketand labour mobility in the re-gion. Namely, we will discuss“how to develop competitive-ness in the Baltic Sea Region bylinking education and the la-bour market”, and how to takeadvantage of employment op-portunities by “improving la-bour mobility and combatingyouth unemployment”. Both issues are of fundamental importancefor achieving the common goal of a prosperous region.At a Ceremonial Session in honour of this jubilee, the conference inRiga will also commemorate the 25 years of parliamentary cooper-ation in the Baltic Sea Region .On this occasion, it is only appropriate to also issue a special publi-cation reviewing the conferences and topics of the past 25 years.This publication, with a more thorough focus on the previous fiveconferences, follows up on the last such publication, which was is-sued on the occasion of the 20th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Confer-ence in Helsinki.6 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceI am proud to report that the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencehas become a very visible actor in Baltic Sea affairs, improving di-alogue between governments, parliaments and civil society in theregion, strengthening the common identity of the countries andstates it represents, and initiating and guiding political activities,endowing them with additional democratic legitimacy and parlia-mentary authority.Our interaction with external parliamentary, governmental,sub-regional and other organisations has been further enhanced.It has become a good tradition of the BSPC Standing Committeeto hold its first session of the year in Brussels, thus enabling ourorganisation to initiate and guide political activities also in a wid-er European context. It was also at the request of the BSPC Stand-ing Committee at its winter meeting in Brussels in 2015, whichwas attended by the European Commissioner for Health andConsumer Policy, that the European Commission decided tomaintain the policy area “Health” within the EU Strategy for theBaltic Sea Region.The BSPC and its executive counterpart, the Council of the BalticSea States, also come together on a semi-annual basis: within theframework of the Standing Committee winter meeting, as well ason the occasion of the BSPC’s annual conferences. This has al-lowed the BSPC to coordinate activities with the CBSS and to beinformed about the priorities of the relevant CBSS Presidency.Our conference resolutions have always been political tools thatenable the BSPC to take and support political initiatives, and toapproach the governments and regional organisations on issues ofcommon interest.Over the past few years, there has been a push to make the annualconferences themselves more political. Numerous national minis-ters have attended BSPC conferences in recent years; in the samevein, European Commissioners have recently informed the BalticSea parliamentarians about European level initiatives that are ofrelevance to our work. The 2015 conference in Rostock has intro-duced the Round Table format, in order to induce the conferenceswith more debate and political relevance.Consequently, the feedback from the governments to our annualresolutions has become increasingly comprehensive. We have tak-en these comments on-board in our work, and they are of evi-dence that the BSPC is seen as the main parliamentary body in theBaltic Sea Region. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the former25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 7Chairman of the BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Socialand Healthcare, our colleague and friend Raimonds Vējonis, hasnow been elected President of the Republic of Latvia.The resolutions of the BSPC have contributed to positive develop-ments in the region over the past 25 years. Most recently, theIMO Marine Environment Protection Committee agreed on aconcrete timetable for the prevention of pollution by sewage fromships. The BSPC has urged the governments to support and fulfilthe regulations under the relevant MARPOL Annex since its res-olution at the 23rd conference in Olsztyn, Poland. The recom-mendation was reiterated at our 24th annual conference in Ros-tock in 2015. Furthermore, the BSPC observers in HELCOMhave tirelessly lobbied the HELCOM contracting states to imple-ment the obligations to achieve the status of special area.To achieve all of this, the BSPC underwent several fundamentalstages. During its first ten years, the BSPC was very much focusedon the topics at hand and addressing these in the framework of itsannual conferences. Around the turn of the millennium, to fur-ther support its work the BSPC introduced Working Groups ontopics such as maritime safety, eutrophication, climate change, la-bour market and welfare, trafficking in human beings, integratedmaritime policy, and most recently – sustainable tourism. Sincethe introduction of a joint financial mechanism, the BSPC tookanother step towards further streamlining of its work. Most re-cently, besides thinking further about means of cooperation in theregion, the BSPC has narrowed the focus of its annual conferenc-es to concentrate on one important issue in depth.In 1991, when our conference was established, it could not beforeseen that it would become such a success. The sea that once di-vided is now a sea of peace and freedom. But there is no denyingthe fact that there have also been signs of tension in the Baltic SeaRegion. Especially in times like these, trustworthy, candid, andlongstanding cooperation and dialogue are more important thanever before, in particular at the inter-parliamentary level. The rep-resentatives from the countries around the Baltic Sea, chosen bytheir constituents, must jointly work towards maintaining thepeaceful cooperation that has characterised the region for the past25 years.On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the BSPC, the Baltic SeaParliamentary Conference is more vital than ever before. One ofstated goals of the BSPC is to support and strengthen the demo-cratic institutions in the participating states. Therefore, it is in the8 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceinterest of the BSPC to use the tools at its disposal to contributeto the democratic developments in countries in our neighbour-hood, for instance, via the observer status at the BSPC.We will continue to work on our mission to bring parliaments,governments, and civil society in our common Baltic Sea Regionever closer together.People coming together is the basis for any cooperation.Trusting cooperation based on a constructive dialogue also con-tributes to peace.It is in this spirit that I wish the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Confer-ence a very successful continuation of our 25 years of cooperation.Prof . Dr . Jānis VucānsPresident of the BSPC 2015-201625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 9THE BALTIC SEAPARLIAMENTARYCONFERENCES1991–201610 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock.com | Estea1st BSPC – 1991 Helsinki, FinnlandThe 1st Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Helsinkion 7–9 January 1991, on the initiative of the President of the Finn-ish Parliament, Mr Kalevi Sorsa. The title was the ParliamentaryConference on Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Area. Six successiveConferences had the English name of the “Parliamentary Confer-ence on Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Area”. The 7th ParliamentaryConference replaced the word “Area” with “Region”. The Confer-ence was renamed by the 8th Conference as the “Baltic Sea Parlia-mentary Conference”.The 1st Conference was attended by parliamentary delegationsfrom Denmark, Estonia, Greenland, Hamburg, Iceland, Karelia,Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Norway,Poland, Schleswig-Holstein, Sweden, the Åland Islands, the FaroeIslands, and the USSR. Observers were sent by the U. N. EuropeanEconomic Conference, EFTA, the Helsinki Committee, the In-ter-parliamentary Union, the Nordic Council, and the Council ofEurope.Some of the subjects discussed at the Conference were proposed af-ter earlier consultations (a preparatory meeting was held in Helsin-ki on 13 September 1990) but a number of other issues were25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 11discussed at the Conference forum. This gave the Conference thecharacter of a working meeting that identified problems in the Bal-tic Sea Region needing swift action.Talks held during the Conference concentrated on four subjects:economy, ecology, culture, and politics.The economic discussions were dominated by issues relating to thetransition of former communist bloc countries to market econo-mies and the economic reforms in the Soviet Union. It was empha-sised that the economic development of the Baltic States and theLeningrad area was vital to the region’s integration and that theWest should develop an appropriate mechanism for assisting thoseareas. The speakers expressed their hope for a rapid opening of theEast to a capitalist economy, e. g. through free economic zones.However, they also emphasised that political stability free fromarmed conflicts is a pre-condition of development.During the debate on environmental protection, the invited expertspresented the situation regarding the contamination of the BalticSea waters. This made clear to the Conference participants that eco-systems are not divided by political boundaries and that any meas-ures to improve the natural conditions could be only be successfulthough joint action. Consequently, solution of ecological problemsrequires not only technological solutions but also political will andbroad understanding. The participants called for urgent action toprevent contamination increasing in the Baltic region.They proposed a number of concrete measures, such as a joint sys-tem of taxes and fines for environmental pollution or signing a con-vention on the reduction of harmful substances added to the fuel ofships using the Baltic Sea.The Conference also pointed out the importance of developing co-operation in the fields of education and culture. The participantsvoiced their hope that this cooperation would enable Northern Eu-rope to be a model for co-existence within and between regions andethnic minorities. The Nordic Council reported a number of initia-tives intended to intensify cooperation with the Baltic States: theCouncil opened its information centres in the capitals of thosecountries, and the Danish Culture Institute did the same in Riga.At the same time, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia opened similarcentres in Copenhagen.The political debate was dominated by developments in the BalticStates. Their representatives strongly protested against measures12 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencetaken by the USSR authorities, and other delegates, especially therepresentatives from Denmark, voiced similar opinions. The discus-sion also concerned the security issue in the region, the proposedNordic nuclear weapon-free zone, and cooperation to combat inter-national crime. There was also a proposal to establish a Baltic SeaCouncil that would compile plans for cooperation in the region, in-itially in the fields of culture and economy, and later in areas such astechnology, power industry, and education. This proposal was soonimplemented. In autumn 1991, Denmark and Germany, consider-ing economic and political stabilisation of the Baltic Sea Region,proposed an initiative to establish a new international organisationat governmental level. The Foreign Ministers of Denmark, Estonia,Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia andSweden, as well as representatives of the European Commission metin Copenhagen on 5–6 March 1992. They set up the Council ofBaltic Sea States, an organisation to build up democratic institu-tions in the region and co-operate on matters of economy, culture,environmental protection, nuclear security, and social affairs. TheCouncil is now one of the most important players for internationalcooperation in the region.The Conference did not produce any formal conclusions or a reso-lution, but it should be considered as extremely important becauseof its ground-breaking character. The variety of regional develop-ment concepts presented at the Conference provided a basis for fur-ther debate and cooperation between the states and regions con-cerned.It should be noted that a symbol identifying the Conference ap-peared as early as the Helsinki meeting in the form of a logo featur-ing a blue rectangular intersected by eight grey-and-black wavingstripes. This logo is still in use today.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 13Photo: shutterstock.com | joyfull2nd BSPC – 1992 Oslo, NorwayThe 2nd Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was organised by thePresidium of the Nordic Council and the Parliament of the King-dom of Norway. The Conference was held in Oslo on 22–24 April1992.The expectations of the Conference were high, especially from theBaltic States, which were in the process of building their independ-ence and hoping for support at this forum for their aspirations. Thebreakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 created a totally new situationin the region and opened new perspectives. The delegates had to de-velop a plan for cooperation under the new circumstances and theyhad to find a place for the parliamentary dimension, particularly inthe context of establishing the Council of the Baltic Sea States.These issues were also raised at the 1st and 3rd Plenary Sessions Bal-tic Sea Identity – Visions of Regional Cooperation and InstitutionalFrameworks for Interparliamentary Cooperation in the Baltic Sea. Theaim of the Conference was also to discuss issues relating to infra-structure and communications.These topics were discussed at the 2nd Plenary Session.14 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceAs the Conference progressed, differences emerged as to the defini-tion of the range of subjects for Baltic cooperation. Delegationsfrom Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia represented an opinion thatthis cooperation should above all include security issues. In thiscontext, they all demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops fromtheir territories. The delegation of Russia’s Supreme Council pro-tested against the inclusion of these issues and blocked further de-bate on this subject. On the other hand, the Supreme Council’s del-egates said the Parliamentary Conference was a good forum for dis-cussing issues relating to ethnic minorities (the context of Russianminority in the Baltic States was more than apparent here).The Conference eventually agreed that it should seek to turn theBaltic Sea into a conflict-free area and that this problem should beconsidered in the context of general parliamentary security.Respect for the rights of ethnic minorities was a basic feature of de-mocracy, and the Conference did not include any of these issues inits final Resolution.The debate over the criteria for participation in the Baltic confer-ence of parliamentarians took much of the Conference’s time. Theparticipants agreed that cooperation should involve not only coun-tries but also autonomous areas, regions, and some cities. They alsorecognised the right of parliamentary multi-national organisations,such as the Nordic Council and the Baltic Assembly, to take part inthe Conferences. They also concluded that the geographical criteri-on, i. e. the location in the immediate area around the Baltic Sea, isnot an explicit condition for participation in the Conference. A ge-ographic criterion was the reason why Iceland was not a member ofthe Council of Baltic Sea States from its very beginning.However, following an intensive campaign, Iceland was accepted bythe Council of Baltic Sea States at the 4th Ministerial Session ofCBSS.As regards positioning the Parliamentary Conference in relation tothe Council of Baltic Sea States, the Norwegians made the mostfar-reaching proposals, suggesting that the Conference be held to-gether with the CBSS meetings. The Conference would then fulfilfunctions similar to those of a parliament in relation to executiveauthorities. However, this idea was deemed premature though allparticipants agreed that mutual coordination of measures and prob-lems discussed would benefit both organisations.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 15The conference adopted three documents: a Resolution (since then,each annual Conference has adopted its own Resolution), a Decla-ration on Communications, and a Mandate for Parliamentary Con-ferences for Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Area which was very im-portant in terms of future activities of the Conference. The Resolu-tion proposals included continuing the activities of the Conferenceas a basis for parliamentary cooperation in the region. It also de-fined areas that would form the focus of the Conference’s work (en-vironmental protection, economy, trade, education, developmentof democracy). It called on participating governments to recognisethe Conference, to take into consideration its principles and recom-mendations as well as cooperate in solving the region’s probleMsThe Declaration on Communications addressed the issues discussedby the Conference of Baltic States’ Ministers of Transport in Szczecin(17–18 March 1992) and appealed for programmes to develop in-frastructure in the region and to develop telecommunications andmass media cooperation. It also asked the governments to presentreports on the progress in these areas at the Conference forum.The mandate worked out by the Conference in Oslo to provide aformal basis for the Conference activities included the following:• Th e Conference is a body that initiates and coordinates cooper-ation on the forum of parliamentary debate;• D ecisions are adopted by consensus;• P articipants of the Conference are representatives of the parlia-ments taking part in the 1st Conference in Helsinki, as well asthe parliaments of Bremen, the Federal Republic of Germany,the Russian Federation (formerly the participant was USSR),the Nordic Council and the Baltic Assembly;• Th e Conference can also invite other regional and internationalorganisations as observers or special guests;• A two-day Parliamentary Conference will be held every year andits host will be responsible for its preparation and running thesecretariat (with the assistance of the Nordic Council, on re-quest) and will cover the costs of administration and simultane-ous translation, but the costs of participation (transport, accom-modation) will be covered by the delegates themselves.Th e document listed the Finnish, Scandinavian, Russian, Polish,Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, German and English languages,but the number of languages was much smaller in practice;16 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference• I t is recommended that an inter-parliamentary working groupbe appointed, consisting of one representative from each of thefollowing countries: the Nordic countries, the Baltic States, Ger-many, Poland, and the Russian Federation, which would help toorganise the Conference.The Parliamentary Conference in Oslo can be considered the finalphase in setting up the institutional foundations of parliamentarycooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, in a period when the mainprinciples of the organisation’s activities were crystallising.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 17Photo: shutterstock.com | itsmejust3rd BSPC – 1994 Warsaw, PolandThe 3rd Baltic Sea Parliamentary Parliamentary Conference washeld in Warsaw on 5–6 May 1994, at the Polish Sejm and Senate(Lower and Upper House) Buildings. The organisers had to cancelthe meeting previously scheduled for 3–4 June 1993 because of apolitical crisis in Poland and dissolution of the Polish Parliament byPresident Lech Wałe ̧sa. After consultation with the Nordic Coun-cil, the conference was postponed until the following year and thedecision was approved by the Sejm Presidium on 21 January 1994.The main objectives were to discuss the effectiveness of the Confer-ence, intensification of parliamentary cooperation, and the impactof parliamentary activity on the transitional process in the Baltic re-gion. The framework for this discussion was the issues disc ussed bythree Plenary Sessions – Euroregions in the Baltic Sea Area: DifferentForms of Trans-border Cooperation, Cultural and Youth Exchange, En-vironmental Policy in the Baltic Sea Region, and Problems of Coopera-tion in the Baltic Sea Region.The Warsaw Conference continued to develop the decisions takenin Oslo, and made the final decision to set up the Inter-parlia-mentary Working Group with the membership as proposed the18 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceprevious year. This body was known as the “Parliamentary Refer-ence Group”, the “Working Group”, the “Inter-parliamentaryWork ing Group” or the “Planning Group”. As was mentioned inthe 5th Conference Resolution, although only adopted by the 8thConfer ence, the group was then usually called the “Standing Com-mittee”. This group would be responsible for preparing the nextConfer ence and representing the Conference in relation to otherinterna tional organisations. The Group’s Secretariat was to receivetechni cal support from the Secretariat of the Nordic Council. Fromthen on, the Group held regular meetings in between Conferences.The Secretariat met sporadically.The above decisions were included in the Resolution, which also ap-pealed for greater political cooperation in the region, supp ort for lo-cal activities, participation in these activities by non-gov ernmentalorganisations, promotion of programmes for cultural, educational,and scientific exchange, as well as faster ratification of the HelsinkiConvention on Maritime Environmental Protection in the BalticSea Area. The Resolution also referred to the activities of the Coun-cil of Baltic Sea States, thereby continuing the strategy of close co-operation between the Conference and the Council. It asked theCouncil, for example, to submit annual reports on its activities tothe Conference Forum.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 19Photo: shutterstock.com | marchello744th BSPC – 1995 Rønne, DenmarkThe 4th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Rønne, Born-holm, on 12–13 September 1995, by invitation from the Nor dic Coun-cil and the Danish Parliament. For the first time, the Conf erence had amotto: Towards a Baltic Sea Region. This, however, did not become arule right away: the 5th and 8th Conferences had no mottoes.The status of the Conference was certainly improved by Swed en andFinland officially joining the European Union on January 1, 1995. TheBaltic Region then became one of the main areas in the European Un-ion as shown by the attendance of and speech by the President of theEuropean Parliament, Klaus Hänsch, Ph. D. Klaus Hänsch said thatthe new situation moved the EU’s political centre of gravity north-wards. He also spoke about the Union using Scandin avian experiencein areas such as the labour market and cons umer protection, and he an-nounced the Union’s active involvem ent in solving the ecological prob-lems in the Baltic area, rights of ethnic minorities, and nuclear security.Four Plenary Sessions were held during the Conference: Parlia mentaryCooperation in the Baltic Sea Area, The Policy of the European Union inthe Baltic Sea Area, Democracy, Human Rights and Minorities and NewConcepts of Security and Stability in the Region.20 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe speakers stressed the importance of cooperation with the Europe-an Union, with the associated opportunities and difficulties this en-tailed, and they emphasised the necessity of continuing regional inte-gration and strengthening mutual bonds. Much time was devoted toquestions of security in the region, especially in the context of Russiamaintaining a large military potential in the Kaliningrad District. Aspart of the implementation of the decisions included in the Resolu-tion of the 3rd Conference, Swedish Foreign Minister Ms LenaHjelm-Wallen presented a report on the proc eedings of the Council ofBaltic Sea States. From then on, the report of the CBSS representative(usually the foreign minister of the country currently presiding overthe Council) has become a permanent feature of the Baltic Sea Parlia-mentary Conferences.Another report, “Democracy, the Human and Minority Rights”, waspresented by Mr Ole Espersen, a CBSS Commissioner for Demo craticInstitutions and Human Rights, and “Persons Belonging to Ethnic Mi-norities”. This body was established as part of CBSS struct ures in May1994. Commissioner Espersen kept his mandate for two terms and wassucceeded by Ms Helle Degn. Commissioner Espersen discussed therole of a parliamentary ombudsman and the opportunities such a rolewould present. He also discussed questions relating to the granting ofcitizenship and the continuat ion of the death penalty in some countriesof the region. Deputy Włodzimierz Konarski of Poland presented thePolish proposal for confidence-enhancing measures as a programme ofconcrete actions to improve security in the region. His proposals in-cluded an intensification of the exchange of military information, mili-tary monitors, joint exercises and more working contacts.The Conference Resolution spoke about support for cooperat ion at re-gional level and action by non-governmental organisat ions, and it en-couraged the European Union to cooperate in cont rolling organisedcrime and to support regional pro-ecology proj ects. The Resolution de-voted a lot of attention to the Standing Committee. Parliamentarianscame out in favour of continuing the Committee’s activities. They sug-gested that delegations of the Conf erence should be permanent, andthat they should be elected by the parliaments involved, and they alsoproposed establishing a perm anent secretariat to support the work ofthe Committee. The CBSS was supposed to establish a similar struc-ture, and its Secretari at, located in Stockholm, was inaugurated on 20October 1998.The Resolution reiterated the need for close cooperation with the CBSS.Its text clearly indicated that the Conference should evolve towards apermanent parliamentary assembly that applied democratic proceduresto support the actions taken by the CBSS.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 21Photo: shutterstock.com | f9photos5th BSPC – 1996 Riga, LatviaThe 5th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Riga on10–11 September 1996, following an invitation from the LatvianParliament. The Chairman of the Standing Committee that organ-ised the Conference was Deputy Juris Sinka of Latvia.The Riga Conference could be described as “typical” in terms of thesubjects discussed. It emphasised environmental protection issuesin the Baltic region and discussed the activities of the Europ ean Un-ion and its Committee for the Baltic Sea Region. The Con ferencerenewed its call for the implementation of the Helsinki Committeerecommendations. Mr Joris Declerck, a representative of the Euro-pean Committee, presented the main points of the docum ent “TheInitiative of the Baltic Sea Region”, adopted in Visby, on the Swed-ish island of Gotland, on 3 May 1996, which defined the Union’spolicy on the region. The main areas of this policy included strength-ening and stabilising democracy, economic development resultingfrom trade liberalisation, building transport and power infrastruc-ture, and support for sub-regional cooperation. The partici pantsalso discussed questions of trans-border cooperation in the region.The main areas of this cooperation were identified as econ omic co-operation to promote sustainable development, ecology and thesphere of contacts among citizens, and local initiatives. The speakers22 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceappealed for faster investment in the eastern part of the Baltic. Dep-uty Andrzej Wielowieyski described Poland’s experience in cooper-ating with Central European countries.The Conference ended with a round-table debate that adopted theResolution. The Resolution reflected all the subjects discussed bythe Conference. Its participants once again called for an intensi-fication of contacts with the CBSS and close cooperation in fisher-ies, scientific research and other areas. The Resolution also drew at-tention to the necessity of solving the power problems of the regionby implementing joint power management and utilisation of re-newable sources at an industrial scale.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 23Photo: shutterstock.com | Marcin Krzyzak6th BSPC – 1997 Gdansk, PolandThe 6th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Gdanskon 15–16 September 1997. During the meeting of the StandingCommittee in Copenhagen on 15 December 1995, Deputy LonginPastusiak put forward an idea of organising a Parliamentary Confer-ence in Gdansk in 1997. The timing would coincide with the cele-brations marking the city’s 1000th anniversary in the same year. Atthe next meeting of the Standing Committee (Riga, 29 March1996) Deputy Pastusiak officially renewed the invitation. The invi-tation was accepted because of the anniversary, although only twoyears had passed since the 3rd Conference in Warsaw. Another can-didate to host the Conference in 1997 was the Parliament ofSchleswig-Holstein, which eventually agreed to postpone its candi-dacy by one year.The motto of the Conference was Mare Balticum – Mare Nos trum.It focused on the broad regional cooperation to which it devoted itsfirst and third Plenary Sessions, and also paid a lot of attention tocooperation in controlling organised crime in the Bal tic Sea Region.The subject of the second Session was Security and Confidence-build-ing in the Region. The session was held as a panel discussion moder-ated by Deputy Janusz Onyszkiewicz. The panellists tried to findanswers to questions about the changing balance of power in the24 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceregion resulting from the enlargement of NATO and the EuropeanUnion, as well as the role of Russia and the Nordic Council in main-taining stability in the region. They also discussed the concept ofneutrality of the Baltic Sea.Apart from addressing such issues as cooperation with the Councilof Baltic Sea States and control of organised crime, the Resolutionalso appealed to the governments for political support for regionaland local projects and drew attention to the need to work for sus-tained economic and social development in the region. The Resolu-tion called on the European Union to support the Baltic States intheir applications for EU membership by pro viding expertise andby changing its internal structure to allow enlargement.The Resolution confirmed the role of the Standing Committee as alink between the Conference and the CBSS and it appealed for theallocation of resources and personnel in the countries involved tosupport the continuation of the Conference proceedings. The docu-ment also mentioned the tragic floods in Poland and Germany andasked the governments of the region to provide assistance to relievethe consequences of the floods.The Gdansk Conference focused on selected issues which allowedin-depth discussion of complex subjects and identification of exist-ing probleMs It succeeded in attracting outstanding speak ers (e. g.CBSS Commissioner Ole Espersen, European Commission Mem-ber Ms Ursula Stenzel, and Poland’s National Prosecutor Hen rykPracki). The atmosphere of the Conference was clearly influe ncedby the anniversary celebrations taking place in Gdansk at the sametime.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 25Photo: shutterstock.com | sunfun7th BSPC – 1998 Lübeck, Schleswig-HolsteinThe 7th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Lübeck on7–8 September 1998, on the invitation of the Parliament ofSchleswig-Holstein. This was the first Conference organised by a re-gional, not a national parliament. The Conference was originallyplanned for Kiel, as mentioned in the Gdansk Resolution. TheChairman of the Standing Committee during the conference prep-aration phase was President of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament,Mr Heinz-Werner Arens.The motto of this Conference was A Follow-up of the Luxem bourgSummit – Consequences for the Baltic Sea Region. The meeting of theEuropean Council in Luxembourg on 12–13 December 1997 haddecided to start the process of enlarging the European Union east-wards by adding the Baltic countries of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia,and Estonia. Implementation of this proc ess would diametricallychange the political and economic rela tions in the region. Conse-quently, this important decision was a subject of parliamentary de-bate.The Conference had three Plenary Sessions. The 1st Session wasCooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, the 2nd Session referred to thetitle of the Conference, and the 3rd Session dealt with Links in the26 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceBaltic Sea Region – Solidarity and People-to-People Approach. Thismeans direct contact between people living in the near-bor der areasand local contacts at the lowest level.The 7th Conference discussed a number of concepts and princ iplesthat offered hope for developing cooperation in the Baltic Sea Re-gion and improving effectiveness. It should be noted that all theparliamentarians stressed the need to combine the processes of Bal-tic integration with European integration. Consequently, they didnot describe the regional cooperation as an alternative but rather asupplement on the road to integration with the European Union.The Conference participants focused on developing practical coop-eration and moving the Conference forward into a new phase. Thisswitched the focus from strategic discussions to ways of prom otingand supporting actual projects. Measures included coordin ation ofthe activities of various organisations operating around the BalticSea and focusing their efforts on concrete projects; also by develop-ing the “people-to-people approach” initiative and fol lowing theprinciple of subsidiarity, which is one of the guidelines of the Euro-pean Union.A major issue raised by almost every speaker was cooperation withRussia. Inviting Russia (primarily Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg)to participate in joint projects and developing an overall poli cy forthat country was described as a major task facing the Con ference.The Resolution adopted in Lübeck was the longest text ever accept-ed by the Parliamentary Conference. It included a number of re-quests to the European Commission, European Union, and govern-ments, asking for facilitation of the EU enlargement process. TheResolution appealed to the candidate countries to quickly adopt theEU acquis communautaire and continue their political and eco-nomic reforMsThe Resolution mentioned the organisations that, alongside theCBSS, were to become the main partners of the Conference: theUnion of Baltic Towns, the Sub-regional Cooperation of Baltic SeaStates, the Association of Baltic Chambers of Commerce, and theConference of Europe’s Peripheral Sea Regions. The Resolution ex-pressly recommended that the Standing Committee implement theResolution’s provisions adopted by the Conference. The documentalso referred to the idea of the Northern Dimens ion, which becameanother major influence on the Conference’s activities. The conceptof developing the “Northern Dimension” of the European Unionwas proposed by Finland in 1997. The idea was that countries and25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 27regions around the Baltic Sea including Russ ia (also Iceland andBritain) would play an important role in the political stabilisationand economic development of the growing European Union. On25 November 1998, the European Commiss ion adopted a reporton the “Northern Dimension of the Europ ean Union’s Policy” afterwhich the EU summit in Vienna, Decemb er 1998, decided to in-corporate the Finnish initiative in the offic ial programme of theUnion.28 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: Magne Kveseth8th BSPC – 1999 Mariehamn, Åland IslandsThe 8th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Parliamentary Conference washeld on 7–8 September 1999 in Mariehamn, Åland Islands, onthe invitation of the regional Parliament. The Chairman of theStanding Committee that prepared the Conference in Marie-hamn was the representative of the Nordic States (Denmark),Mr Svend Erik Hov mand. Up till that date, Denmark had repre-sented the Nordic Coun cil on the Standing Committee, Latviahad represented the Baltic States, and Germany had representedthe Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein. Poland was also represent-ed and Russia represented by the Kaliningrad District. The organ-iser of the next Conference is always invited to take part in theCommittee work, unless already represented on the Committee.The Committee also started work on drafting a new Mandate forthe Parliamentary Conference and the Standing Committee forthe next year by implementing the recommendations of the previ-ous Resolutions. Although the Mandate was adopted by theMarie hamn Conference, it was slightly modified in relation to itsoriginal form. According to the Nordic countries, especially thesocial-dem ocratic faction, the proposed version gave too muchpower to the Standing Committee and the Secretariat. Neverthe-less, the general acceptance of the Mandate paved the way for25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 29further consolida tion of Conference structures and opening upnew areas for work.The Conference also launched a number of initiatives to inten sifycooperation with the Council of Baltic Sea States. It started pub-lishing information about its work in the Council’s periodical“Baltinfo,” visited the Council’s Secretariat in Stockholm, and in-vited representatives of the Council to its sessions.There were three Plenary Sessions during the Mariehamn Con-ference: “Social Dimension of the Enlargement of the EU as theFol low-up of the Lübeck Conference”, “Cooperation in the Bal-tic Sea Region, Including the Infrastructure”, and “SustainableDevelop ment and its Environmental Aspects”.The Conference in Mariehamn tried to refer to the previous Con-ference, so it devoted much time to the enlargement of the Euro-pean Union. However, this time it focused on the new situa tionin the labour market and the social consequences of the pro cess.Delegates of the host country also pointed out the impor tance ofenvironmental protection in the region (this issue being extreme-ly important for the tourist-oriented Åland Islands).The Resolution adopted included a number of principles regard-ing environmental protection, particularly the eradication of con-tamination sources in the region, and referred to the EuropeanUnion’s policy on the candidate countries.30 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com | Mikhail Markovskiy9th BSPC – 2000 Malmö, SwedenThe 9th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Malmö on4–5 September 2000, on the invitation of the Swedish Parlia ment.The motto of the Conference was Baltic Sea Cooperation – Bridgestowards the Future. Malmö was chosen for the Confer ence becauseof the opening (in July 2000) of the bridge linking the city with Co-penhagen across the Öresund strait. This transport route creatednew opportunities for local and regional cooperat ion and was alsoimportant an important link in the European transport system. Asa way of illustrating the key importance of this international link,the Swedish hosts inaugurated the Conference with a dinner in Co-penhagen, hosted by the Danish Parliament, after which the partic-ipants returned to Malmö via the bridge. For the second time,Mr Svend Erik Hovmand was Chairman of the Standing Commit-tee that prepared the Conference.Topics discussed at this meeting of parliamentarians were more gen-eral. Participants discussed the further development of cooperationin the region and methods for bridging the economic gaps betweenthe Baltic States, in order to establish an integrated eco nomic area.There were three Plenary Sessions: Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Re-gion, Northern Dimension – Chances and Challenges for Regional and25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 31Sub-regional Cooperation, and a recap session. The second Sessioninvolved two working groups, discussing TransEuropean Networksand Cross-border Cooperation.There was also a meeting of the Standing Committee with rep-resentatives of non-governmental organisations operating in theBaltic region. At this meeting, participants discussed how to inten-sify mutual cooperation (similar meetings were earlier held inLübeck and Mariehamn).The unanimously adopted Resolution called on the parliaments andgovernments of countries and regions participating in the Confer-ence to continue developing regional and sub-regional cooperationand to assist cross-border cooperation, particularly by building newtrans-European network links (e. g. roads, power, information high-ways, etc). The Resolution also supported the pro motion of youthexchange, development of tourism, and coopera tion in the fightagainst international crime.The German representative (Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein)Mr Heinz-Werner Arens was elected Chairman of the StandingCommittee after the Conference in Malmö. The following Confer-ence was scheduled for 3–4 September 2001 in Greifswald, by invi-tation from the Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.32 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com | Gl0ck10th BSPC – 2001 Greif s wald,Mecklenburg-VorpommernThe 10th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Greifs -wald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, on 2–4 September2001 at the invitation of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Landtag.The theme of the Conference was Civil Society – A Political Modelbetween Vision and Reality. Parliamentarians focused on two mainissues – Civil Society and Safety of Ships and Sea Lanes.The ten first years of BSPC had laid the foundation for the anni-versary Greifswald Conference, where yet another step forward wastaken in terms of establishing the BSPC as a significant parlia-mentary political player in the region. For the first time the Confer-ence agreed not only on a general Resolution, but also on specificpolitical messages addressed to the governments of CBSS MemberStates. The BSPC was seen as a second pillar of cooperation aroundthe Baltic Sea – a parliamentary sister organisation to the CBSS.The Conference discussed how the concept of civil society waschanging. Cooperation concerning youth issues, democratic andcivil rights in all countries around the Baltic Sea was addressed. Theinterventions displayed the variety of opinions of the particip antsregarding the idea of democracy and human rights.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 33The Conference also discussed its own working methods. Therewere deliberations on the experiences of the first ten years of theBSPC, as well as its future tasks, structures and working methods.Constructive proposals were put forward in the discussion, whichwas also an occasion for self-critical stocktaking and for confronti ngsome contentious issues.It was noted that in the early years of parliamentary cooperat ion,coming together and getting acquainted were top priorities. After tenyears, the personal contacts, or even friendships, repres ent a value initself since they embody the continuity of the work. One option sug-gested for the future development of the Confer ence was to appointstanding delegations from the participating parliaments to the BalticSea Parliamentary Conference for one electoral term. Another issuewas how to combine national and regional parliaments as equal par-ticipants at the Conferences. Some of the delegates thought that elect-ed representatives from the regional level in other participating coun-tries than only Germ any and Russia should be invited, as there wereother elected assemblies that could be compared to regional parlia-ments. Other delegates thought that there was no perfect balance,since the quot as of parliamentarians were not in proportion to the re-spective populations. During the Conference preparations, a numberof concrete proposals about representation in the Standing Commit-tee had been tabled. As a result, the Standing Committee was en-larged by two additional members. Consensus was and has alwaysbeen a guiding principle for the work of the BSPC.The discussion on Kaliningrad that was started at the Malmö Con-ference in 2000 continued. Particular attention was paid to theproblems of the Kaliningrad region, caused by its geographical situ-ation. Many of the participants expressed a wish that the Kalinin-grad region could be the subject of a pilot project for the long-terminterregional cooperation between Russia and the EU.The issue of energy cooperation has always been one of the top pri-orities on the BSPC agenda. The Baltic Electricity Ring was debat-ed as an important strand of cooperation between people and coun-tries around the Baltic Sea. Joint action to combat interna tionalcrime was also a prominent issue at the Conference.The complex issue of safety of shipping and sea transport lanes waswidely discussed. Before the Conference, the host Parliament hadorganised a hearing on the topic and drafted a comprehensive re-port. The problem of preventing accidents and improving mari timesafety was deemed complicated and difficult to overcome. Preven-tion of oil spills was another concern for the Conference. A difficult34 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceproblem was eutrophication caused by excess discharge of phospho-rus and nitrogen. A BSPC Working Group, the Committ ee onMaritime Safety (COMS) had drafted a couple of paragraphs onthese issues as an input to the Conference Resolution.This Conference also discussed the situation and participation ofyoung people in decision-making, in NGOs, and in society in gen-eral. Representatives from different youth organisations attendedthe Conference and gave reports on the situation of young peopleand their organisations in the region. It was argued that involvingyoung people is a basic premise for a healthy democracy, and thatyoung people must be involved in the decis ion-making processes.This led to demands that youth issues should be a permanent topicat the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conf erence. It was also agreed that adelegation representing young people should be provided a seat atthe annual Baltic Sea Parlia mentary Conference. This has been thecase since then.When discussing civil society, it was observed that democracy in theBaltic Sea Region is based not only on freedom, but also on solidar-ity, and that civic participation should be encouraged and civil soci-ety strengthened. Equality between men and women was referred toas a guarantor for the development of sustainable, sta ble and pros-perous societies. Issues regarding minorities were tackled. Delegatespointed out the utmost importance of majorities allowing forumsfor minorities, while unsolved minority problems can cause antago-nisMs A strong and shared Baltic Sea identity was seen as a prereq-uisite for enhanced cooperation.The Conference also received a political message from the deleg atesfrom Italy, Greece and Croatia, members of the Adriatic-Ioni an In-itiative (AII), a new parliamentary cooperative structure aroundpart of the Mediterranean Sea. The AII was interested in establish-ing contacts with other parliamentary organisations, and for themthe BSPC was an example of a well-functioning and solid sub-re-gional parliamentary structure.The Conference celebrated the 10th anniversary of the BSPC bypresenting the booklet “BSPC – 10 Years of Work”, the text ofwhich is included in the first nine chapters of this publication, andby officially opening the BSPC homepage.The Conference Resolution was in two parts. The first part was de-voted to cooperation issues in the Baltic Sea Region, and the sec ondpart was dedicated to safety at sea, prepared by COMs25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 35Photo: shutterstock. com | Brian Kinney11th BSPC – 2002 St. Petersburg, RussiaThe 11th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was organised inSt. Petersburg on 30 September-1 October 2002 under the themeBaltic Sea and Ways of Integration and Cooperation.This was the first time the Conference had been organised in Rus-sia. Consequently, a major issue was Russia’s position in Europe, itsrole in the Northern Dimension, and cooperation with other coun-tries both in and outside the region. Kaliningrad was again high onthe agenda of the Conference. Many of the participants expressedthat Kaliningrad is both a joint problem and a joint responsibility.The Russian parliamentarians wished to see Kalinin grad as a pilotproject for the development of EU-Russia relations. But it was ad-mitted that the exclave also had problems since it was, even in Rus-sian terms, economically stagnant.As to the upcoming enlargement of the EU, the Russian partici-pants saw the visa issue as a test of Russia-EU relations. There wereconcerns that the visa regime would isolate Kaliningrad. Russiandelegates also pointed out that EU-Russia relations were not only aquestion about Kaliningrad. They stated that Russia will participateactively in the Northern Dimension of the EU, both in economicand environmental spheres. According to them the main objective36 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencewas to prevent the emergence of new dividing lines within Europe.A reduction of military resources in the region, as well as developingcooperation between armed forces, was also discussed.At its launch five years earlier, Russia had high expectations of theNorthern Dimension but now felt it was a disappointment. Themessage was that it should have embraced cooperation, not only as-sistance, and dedicated funds should have been allocated. TheNorthern Dimension was, however, seen as an instrument for envi-ronmental cooperation that ought to be developed more actively.An unusual input from the environmental angle was a report on theharbour porpoise, one of the smallest marine mammals, and itsability to survive in the Baltic Sea. This was an example of how en-thusiastic projects can be transformed into political standpoints, asthe porpoise issue was incorporated in the Conference Resolu tion.The Conference also discussed the health issue which was, and stillis, a vital concern to the Baltic Sea Region. Public health was seen asa part of soft security.The Resolution was again divided in two parts. In the general poli-cy part, the parliamentarians asked the CBSS and the govern mentsin the region to undertake joint efforts to strengthen the NorthernDimension, and to contribute to a structured implement ation andfollow-up of the Northern Dimension Action Plan.At the earlier meetings, the Conference had already expressed con-cern about the large number of players in the region. Conse quently,the parliamentarians now expressed wishes that the coop erationwithin the Baltic Sea Region would be streamlined by an effectivedivision of labour and responsibilities, that coordination would beimproved between the numerous regional bodies and WorkingGroups and that duplication of projects would be mini mised.The second part of the Resolution included pleas to the govern-ments and the CBSS regarding safety and security at sea. The Con-ference was unanimous in its view of IMO an important player insafeguarding the Baltic Sea. In this part of the Resolution, the BalticSea Parliamentary Conference called upon the Council of Baltic SeaStates (CBSS) and the governments of the region to adopt a num-ber of measures aimed at preventing and controlling shipping acci-dents, to continue to fundamentally improve the safety of ships andnavigation, and to cooperate internationally in this field. The Con-ference also expressed its satisfaction that it had been granted ob-server status with HELCOM.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 37Eutrophication was mentioned as the most pressing problem in theBaltic Sea. Run-off from agriculture and air emissions from the useof fossil fuel was mentioned as the largest contributors to the nitro-gen load. Urban and industrial sewage was the largest phos phorussource.Some participants tabled a HELCOM report from 1992/93 whichstated that after World War II, some 300,000 tons of Germanchemical munitions were dumped in the Baltic Sea, including about65,000 tons of poisonous gases. This was not known for a longtime, since military documents were classified. In the Resolu tion,one of the recommendations was that the governments of the HEL-COM parties should carry out further investigations to localise andidentify dumped chemical munitions.The Resolution also noted that the COMS Working Group hadproved to be a useful instrument for developing political opinionand recommendations, and for improving the dialogue with institu-tions in the Baltic Sea Region and beyond. It was stated that Work-ing Groups should remain one of BSPC’s instruments in futurework.The Conference amended the BSPC Rules of Procedure so that twomore members, one from Russia and one from the Nordic coun-tries, were added to the Standing Committee.38 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com | HildaWeges Photography12th BSPC – 2003 Oulu, FinlandThe 12th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was organised inOulu, Finland, 8–9 September 2003. The theme of the Conferencewas The Baltic Sea Region – An Area of Knowledge, which was an ap-propriate topic to be discussed in Oulu, being an IT and knowl edgecentre in the Gulf of Bothnia, Northern Finland. The upcomi ng en-largement of the European Union was mentioned in almost everyintervention at the Conference. It was seen as creating a new chal-lenge for the whole region and many of the participants assumedand hoped that it would further underline the impor tance ofEU-Russia relations and of the Northern Dimension. One of thefundamental objectives of the Northern Dimension would be to en-hance the welfare, health and security of citizens.At the time of the Conference, the construction of the south-westwastewater treatment plant in St. Petersburg had begun. This wasthe largest single investment during the decade to improve the con-dition of the Baltic Sea. The project was warmly welcomed by theparliamentarians. The establishment of the Northern Dimen sionEnvironmental Partnership was another breakthrough.It was stated that greater efficiency in agriculture should not lead toincreased runoff of nutrients. Support from the European Union25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 39would be vital especially for environmental protection in Russia,and the Northern Dimension Partnership Fund in the EBRDshould be a vital instrument in improving the state of the Baltic Sea.The situation of the NGOs was once again discussed. A rappor teurwas nominated to review legislation in the countries of the BalticSea Region and to monitor the situation of the NGOs.The nature of parliamentary cooperation was once again tackl ed atthe Conference. It was noted that the Standing Committee had twomain tasks: firstly, to follow-up the final Resolution from the annu-al Conference and, secondly, to prepare the next Confer ence. Themandate of the Standing Committee had proved to be efficient butstill restricted, so a broadening of the role of the Standing Commit-tee needed to be considered.The Standing Committee was already an acknowledged partner inthe political landscape of the region. However, according to thestatutes, the committee could not fully participate in discussionsbetween the Conferences and take a position on a single issue if thisissue had not been mentioned in the Resolutions. The EU enlarge-ment and its impact on the region, as well as an increasing role ofthe CBSS concerning the development of the Northern Dimen-sion, made it necessary to discuss the role of the BSPC and organi-sation of parliamentary cooperation in the future. The BSPC hadbeen given the status of one of the regional organisations cooperat-ing with the CBSS, thereby allowing it to monitor the work of theCBSS. The parliamentarians wished to strengthen and develop thestructures and organisation of the cooperation towards a parliamen-tary dimension of the CBSS.Since the Conference in Malmö in 2000, the topic of maritime safe-ty had been a substantial component of the Resolutions of 2001and 2002. The results of the BSPC Working Group COMS, whichhad been appointed in 2000, had also included the BSPC applyingfor observer status with HELCOM.Developing Baltic Sea cooperation in the field of civil security wasdeemed vital. Organised cross-border crime, a growing drug prob-lem, trafficking of women and children, smuggling of persons andgoods, and brutal violence were emerging and worrying mani-festations on the criminal scene.The topic of maritime safety was again high on the agenda. Themost important demands were the designation of the Baltic Sea as aParticularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA), and the introduction of40 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencecompulsory use of pilots in particularly sensitive areas. The Confer-ence noted that by undertaking joint actions with the InternationalMaritime Organisation (IMO), the Baltic Sea states have obtainedrecognition by the international community of the sensitivity of theBaltic Sea and its heavy sea traffic. All ships, regardless of flag, arenow required to comply with more stringent discharge regulat ionswhen in the Baltic Sea area.In terms of the knowledge society in the Baltic Sea Region, the de-velopment of basic skills as a basis for future learning was con-sidered important. The need for a comprehensive strategy to dealwith key competencies was recognised, where basic education andlifelong learning will complement each other. The idea of foundinga “Baltic Sea University” was once again raised. The Baltic Sea Re-gion could emerge as a model knowledge society, where education,training and academic life are treated as key assets in sustainable de-velopment. This would require mutual recognition of diplomas andthe creation of multi-institutional degrees in the Balt ic Sea Regionbased on harmonised educational standards and programmes.In analysing the labour market of the Baltic Sea Region, the Con-ference was concerned about the phenomenon of social marginali-sation. The Conference called for the setting up of a database of jobvacancies in the Baltic Sea Region in order to facilitate cross-bordermobility of labour resources. Existing national databases of job va-cancies should be developed in a way that would benefit the entireBaltic Sea Region labour market. The Conference also stressed thatthe Baltic Sea Region can only flourish if there are well-functioninglabour market structures and a skilled labour force.For the first time, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Eco-nomic Cooperation (PABSEC) attended the Conference.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 41Photo: shutterstock. com | TTphoto13th BSPC – 2004 Bergen, NorwayThe 13th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was convened inBergen, Norway, 29–31 August 2004. Under the theme Sustain-able Development – Shared Concerns and Responsibilities in the Bal-tic Sea Region, the Conference showed two superficially contradic-tory trends in the cooperation: continuity and change. Continu-ity because the parliamentarians had been meeting since 1991,and the regional parliamentary cooperation was well established.Change because this was the first Conference after the enlarge-ment of the European Union in May 2004. The fact that the Bal-tic Sea was now almost an EU-Russian internal water was expect-ed to change the form and to some extent the content of BalticSea cooperation. The impact of EU enlargement was not sched-uled for separate discussion but became a constant thread in thedebates on the present and future of Baltic Sea cooperation. Thefollowing points were repeatedly mentioned as the most impor-tant aspects of the enlarged Union for regional cooperation inNorthern Europe: the possibility of obtaining additional EUfunds for pro jects in the Baltic Sea Region; the importance of theregion as a common EU-Russia geographical area; the necessityof a parliamen tary aspect to the Northern Dimension; and theneed for future participation of the European Parliament in theBSPC.42 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe theme of change and continuity ran vertically through all thediscussions at the Conference, but was most clearly visible in thediscussion about the future of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Con-ference itself. There was a clear consensus among the partici pantsthat parliamentary cooperation would also be needed in the fu-ture, not only at European level, but also at a regional level.Every body agreed that, under the new geopolitical circumstances,the BSPC should be strengthened and turned into a true parlia-mentary dimension of the CBSS, though there were divergingviews as to how this should be accomplished. A ParliamentarianPartnership for Northern Europe, as an overarching structure forthe geographi cal area and a driving force in relations with thegovernments and the EU Commission, was proposed as food forthought and inspira tion. The idea received support but did notlead to any major changes in the parliamentary structures inNorthern Europe.The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference has no mandate to makebinding decisions. Its strength lies in bringing together differ entvoices from the Baltic Sea States. Parliamentarians from nationaland regional parliaments around the Baltic Sea attend the Con-ference, many of them also representing regional organisationslike the Baltic Assembly or the Nordic Council. The Conferencewas again joined by representatives from the Adriatic IonianInitia tive and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Eco-nomic Cooperation, reminding the Baltic Sea parliamentariansagain of the BSPC’s function as a model for other regional initia-tives in Europe.Another, though less obvious, theme of the Conference was thatof consensus and dissent. In the past years it had become quiteclear where the common interests lay and the areas in which jointmeasures were possible. A number of successful initiatives werementioned by the parliamentarians, such as measures for reduc-ing the load of heavy metals discharged into the sea. But bones ofcon tention had also become something of a tradition, hamperingpro gress in areas such as maritime safety.At the end of the Conference, the Resolution was passed unani-mously despite the often heated discussions. The non-bindingRes olutions of the Conference and the broad extent of the topicsof Baltic Sea cooperation mean that most of the issues discussedare long-term projects.During the past year, the Standing Committee, whose task is torepresent the BSPC outside the annual meetings, had concen-25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 43trated on concrete political activities, such as the Northern Di-mension, EU enlargement and the European Neighbourhoodpolicy. The Standing Committee had also made its first visit toBrussels in November 2003 to discuss these issues. The out-come was positive and the committee would therefore continuethis practice.The success of the joint application to the IMO to grant the Bal-tic Sea status of a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) was seenby many participants as the biggest success of Baltic Sea coopera-tion since the Conference in 2003. At the same time, the applica-tion was a joint effort by a majority of Baltic Sea States. Russianparlia mentarians, while supporting the idea in the final Resolu-tion of the 12th BSPC in Oulu, remained strictly opposed to theidea.For the final Resolution, a compromise had to be found, as theoriginal text calling for the governments, the CBSS and HEL-COM to “Continue to work for designation of the whole BalticSea as a PSSA” was not supported by all participants. Instead, thewording “Support effective associated protective measures withrespect to relevant provisions in all the Resolutions of the BSPCon the pro tection of marine environment” was chosen. By formu-lating the text in this way, the 13th BSPC declared that it stoodbehind all its previous Resolutions, thereby including its supportfor the PSSA designation.Before the Conference, a new function had been established bythe Standing Committee, through nomination of a rapporteurfor Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad had grown considerably, but around180,000 inhabitants of the region still lived below the povertylevel.Since the previous Conference, another parliamentarian had beenacting as BSPC Rapporteur on the legislation regarding NGOs inthe Baltic Sea Region. A statement was made that effective coop-eration between people’s elected representatives and the civil soci-ety is vital for the democratic development of the region and thewellbeing of its citizens. According to the report, the status of thenon-profit sector varied greatly between the Baltic Sea coun tries.Reforms were needed in all countries in order to facilitate the ac-tive participation of the civil society sector in all stages of gov-ernance: local, regional, national and international. Several polit-ical recommendations regarding the status of NGOs in the regionwere put forward.44 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe discussion tackled the issues of weapons dumped after WorldWar II, and chemical and other toxic weapons stored by Bal ticSea countries.Already at the 12th BSPC in Oulu in 2003, the need for reform andthe desire to strengthen the BSPC had surfaced. This was broughtto a head at the 13th BSPC, where the BSPC Standing Committeewas given the task of making concrete proposals on the restructur-ing of the parliamentary Conference. It was asked to elaborate aproposal for how to develop the parliamentary dimens ion in coop-eration with the CBSS and the participating parliam ents and rele-vant inter-parliamentary bodies. The discussions showed clearlythat the goal of strengthening the BSPC was shared by all membersof the Standing Committee and the BSPC, although there were dis-agreements on how to achieve it.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 45Photo: shutterstock. com | JuliusKielaitis14th BSPC – 2005 Vilnius, LithuaniaThe 14th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference convened in Vilnius,Lithuania 28–30 August 2005. The theme of the Conference wasShared Conc erns and Responsibilities for Stability and Democracy, andit was aimed at strengthening the parliamentary dimension of theBaltic Sea Region and debating the shared concerns and responsi-bilities of the region. The broad participation, with over 90parliamentari ans and 150 observers and guests from all of the BalticSea coun tries, testified to the importance of parliamentary coopera-tion in the region.Even though more than a year had passed since the enlarge ment ofthe European Union in May 2004, the impact of this pro cess re-mained a fundamental issue during the Conference. The accessionof the three Baltic Countries and Poland to the EU had brokerednew possibilities for regional cooperation in Northern Europe, es-pecially with regard to the new options of additional EU funds forthe various projects in the Baltic Sea Region. An impor tant step wasthe participation of the European Parliament in the work of theBSPC Standing Committee. It was also obvious that the role of theCBSS had grown in view of the recent enlargement of the Europe-an Union.46 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceA strong link to the previous BSPC in Bergen was apparent through-out the Conference. Not only was the important issue of the envi-ronmental situation in the Baltic Sea Region resumed, but the im-pact of EU enlargement and the reform of the BSPC were againcrucial topics. In addition to enhanced cooperation with the CBSS,the main emphasis of future cooperation and development wouldbe placed on the Northern Dimension framework and the Europe-an Neighbourhood Policy.The future of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference and the re-form of the Rules of Procedure for both the Standing Committeeand the Conference itself were some of the main issues of the Con-ference. The theme ran vertically through all the discussions and ac-companied the debate on the joint responsibility for stability anddemocracy in the Baltic Sea Region. One of the main issues in theResolutions of 2003 and 2004 was the request for the StandingCommittee to elaborate proposals on how to develop the parlia-mentary dimension in cooperation with the CBSS. The StandingCommittee therefore had a task and mandate from the Conferenceto reform the BSPC Rules of Procedure. Through the participationof the parliamentarians and the strong cooperation with the CBSS,the new rules could contribute to the efficiency of the BSPC.Environmental challenges in the Baltic Sea Region were on theagenda. The urgency of this topic was raised by most speakers whilstseveral proposals and comments accompanied the debate.The Conference noted that, in July 2005, the Marine Environm entProtection Committee (MEPC) of the IMO had agreed upon thedesignation of the Baltic Sea as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area(PSSA). After the joint application to the IMO to grant the BalticSea PSSA status in 2003, this status is now regarded as a success forthe entire Baltic Sea Region. When an area is approved as a particu-larly sensitive area, special protection is granted due to its ecologicalsignificance, and specific measures can be used to restrict traffic inthat area. The decision of the IMO was described as a great break-through for the Baltic Sea countries in their efforts to protect theBaltic Sea.The role and status of civil society and especially NGOs was regard-ed as both a resource and a precondition for stability and democra-cy in the Baltic Sea Region. One of the main challenges concernsthe differences between the countries in the Baltic Sea Region in re-spect to NGO legislation, which creates barriers to enhanced re-gional cooperation. As the role of civil society and NGOs in theBaltic Sea Region was again a main issue, the Confer ence was25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 47attended by representatives of many civil society organi sations inthe region.After an intensive two-day debate, the Resolution and the new draftRules of Procedure for the BSPC were adopted unanimously by allparticipating parliamentarians at the end of the Conference. Thebiggest change concerned the Standing Committee, whose mandatewas expanded to work between the Conferences, and whose mem-bership now included representatives of the European Parliamentand the German Bundestag. Moreover, an Extended StandingCommittee acts as Drafting Committee during the Confer ence inorder to strengthen continuity in the parliamentary work. Theamended Rules and Conference Resolution, including the estab-lishment of a BSPC Working Group on Eutrophication, wereadopted unanimously.48 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com | Paul van den Berg15th BSPC – 2006 Reykjavik, Ice landThe 15th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Reykjavik, Icel and,3–5 September 2006 addressed the Northern Dimension and theOceans and Seas. The Conference was held in the northernm ost Eu-ropean capital in the Baltic Sea Region. The Conference took up is-sues such as the environment, with particular focus on the Baltic Sea,the Northern Dimension and how to further strengthen cooperationin the Region. The City of Reykjavik does not lie by the Baltic Sea,but this does not prevent the Icelandic Parliament participating inthe work of the BSPC.There was a lively debate throughout the two-day event in Reyk javik,with a wide variety of views and opinions exchanged. The ExtendedStanding Committee, convening for the first time as Drafting Com-mittee in accordance with the new Rules of Proced ure, had preparedthe Conference Resolution.The themes of the Conference were central to the discussions in theregion, but this time special emphasis was put on how to make thework of the Conference more effective, i. e. how to move from thediscussion of issues to their implementation. The underlyi ng conceptof the Rules of Procedure for the Standing Committee, as the perma-nent political body of the Conference, was to make the presence of25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 49parliamentary cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region felt beyond theannual Conference.According to the new Rules adopted in Vilnius in 2005, repres entativesfrom both Bundestag in Germany and the European Parl iament nowhad assumed their tasks in the Standing Committee. This was seen as apositive development that would hopefully secure continuity in therepresentation of the national and regional parliaments. Another im-portant issue had been to implement the Conference Resolution andalso to work according to the guidel ines in a written Work Programmethat had been developed duri ng the previous year.A lively discussion broke out regarding Belarus and its possible statusas an observer at the Conference. Some of the participants thoughtthat isolating an entire country, its parliament and people from any di-alogue with its surrounding region was unacceptable. Others felt thatdue to the political events taking place in Belarus, granting it eithermembership or even observer status at the BSPC could be difficult forsome of the members of the BSPC. The Integrated Maritime Policy ofthe EU was felt to offer promi sing opportunities for the Region, notleast in financial terMs Greater cooperation and coordination in orderto boost the health of the Baltic Sea could lead to prosperity and high-er standards of living for the people in the Region. Several speakers ex-pressed wishes that the BSPC could participate actively in the deliber-ations on the policy.The Nord Stream gas pipeline prompted lively discussion. The Russianparticipants assured that Russia would ensure that no harmful sub-stances would leak out. Others expressed doubts about the project, em-phasising the number of mines as well as chemical weapons on the sea-bed, and so the project was raising issues relating to ecology, economy,energy supply and security. The outcome of the discussion was put inthe Resolution as a plea to the governments and HELCOM to ensurethat the feasibility assessm ent for the pipeline is carried out with a highlevel of transpar ency and in compliance with all applicable internation-al obliga tions.The BSPC Working Group on Eutrophication had been active sincethe previous Conference. It had drafted input to the Confer ence Reso-lution regarding the serious situation of abnormal algae blooming andlifeless areas of the Baltic Sea seabed, with a plea to the governments tostrongly support all kinds of measures and instruments designed to re-duce pollutant and nutrient inputs from agriculture, municipalities,shipping and industries. It expressed its full support to the HELCOMactivities in the whole catchment area in order to fight eutrophicationin the Baltic Sea.50 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com | Sean Pavone16th BSPC – 2007 Berlin, GermanyThe 16th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held on 27–28August 2007 in Berlin under the theme Social Welfare, MaritimePolicy, Energy Security. It was the first time that the Bundestag hadorganised the Conference. It had been held in Germany twice be-fore, having been hosted by the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag in1998 and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Landtag in 2001. TheConference was the biggest so far in BSPC’s history, gathering over200 participants. The Conference acknowledged the collaborativespirit of the BSPC and confirmed its pivotal political role in the Bal-tic Sea Region.The BSPC was seen as a part of a larger formula of parliamen tarycooperation in the Northern Europe. Establishing a recurrentNorthern Dimension Parliamentary Forum was a move supportedby many participants as an important function for monitoring gov-ernmental actions in Northern Europe.The BSPC’s observer status in HELCOM was mentioned as one ofthe main avenues for parliamentarians to drive and follow up thediscussion on maritime policies. It was also said that more focusshould be put on labour market cooperation, the developm ent ofcivil society, and the fight against organised crime. Coordi nation25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 51with other organisations was also deemed important. The Confer-ence felt satisfaction that there now was clear evidence of progresson the issues mentioned in earlier BSPC Resolutions. This showedthat the opinions of parliamentarians and their work were beingtaken seriously.The Nord Stream pipeline was discussed although it was not explic-itly included in the programme. The Conference continued to dis-cuss the munitions on the sea bed in the Baltic Sea. It was suggestedthat one possible, specific and realistic project could be the lifting ofthese munitions. Then they would not pose any dan ger to the gaspipeline which will be an important line for supply ing energy toEurope. Many parliamentarians however expressed their concernsabout the pipeline, which was described by some as an unfriendlyaction towards some of the countries. There were also concernsabout the possible grave ecological consequences. The risk of terror-ist attacks against the pipeline was another of the arguments againstbuilding it.Those in favour of the pipeline, in their turn, reminded the Con-ference that the environmental risks of the Nord Stream pipelinehad already been evaluated during the planning phase. The processhas been open and transparent and anyone could submit comm entson the pipeline. As for the risk of terrorist attacks, it was argued thatthe same threat applies to land-based pipelines.Concerning labour market issues, the Conference discussed socialwelfare and living conditions from a regional as well as a global per-spective. Economic, ecological and social concerns are becoming in-creasingly intertwined in the globalised world. Stable and peacefullabour market conditions are central prerequisites for a prosperousand fair social and economic development. It is important to takemeasures to promote a closer exchange of inform ation and initia-tives between social partners.One question was how to regulate flexicurity, which is supp osed tocombine social security with openness to flexibility and mobility.The term “decent work” was applied, underlining that work as suchis central for human dignity and individual self-apprec iation. Newissues facing societies, such as immigrant workers, cross-borderworkers, young and elderly people and work-related diseases werelisted by the participants. Major priorities in the years to come willinclude providing decent jobs, skills enhancem ent and life-longlearning. The problem is not so much a deficit of work but ratheradapting the labour market to new conditions. After the thoroughdiscussion on labour market issues the Confer ence decided to ask52 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencethe Standing Committee to set up a Working Group on LabourMarket Issues.The BSPC Working Group on Eutrophication presented its final re-port, highlighting some of the suggestions of the Group, such asmore environmentally sound agricultural production regimes; moreefficient cleaning of municipal and industrial waste water and wastewater from ships; a ban on phosphorus in washing detergents; inter-national initiatives to reduce the airborne nitrogen load in the Bal-tic Sea; and ongoing regional cooperation. The report and its rec-ommendations were unanimously adopted by the Con ference.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 53Photo: shutterstock. com | Pixach17th BSPC – 2008 Visby, SwedenThe 17th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Visby,Sweden, 31 August-2 September 2008 under the theme Energy Ef-ficiency and Climate Change.Right from the start, speakers and participants expressed con cernabout the situation in the Baltic Sea – one of the most pol luted seasin the world, with excessive concentrations of phosphor us and ni-trogen due to discharge from sources such as agriculture, traffic andflush toilets. The biggest problem is eutrophication, causing algaeblooming and fish death. The Conference expressed support forHELCOM’s Baltic Sea Action Plan, which was adopted by the en-vironment ministers of the countries around the Baltic Sea in No-vember 2007.One way to tackle the discharge of pollutants into the Baltic Seawould be for everyone around the Baltic Sea to use phosphate-free de-tergents for washing-up and washing. Discharge of phosphoruswould then be reduced by 20%. Agriculture must also reduce its dis-charges, and this applies to all countries surrounding the Baltic Sea.Climate change, with temperature increases, warmer periods, andflooding, was seen as one of the worst crises that politicians have to54 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencetackle. The costs of avoiding these are quite reasonable, but Europecannot act alone in coming to terms with climate change. On ener-gy supply and energy security issues, it was said that the most cru-cial security issue is climate change. Other factors significant to se-curity are nuclear power, energy provision, energy efficiency andinvest ments in energy savings. Development of new, ecological-ly-pure energy technologies was desirable. The discussion cannotjust con cern how to produce more energy – reduction in energyconsump tion and energy efficiency must also be discussed. Concernwas also expressed over the dependence on nuclear power in the fu-ture.The relationship between CBSS and BSPC was addressed, and itwas noted with satisfaction that BSPC is one of the most activeplay ers in the Baltic Sea Region and is a strategic partner to CBSS.In one of the discussions ̧ it was emphasised that Belarus must beincluded when considering the environment in the Baltic Sea. Itwas also emphasised that chemical weapons stored on the bed of theBaltic Sea might pose an important ecological problem that shouldbe solved at European level, especially in view of the fact that therouting of the Nord Stream pipeline must bypass the areas con-taining old munitions. All countries around the Baltic Sea must rat-ify the Espoo Convention on transnational environmental impactassess ments before the project is given the green light to continue.The BSPC Working Group on Energy and Climate Change pre-sented a progress report, noting that NGOs can comprise an impor-tant element in future work.Certain dissatisfaction was expressed in the debate on maritimesafety. Much remains to be done in the area of safety, particularly inview of the large increase in the number of maritime transportmovements. The situation has actually been improved as a result ofthe reinstatement of the requirement for double hulls, but the big-gest danger is small vessels that ignore the regulations and vesselsthat sail under flags of convenience.The BSPC Working Group on Labour Market and Social Welfarealso presented a progress report, noting that cross-border move-ment can be hampered by different labour market regulations, dif-ferent insurance terms and conditions, different views on trade un-ion movements, different tax systems, etc.The Conference ended with an extensive debate arising out of astatement about inclusion of an addendum. It was recognised the25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 55Rules of Procedure of the BSPC state unequivocally that decisionsduring the plenary session are to be taken in consensus between theparticipating delegations. Following the debate, the Confer ence de-cided to adopt the Resolution by consensus.56 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: Bodo Bahr18th BSPC – 2009 Nyborg, DenmarkThe 18th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Nyborg,on the Island of Fyn, Denmark, 30 August-1 September 2009. Thetheme of the Conference was New Security Challenges, and it attract-ed some 200 government representatives, parliament arians and ex-perts from the Baltic Sea Region. Once again, the Conference con-tinued to bolster the spirit of optimism in the region.The Conference reaffirmed the mutually beneficial contacts and ex-change between BSPC and CBSS, and recognised the importantrole of the CBSS in initiating and coordinating actions to meet thechallenges of the Baltic Sea Region. It also reiterated its support forthe HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) as a central tool forrestoring a good environmental status of the Baltic Sea by 2021,and underlining that governments must fulfil their pledges toimplement the plan according to its agreed timetable. The partici-pants were careful to stress that the present economic downturnmust not be taken as an excuse for lowering environmental goals,cutting environmental resources or delaying timetables for envi-ronmental plans and projects.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 57On Maritime Safety and Security in the Region, the Conferencecalled for active cooperation within the International Maritime Or-ganisation (IMO) on the development of relevant measures to re-duce the environmental impact of shipping in the Baltic Sea, andconcrete projects to implement maritime spatial planning in theBaltic Sea Region. The Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the North-East Atlantic and the Irish Sea, should be designated as SulphurEmission Control Areas (SECA), as is already the case with the Eng-lish Channel, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Vessel Traffic Ser-vices (VTS) and Ship Reporting Systems (SRS) should be harmo-nised and integrated to enhance safe navigation of ships.The Conference agreed that cooperation and coordination on civilsecurity issues in general should be strengthened in order to foster ajoint and comprehensive understanding of the risks and threats fac-ing the Baltic Sea Region. The fight against trafficking in human be-ings must be stepped up, with emphasis on preventive measures,protection and support for victims and people at risk.Participants debated energy issues, noting the need to develop a co-herent energy strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, in order to enhancesecurity of energy supply, increase the use of renewable energy, andstrengthen interconnection between countries.The BSPC Working Group on Labour Market and Social Affairspresented its final report, calling for more systematic and coordi-nated efforts to identify barriers to the development of cross-bor derlabour markets and mobility. It also wanted a more regular dial oguebetween associations representing cross-border workers, trade un-ions, employers and political decision-makers.Again, the Rules of Procedure were discussed and amended. It wasagreed that the Enlarged Standing Committee should convenetwice a year and the Standing Committee convene twice a year,with the Standing Committee open for observers from national andregional parliaments that are not represented in the Standing Com-mittee. The Conference also decided to establish a Working Groupon Integrated Maritime Policy, especially infrastructure and logis-tics, and a Working Group on Civil Security, especially trafficki ngin human beings. It was noted with satisfaction that all memberparliaments had paid their contribution to the joint budget.The Drafting Committee for the Conference Resolution (com-prising the Enlarged Standing Committee) had three extensive dis-cussions during the Conference, after which the Resolution couldbe adopted by consensus.58 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com | Jussi Kakela19th BSPC – 2010 Mariehamn, Åland IslandsThe 19th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was convened inMariehamn, Åland Islands, on 29–31 August 2010. The theme ofthe 19th BSPC was Cooperation on Environment and Security, and itdrew some 200 politicians, experts and officials. Once again theConference could observe that, although a lot has been done to helpthe Baltic Sea to recover, the environmental problems in the regionare still major and ongoing.The Conference reaffirmed the close, constructive and mutuallybeneficial exchange between BSPC and CBSS, as shown, for exam-ple, in the interaction between BSPC and CBSS, and the workinggroups on trafficking in human beings and on integrated maritimepolicy. The usefulness of this interaction as a joint resource in fol-lowing and addressing the economic, social and political chal lengesof the Baltic Sea Region was also recognised. Contacts with otherorganisations and players in the region have also been strengthened.The participants underlined the important role parliamentari anscan play for a sustainable development of the Baltic Sea Region, byraising awareness, building opinion, driving issues, exerting politi-cal pressure on governments, and initiating and adopting legisla-tion.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 59The Conference urged governments of the region to fulfil their al-ready agreed obligations under the HELCOM Baltic Sea ActionPlan, in particular by producing concrete National Implementat ionPlans by early 2011 at the latest. It also reiterated its call for a coor-dination of the EU Baltic Sea Strategy with the Northern Dimen-sion policy, as well as with the Council of the Baltic Sea States (acore regional cooperation body) and other Northern and Baltic co-operation bodies.The participants expressed a wish for an ecosystem approach to beapplied to the environmental work in the Baltic Sea Region, includ-ing investments, research and development to protect ecos ystemservices and to integrate their values in economic systems, nationalbudgets and strategies for sustainable development. Stronger meas-ures were seen as necessary to protect and restore biodiversity.The BSPC Working Group on Integrated Maritime Policy pre-sented a progress report, noting the need to investigate the extent towhich the reduction of sulphur content in ship fuels may result incompetitive disadvantages to the economy in the Baltic Sea Regionand requested proposals on how to avoid such disadvant ages whilemaintaining high environmental standards in the marit ime sector.It also called for obligatory use of pilots in risk areas of the Baltic Seaand a strict implementation of the ban on trans porting oil in sin-gle-hulled tankers. Moreover, the joint regional as well as nationalpreparedness and capacity to tackle major spills of oil and hazardoussubstances must be strengthened.The debate on Peace and Security in the Baltic Sea Region empha-sised the need to foster a joint perception of the threats against pub-lic safety and civil security in the region, covering natu ral as well astechnological and other man-made threats and risks. In this con-text, it was also considered important to exchange available infor-mation on the location and state of sea-dumped chemical weapons,to inform the public about the threats caused by these weapons, andto prepare guidelines for how to handle accidents involving sea-dumped chemical weap ons.The BSPC Working Group on Trafficking in Human Beings de-livered an interim report. The report called for sufficient, per-manent and dedicated funds and resources to, for instance, pub-lic authorities, specialised agencies, NGOs, and inter-govern-mental organisations and projects, such as the CBSS Task Forceon Traffi cking in Human Beings, in order to maintain persistentand sus tained initiatives against trafficking in human beings. Italso under lined that a victim-centred approach must be adopted60 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencein all meas ures and actions against trafficking in human beings,and that development of the operational capacity to fight traffick-ing in the field must be promoted.The joint financing of the BSPC by all participating parliamentswas seen as a positive step towards a more organised and inde-pendent Baltic Sea Parliamentary cooperation. BSPC has maturedinto a stable structure, with permanent bodies and recurrent work-ing groups, and with established external cooperation and informa-tion channels. The new BSPC homepage (www. bspc. net) func-tions as a platform for dissemination of information and documen-tation. The Conference decided to ask the Standing Committee toevalu ate the functioning of the BSPC Joint Financing Mechanism,includ ing consideration of a possible revision of the procedures forfinancing the Secretariat function.In the spring of 2010, the BSPC Enlarged Standing Committee hadformulated a draft version of the Conference Resolution. The Con-ference Drafting Committee (comprising the Enlarged Stand ingCommittee) considered the draft in two sittings, and then the Con-ference adopted the Resolution by consensus. The Resolution is themain political tool for directing joint political standpoints and rec-ommendations to the governments of the Baltic Sea Region, theCBSS and the European Union.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 61Photo: shutterstock. com | Telia20th BSPC – 2011 Helsinki, FinlandThe motto of the 20th anniversary of the BSPC was Green Growthfor a Bluer Baltic Sea and it was hosted by the Parliament of Finland inHelsinki, 28-30 August 2011. The conference took place at the samevenue as the very first BSPC in 1991. Therefore, the atmosphere ofthose days was brought up in the opening address of Mr Eero Hein-aluoma, the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament.At the beginning of the first session, on Cooperation in the Baltic SeaRegion, Ms Christina Gestrin, Chairman of the BSPC, also pointedout that there had been quite remarkable developments in the Regionsince the first conference in Helsinki. The biggest change, in her opin-ion, was that the Baltic Sea Region had evolved into an area of peace,democracy and cooperation. However, despite the remarkable pro-gress in political cooperation, and an increase in joint initiatives in re-search and development, many serious environmental, social and eco-nomic problems in the Baltic Sea region still remain. Ms Gestrin stat-ed that joint endeavours towards security and safety, business cooper-ation, infrastructure, and research and development, strengtheningthe common labour market, and mobility in the region, create a hugepotential for collective growth and prosperity in the BSR. Coopera-tion in the BSR has been recently strengthened by the EU Strategy forthe Baltic Sea Region, which has been proposed by a group of62 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceEuropean MPs and developed by the European Commission with theaim of facilitating cooperation in the Region. The Conference speak-ers underlined that it was crucial that all relevant stakeholders, wheth-er they are in the EU or not, must be able to participate in the workon an equal footing. The Northern Dimension was mentioned as animportant platform for cooperation between EU and non-EU coun-tries, and as such should be supported by suitable funding.A historical review of the 20-year work of the BSPC was provided byMr Jürgen Schöning, former Minister, who was engaged in the BSPCwork for 20 years as the former Director of the State Parliament ofSchleswig-Holstein. He described the institutional development ofthe BSPC. Adopting an annual work programme, launching workinggroups and appointing rapporteurs with clearly defined missions, rep-resented, especially in the second decade, milestones towards greaterefficiency and political impact. He also underlined the well-function-ing model of parliamentary cooperation involving both national andregional parliaments. Mr Schöning concluded that parliamentary co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region has been a success story.Mr Pertti Joenniemi from the Danish Institute for International Stud-ies admitted that the Baltic Sea Region could stand out as forerunnerand a model in a Europe where macro-regions have a prominent place.For this purpose, more goal-oriented and pro-active policies are re-quired in the future.Representing the CBSS, State Minister Werner Hoyer described theCBSS priorities – a partnership aimed at modernising the Southernpart of the Baltic Sea Region, and a coherent framework for coopera-tion and regional identity. He pointed out that parliamentary cooper-ation made a good contribution to the work of the CBSS and that co-operation between the CBSS and the BSPC was better than ever.The main subjects discussed by the Conference in the second session,on Maritime Issues, were those linked to the results of the HELCOMBaltic Sea Action Plan, the findings of the BSPC Working Group onthe Integrated Maritime Policy and developments in the field of mar-itime safety. The main achievements of the BSAP listed by Ms Gabri-ella Lindholm, Chair of HELCOM, were more-stringent regulationsfor sewage discharges from passenger ships, the disposal of sewage bycruise ships through a voluntary call by cities, working together withprivate companies on port-reception facilities, a flagship project in theframework of the EUSBSR, the IMO agreement to the global desig-nation of the Baltic Sea Region as a Special Area for sewage discharge,and the designation of the Baltic Sea as a Nitrogen Dioxide EmissionControl Area. Mr Jochen Schulte, Chair of the BSPC WG on25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 63Integrated Maritime Policy, expressed concerns regarding possible dis-advantages for the Baltic Sea shipping business as a consequence of thedesignation of the Baltic Sea as a Sulphur Emission Control Area. Ac-cording to the Working Group, uniform environmental standardsshould be introduced also to other sea areas, such as the Mediterrane-an Sea. Interesting figures were presented by Ms Anita Mäkinen, Di-rector of the Finnish Maritime Agency. She mentioned that at any giv-en moment more than 200 vessels were passing through the Baltic Seaand 150 million tonnes of oil per year is transported through the Bal-tic Sea. There were 105 shipping accidents in 2009, 10 of which in-volved oil spills. The conclusion of that part of the session was that inorder to minimise the risk of shipping accidents, greater control overports is needed and both the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and theHELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan are good platforms for collabora-tion towards enhancing maritime security and safety.The Civil Safety and Security session began with the report of theBSPC Working Group on Civil Security and Trafficking. The mosturgent request expressed by Mr Andre Oktay Dahl, Vice Chair of theGroup, was that the BSPC should establish networks of parliamentar-ians to support the fight against human trafficking. Other recommen-dations featured in the report call for better coordination between therelevant authorities and institutions to detect money flows related tohuman trafficking, passing laws and regulations allowing for the con-fiscation of profit from human trafficking, and imposing severe fines.Other speakers stressed that a victim-based approach should be adopt-ed in all measures and actions and the victims of human traffickingmust not be treated as illegal immigrants, as the fear to be deported orcharged discourages them from cooperation with the authorities.Among other issues mentioned with regard to the trafficking topicwere modern slavery organised by globalised crime groups and theproblems caused by large-scale emigration from the Baltic countries.The discussion led to the general conclusion that parliamentarianshave a key role in their capacity as opinion-makers and legislators.Therefore, it is extremely important that they keep exerting politicalpressure on governments to take action against human trafficking.The next part of the session was devoted to public health and socialWell-being. It was underlined that those two terms were strongly in-terlinked. What’s more, health is seen as a profound economic issue.As European countries spend 8. 3% of their GDP on health, any ac-tions taken towards improving people’s health are highly valuable. TheNorthern Dimension on Public Health and Social Well-being(NDPHS), as presented by Mr Maciejowski, the head of the NDPHS’sSecretariat, supports initiatives strengthening policies and actions inthe field of the prevention of non-communicable diseases which have64 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencea profound effect on the health of societies, and at the same time theyare largely preventable, as they are caused by lifestyle. Mr Maciejowskiconcluded that more coordination and pooling of resources could bean answer to the common challenges BSR countries are facing with re-gard to public health and social Well-being. Alcohol consumptionpatterns are risk factors relating to diseases and injuries. The EuropeanAction Plan presented in the next part of the session consisted of athorough diagnosis of the situation and the objectives of the Plan. Theparticipants agreed that in order to reduce the incidence of alcohol-re-lated diseases and injuries, more work had to be done – awareness ofthe burdens caused by the harmful use of alcohol should be raised, thecommitment of governments should be increased, knowledge of effec-tive measures to reduce and prevent alcohol-related harm should bespread, and coordination between stakeholders should be improved.The BSPC, appreciating the importance of cooperation in the field ofhealth and social Well-being, granted BSPC Observer status to theNorthern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-be-ing.The fourth session, on Green Growth and Energy Efficiency, includedpresentations on a variety of issues from different perspectives.Mr Berndt Voss, a Schleswig-Holstein MP, described green growthand energy efficiency in Schleswig-Holstein. Mr Hans Brask present-ed the activities of the Baltic Development Forum, and Ms LeneGrønning, a Business Ambassador from Bornholm, talked about theBright Green Island project.The panel debate on the Future of Parliamentary Cooperation in the Bal-tic Sea Area was moderated by Ambassador Sven Hirdman, who point-ed out three areas in which he thought that cooperation must bestrengthened in the future, including security, cross-border infrastruc-ture projects and maritime safety. In addition to those fields, stable so-cial development, results-oriented cooperation and education and cul-ture, were highlighted by the panellists as a backbone for prospectivesocial and economic development of the BSR. The debate was over-shadowed by the terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July and in thatcontext the fundamental responsibility of parliamentarians to standfor democracy, openness and humanity was strongly emphasised. Inthe final part of the session Ms Holznagel, a Mecklenburg-Vorpom-mern MP, pointed out that a debate over the Resolution of the BSPCshould be a daily practice of each BSPC parliament, in the same wayas it happens in the Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 65Photo: shutterstock. com | Eugene Sergeev21st BSPC – 2012 St. Petersburg, RussiaThe 21st BSPC Conference was organised in St. Petersburg, Russia,26-28 August 2012. For the second time, the BSCP took place inSt. Petersburg and thus it opened the third decade of parliamentarycooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. Participants had the opportu-nity to visit St. Petersburg’s municipal wastewater-treatment plant.The project was frequently cited throughout the conference as abest-practice example of BSR cooperation. Another group of partic-ipants visited the new passenger port terminal Marine Façade.The various aspects of institutional cooperation in the BSR wereamong the main issues discussed during the first session, on Region-al Partnership and Cross-Border Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region.The speakers stressed the synergy between the priorities of the CBSSunder the Russian Presidency and the Presidency of Russia in theBSPC. Ambassador Mr Gerhard Almer, Head of the Task Force forthe German Presidency of the CBSS 2011–2012, referred to the ex-traordinary meeting held in Schloss Plön in February 2012 whenthe CBSS foreign ministers agreed on an ambitious programme fo-cused on cooperation in the tourism sector, expansion of public-pri-vate partnerships, youth exchanges, academic and research cooper-ation, and sustainable development. Ms Valentina Pivnenko, Chair-person of the BSPC, underlined the necessity of modernisation and66 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceof developing innovation in the region, and admitted that it shouldbe the main focus of cooperation at the political and administrativelevels. Other issues of utmost importance mentioned by Ms Piv-nenko were public-private interaction and the maritime strategy forcurbing eutrophication, maritime safety for better protection of theenvironment, energy efficiency, nuclear safety, and the infrastruc-ture for increasing the competitiveness of the BSR in Europe andglobally. She stressed the fact that such a wide range of goals couldbe only achieved in close cooperation with sub-regional andnon-governmental organisations, such as HELCOM, BSSSC, andthe Northern Dimension. During this session two strategies werepresented: Mr Jacek Protasiewicz, Vice-President of the EuropeanParliament, outlined the objectives of the EU Strategy for the BalticSea Region, and Mr Stanislav Lazowsky introduced the participantsto the North-West Russia Socio-Economic Development Strategy.Both strategies aimed at improving the ecosystem of the Baltic Sea,connectivity in the region, and the Well-being of the people livingthere. “Therefore, both shall contribute to the development of theBaltic Sea area” – that was the final conclusion of the session whichwas included in the text of the BSPC Resolution. Mr Jakko Hetton-nen, Manager of the NDEP assured, that the Northern DimensionEnvironmental Partnership (NDEP) can also contribute to the re-duction of eutrophication by supporting wastewater plants and en-ergy-efficiency projects in Russia and Belarus.The second session, on Environmental Health and Energy Coopera-tion, began with a discussion on the status of the HELCOM BalticSea Action Plan (BASAP), presented by Ms Helle Pilsgaard, Chairof HELCOM. As regards the progress of BASAP implementation,it has been acknowledged that the municipal wastewater-treatmentsector and the industrial sector have been successful in reducingtheir discharges of nutrients and hazardous substances into the Bal-tic Sea. It was also noted that the Baltic Sea States have been suc-cessful in finalising a number of activities involving shipping andbiodiversity. However, a lot of work still has to be done to limit eu-trophication, which was the biggest environmental problem. TheEU regulations regarding the use of phosphates and phosphoruscompounds in the households were adopted in 2017, but the lastpart of that hazardous substance originating from agriculture re-quires special attention. Ms Christina Gestrin, BSPC HELCOMobserver, underlined the strong involvement of the BSPC in this is-sue. In its Report from 2007, the BSPC Working Group on Eu-trophication came up with far-reaching proposals, e. g. asking theIMO to prohibit nitrogen-oxide discharges in the Baltic Sea. MsGestrin concluded her speech by a call for the implementation ofexisting plans instead of making new recommendations.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 67Many interesting examples of environmental cooperation were pre-sented during that session. What is more, the hosts’ representativegave an assurance that the subsequent Ministerial Meeting in 2013would provide reports from each country on the implementation ofnational commitments to the Baltic Sea Action Plan.Sustainability must be the guiding principle for the increasingly de-veloping tourism in the Baltic Sea Region – that was an importantconclusion of the subsequent part of the conference. It was claimedthat, together with innovation, going ecological can be a long-termdriver for economic growth through investments in renewable ener-gy and more-efficient use of energy and material. To support this di-rection, raised awareness of green growth and efficiency, better allo-cation of financial resources to such initiatives, the setting of na-tionally binding targets, and the promotion of public-private pro-curement, are required. That could be the remedy for the unsatisfac-tory, as expressed by the participants, state of Baltic Sea’s environ-mental condition.Special emphasis in the third session, on A safe and Healthy BalticSea, was put on cooperation between Baltic organisations such asBSPC, CBSS, BSSSC in the area of an Integrated Maritime Policyand, in particular, on the EU Sulphur directive on the environmen-tal impact of the use of LNG and the promotion of maritime trans-ports. Different organisations working with the integrated maritimepolicy have been able to work together and managed to take an in-tegrated approach on such issues as reduction of emission, maritimetransport maritime safety and a common maritime spatial plan-ning, informed Mr Jochen Schulte, BSPC Rapporteur on Integrat-ed Maritime Policy.During the fourth and last session, on Health, Social Welfare andEconomic Development, much concern was expressed with regard tothe aging society, the growing burden of non-communicable diseas-es, antimicrobial resistance, diabetics and other socially significantdiseases. The speakers representatives of NDPHS, the State Univer-sity of Karelia and the Baltic Assembly – agreed that cooperation inthe Baltic Sea Region, both political and project-related, had to becontinued and developed in order to bring about new solutions toprevent the premature mortality from preventable causes. The nextsection, dealing with labour-market issues, was dominated by thediscussion on high youth unemployment. It was said that, as Eu-rope was facing demographic aging, the full potential of a smallworking population should be tapped into. To improve the situa-tion, the process of transition between school and the labour mar-ket must be facilitated by, for example, dual education or68 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencewell-functioning apprenticeship and internship systeMs An exten-sive report on youth unemployment and measures to combat theproblem in the Baltic Sea Region was recommended by Mr FranzThönnes, BSPC Rapporteur on Labour-Market Issues.During debates and in comments, the subject issue of democracy,freedom of expression and limits for freedom of expression wasmentioned many times. The participants agreed that with the re-spect for cultural differences, building an open, equal and demo-cratic society is the process that needs politicians’ constant atten-tion.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 69Photo: -jkb-22nd BSPC – 2013 Pärnu, EstoniaThe 22nd BSPC conference was hosted by Riigikogu, the Parlia-ment of Estonia in Pärnu, 25-27 August 2013, and was honouredby the opening address by H. E. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President ofthe Republic of Estonia. Mr Ilves pointed out that the Baltic SeaRegion had an enormous potential to become a leader in innova-tion, but the implementation of innovative projects aimed at foster-ing economic growth requires political will, supportive decisions,relevant educational policies, adequate funding and appropriate leg-islative framework. H. E. Ene Ergma, President of the Estonian Par-liament, in her speech emphasised that any development is based oninnovation, sustainability and competitiveness, which are on theagenda of the 22nd BSPC. A responsible approach to innovation,however, means the intensive and diligent development of new ide-as followed by quick expeditious implementation.The title of the 22nd conference was Innovation for a CompetitiveEconomy in the Region with a key theme of the debate being innova-tion in the BSR from parliamentary perspective.The first session, on Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, was openedby Ms Laine Randjärv, Chairperson of the BSPC, who welcomed thefact that after a tough period of recession, the Baltic Sea Region70 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencecountries have come back to being ranked as leaders in terms of eco-nomic growth indicators. New industrial structures, new market con-ditions and social transformations can be developed only when an in-novative approach is introduced and applied in those areas. There-fore, Ms Randjärv proposed establishing the new BSPC WorkingGroup on Innovation in Social and Health Care. Once again theclose connection between BSCP and CBSS was confirmed by MsSatu Mattila, Chairperson of the CBSS Committee of Senior Offi-cials. The main theme for the Finnish presidency in 2013-2014 was a“Clean, Safe and Smart Baltic Sea”, and many priorities such as thepromotion of clean navigation and the use of alternative fuels, theprevention of maritime accidents, and the strengthening of civil soci-ety, are close to the topics discussed within the BSPC. Ms Mattilastressed the necessity for the recommendations of the BSPC to be im-plemented and added that dialogue between governments and parlia-ments within the framework of the Baltic Sea regional cooperation isof an utmost importance. The next speaker, Mr Sergey Petrovich, for-mer Chair of the CBSS Russian presidency, continued the importantissue of the implementation of political decisions by giving extensiveexamples of projects that had been launched in North-West Russia asa result of CBSS initiatives. Ms Darya Akhutina representing the Bal-tic NGO Forum and the recently established Baltic NGO Networkpresented a number of recommendations with reference to enhancingthe participation of civil society organisations in the decision-makingprocess. In order to facilitate cooperation visa mobility system shouldbe revised and the registration fee abolished at least for young mem-bers of NGO’s, claimed Ms Akhutina.Civil society was also a focal point of intervention by Mr LarsKascha, from the Baltic Sea Youth Forum. He spoke about the at-tempts to re-establish the Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth Affairs inKiel and to create the Baltic Sea Youth Forum, a network of local,regional and national youth organisations operating in the BalticSea Region. Also in a comment by Mr Franz Thönnes, Member ofParliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, youth issues werehighlighted. Mr Thönnes invited the Finnish CBSS presidency toorganise a youth forum before the annual conference and also sup-ported the opinion that visa liberalisation is essential for peo-ple-to-people contacts in the Region.During any BSPC Conference a discussion on cooperation with re-gard to Baltic Sea environmental issues could not be omitted. Thistime the state of affairs was presented by Ms Monika Stankiewicz, Ex-ecutive Secretary of Helcom. Eutrophication is still the major envi-ronmental problem, as Ms Stankiewicz reported, so it was put highon the agenda of the ministerial meeting. Reaching an agreement on25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 71the distribution of reductions in phosphorus and nitrogen among theinvolved countries would be one of the main tasks of the ministerialmeeting in October 2013. Only timely implementation of the BalticSea Action Plan can lead to a healthy Baltic Sea. As to the situation inthe maritime sector, it is expected that the ministerial meeting willagree on a new initiative ‒ the establishment of a Green Technologyand Alternative Fuels Platform for Shipping. Ms Stankiewicz invitedthe BSPC to support that initiative.In her comment to that part of the session, Ms Sylvia Bretschneider,President of the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and theBSPC Observer at HELCOM, mentioned the contribution of theBSPC to the ministerial meeting regarding an integrated maritimepolicy, energy and environmental protection.Mr Pat the Cope Gallagher, Member of the European Parliament,briefed the BSPC on the development of the EUSBSR and theNorthern Dimension. The Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region hasbeen revised and currently the Revised Action Plan has only threeobjectives: Save the Sea, Connect the Region, Increase Prosperity;and focuses mainly on the environment and the economy, indicat-ed Mr Gallagher. Environmental issues are also high on the agendaof the Northern Dimension, and cooperation with Russia is crucialin order to effectively address regional challenge, concluded Mr Gal-lagher. In their comments Ms Christina Gestrin and Mr VantarYagya supported such high expectations for EUSBSR and claimedthat more compatibility with other strategies, e. g. the Social andEconomic Development of the North-West Federal Districts of theRussian Federation, the Barents Strategy and the Northern Dimen-sion, should be encouraged.Cooperation by the BSPC with political networks and institutionsgained a new dimension when Ms Olena Netetska, Vice-Presidentof the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation(PABSEC) announced that the 44th General Assembly of PABSEChad decided to grant the BSPC observer status.The following sessions were characterised by many different topicswhich were raised in a wide range of expert presentations and witha great number of ideas and proposals to be discussed.The second session, on Economic Growth, Innovation and Competi-tiveness of the Baltic Sea Region Vision 2050 ‒ What Innovation Doesthe Region Need to Become Sustainable? featured an interesting dis-cussion on key trends affecting the Baltic Sea Region and on theother gave many examples of innovation initiatives.72 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceProf. Erik Terk, Director of the Estonian Institute for Future Studies,admitted that according to future trends research, global growth inthe next decades will not be driven by Europe. If Europe wants tocontinue its economic and social development it must adapt to thechanges taking place in the global area. Therefore, Baltic Sea coun-tries should restructure their economies, namely the industriesand the proportion of high-tech production, develop new servic-es, and revise the geographical patterns of their economic ties. ForMr Jari Kaivo-Oja from Finland’s Futures Research Centre, themost significant effects of globalisation are those interlinked withchanges in the demographic, economic and social structure. Glo-balisation, demographic changes, rises of complex societies,web-society empowerment of people, digitalisation, the Internet,the expansion of resource-efficient technologies and the rise of thebio-economy are the main trends affecting the BSR. Ms SilviaStiller from the Hamburg Institute of International Economics re-ferred to the future potential and the challenges of the BSR area ofinnovation. She indicated that the Baltic Sea Region was charac-terised by substantial structural and developmental differences inthe innovation potential, which included, firstly, distinct dispari-ties in per capita income; secondly, differences in innovation po-tential; thirdly, differences in private and public investment inR&D; and fourthly differences in education systeMs Ms Stillerpointed out that the analyses confirmed that innovation and theintroduction of novelties to the economy are closely linked withthe general education level of society.After analysing the challenges to build the Baltic Sea Region inno-vative area, many encouraging and promising examples of activitiesand projects in the field of innovation were presented.E-health has become a new sector which demands new solutions, sothe project Accelerate Life, has been developed. The project bringstogether partners from 5 countries, with the aim of accelerating dis-ruptive innovation in e-health, life science, med-tech, biotechnolo-gy and diagnostics, by supporting ten best start-ups with a 6 plus 6months programme. Project BONUS is a research and develop-ment programme of the Baltic Sea Region with a budget for 2011-2017 of 100 million Euro. The mission of BONUS is to transformthe Baltic Sea Research system into a durable, cooperative and mul-tinational system. Nordic Innovation assists policy makers, policyimplementers, and business and research organisations. The NordicHigh Growth Entrepreneurship Initiative is aimed at facilitatingnational activities in increasing the capacities of innovative compa-nies. The Nordic Built Initiative is aimed at the building industryand focuses on the harmonisation of standards and the promotion25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 73of innovation in industry. In their final comments the parliamentar-ians stressed the importance of innovation as the key-driving forcein economic growth, welcomed the amendments to the resolutionregarding marine technologies, and agreed that education is an im-portant prerequisite for the development of innovation.The third session, on Green Growth and Energy Efficiency, beganwith the BSPC Working Group on the Green Growth and EnergyEfficiency report, presented by Chairperson Ms Cecile Ten-fjord-Toftby. The political recommendations have been clustered infour core proposals and covered such issues as raising the awarenessof the energy efficiency and green growth among households andenterprises, providing uniform technical standards and buildingcodes, promoting green public procurement investments in the areaof infrastructure, business and buildings, and implementing finan-cial schemes that support green growth and energy efficiency. All ofthese have been included in the text of the 22nd BSPC Resolution.The remarkable results of the Group’s work were highly esteemed bythe audience. The CBSS, in 2014, in recognising the importance ofthe subject, announced their intention to organise a follow-up con-ference in cooperation with the BSPC.Valuable facts and figures regarding the role of the green economy ingrowth, job creation and the environment were given by Mr TimoMäkelä from the European Commission. The consumption and ex-traction of fossil fuels has increased by eight times. By 2050 the glob-al demand for food might increase by 70 % while 60 % of the world’smajor ecosystems have already been degraded. By 2050 resource effi-ciency has to be increased by 4 to 10 times. On the other hand, pric-es for food, raw materials, energy, metal and minerals, despite the fi-nancial crises, are increasing. Therefore the transformation of the Eu-ropean Economy is an urgent demand, concluded Mr Mäkelä.Dr. Sonja Deppish, from the University of Hamburg, focused onclimate change and spatial development in the urban regions of theBSR. The key messages which needed to be delivered to the decisionmakers were cited as follows: climate change will affect technical in-frastructure and buildings; the vulnerability of the urban popula-tion varies between social groups; and socio-economic structuresaround the Baltic Sea cities have to begin adapting. Some cities, likeCopenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Rostock, are already adapt-ing but still, as Ms Deppish admitted, social and ecological aspectsso far have been neglected.Space technologies were the next subject of the debate and a num-ber of purposes to which those technologies could be applied were74 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencepresented by Ms Aire Olesk from Tartu University. Space technolo-gies can be used in the energy sector, for example, by assessing min-ing subsidence in underground mines, measuring the geological sta-bility of oil and gas fields, as well as monitoring pipelines and build-ings constructed in large urban areas. Ms Olesk concluded her pres-entation by pointing out that the numerous other applications inmeteorology, agriculture and forestry could be seen as reflecting thefact that the changing earth drives innovation.Innovative solutions for strengthening competitiveness and eco-nomic growth are being developed within the framework of EU-SBSR flagship project StarDust. 63 partners from academia, busi-ness clusters, and SME networks are involved in various activities.The aim of the project presented was to create globally recognisedinnovation hubs and use the excellence of neighbouring countries.The Conference once more confirmed the findings of the BSPCWorking Group on Green Growth and Energy Sufficiency and agreedthat increasing public awareness of green energy and energy efficiencymight change people’s attitudes and the market demand. The firststep can be taken by politicians who should distribute the report inthe parliaments of their countries. Apart from that, the Baltic Seacountries should also take into account the 5th Assessment Report ofthe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The Economic and Social Conditions for Creative Entrepreneurshipwere discussed during the fourth session of the Conference. Whatcould be done to support and develop creative entrepreneurship inthe Baltic Sea Region – the answer to that question appeared not tobe simple but there are many ideas, recommendations and initia-tives towards building a creative Baltic Sea area. Some of them wereworked out by the European Design Leadership Board and present-ed as 21 policy recommendations at the Design and InnovationSummit in Helsinki. They were enumerated by Ms Deborah Daw-ton, President of the Bureau of European Design Associations, andreferred to the positioning of design within the European Innova-tion system, design for innovative and competitive enterprises, de-sign skills for an innovative public sector, design abilities in the 21stCentury, and cooperation among the design sector.Another approach was presented by the Board of Directors of theUN World Summit on the Information Society. Prof. Dr. Peter A.Bruck, Chairman of the Board, introduced the idea of the WorldSummit Award, which is aimed at facilitating innovative solutions,providing smart content and thus contributing to the knowl-edge-driven society.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 75For Mr Pritt Sauna, Co-Founder of the Garage 48 Foundation, themain basis for creative entrepreneurship is the experts who are ableto create products, designers who make products appealing to cus-tomers, experts who sell the products and the experts who supervisethe whole process.With the reports from the BSPC Rapporteurs on Maritime Policyand Trafficking in Human Beings the session ended.In her closing remarks, Ms Laine Randjärv underlined that the22nd Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference had articulated its strongconviction that the Future of the Region lies in smart specialisationand defining the competitive areas of growth. The world is changingand there is a need to take into account globalisation, demographicchange, ageing and longevity. People are better involved and em-powered through social media and web-based solutions. This leadsto finding and using more efficient technologies, and the success ofcooperation in the Baltic Sea Region will be judged by the Region’sability to exert a positive impact on people’s everyday lives.76 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com | Lukasz Szwaj23rd BSPC – 2014 Olsztyn, PolandThe 23rd Parliamentary Conference took place 24-26 August 2014,in Olsztyn, the capital of Warmia and Mazury, situated in the cen-tre of the southern Baltic Region. The title of the conference, TheBaltic Sea the Quest for Harmony: cultural and natural heritage as anelement in the harmonious development of the Baltic Sea Region, hascome to have a special significance in the times of political conflictcaused by the Ukrainian crisis. A total of 200 parliamentarians, ex-perts and officials from all the countries of the Baltic Sea Regiongathered to discuss the history, heritage and culture shared by thepeople living on the Baltic Sea. In his opening address Mr RyszardGórecki, Chairman of the BSPC and Senator of the Republic of Po-land, stressed the great value of the political dialogue that has takenplace in the last 23 years at the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenc-es and expressed his strong belief that its continuation lies in the vi-tal interests of all the people of the region, in view of the number ofchallenges to be faced.H. E. Bogdan Borusewicz, President of the Senate of the Republicof Poland, emphasised that it was the third time that Poland hadhosted the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, the most impor-tant forum of parliamentary exchange in the region. He expressedthe opinion that the Baltic Sea Region was an area of growing25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 77potential for cooperation, ever better integrated and prosperous,which was currently facing an opportunity to reinforce its positionin both the European and global dimensions.The first session, on Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, focused ondevelopments in cooperation with long-standing partners of theBSPC – the CBSS, HELCOM, the European Commission, and theNGO Forum.Mr Górecki opened the discussion by pointing out the fact that theBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was set up in 1991 at a diffi-cult time of profound political transformations in the region, so to-day, much like in 1991, a forum like BSPC is essential. Further-more, he acknowledged that a few years ago the Baltic Sea Regionwas still mired in profound economic recession; currently, the BSRis proving to have the highest growth in the European Union. Theproper use and implementation of innovations in production, ad-ministration and management is of special significance for the re-gional economies. Mr Górecki also stressed the importance of a per-manent dialogue with CBSS at the political and administrative lev-els and expressed satisfaction with the reporting on the contacts be-tween the BSPC, on the one hand, and SEECP and PABSEC, onthe other.Ms Satu Mattila, Chairperson of the CBSS CSO 2013-2014, men-tioned the long-term cooperation between the CBSS and BSPC.One example of such cooperation was a joint seminar of CBSS,BSPC and BASREC on energy efficiency, attended by the FinnishMinister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Erkki Tuomioja. The CBSS alsostepped up its cooperation with HELCOM. A conference on theuse of alternative fuels in maritime transport was organised in Jan-uary 2014, and a road map for the implementation of green tech-nologies was developed during the Baltic Sea Days in Turku in June2014. With the intention of reinforcing the role of civil society andthe promotion of labour issues as part of the ‘interpersonal contacts’priority, the Finnish Presidency supported the organisation of a fo-rum of non-governmental organisations in Turku and the Baltic SeaLabour Forum (BSLF) meeting in Helsinki. In conclusion, MsMattila noted that the political climate changed midway throughthe Presidency and the planned CBSS summit in Turku was notheld, owing to the situation in Ukraine, but despite the political un-certainty, cooperation in the region should continue at the legal, ex-pert and parliamentary levels within the framework of the BSPC.For Mr Raul Mälk, Chair of the CBSS CSO, the main task of theEstonian Presidency will be the practical implementation of the78 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceCBSS long-term priorities and the implementation of activitiesaimed at the achievement of the goals set out in the Vilnius Decla-ration approved at the CBSS summit in 2008. Mr Mälk providedinformation on the meetings planned in 2014 and 2015 and em-phasised that the CBSS considered the Baltic Sea ParliamentaryConference to be an important partner.Developments in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region andNorthern Dimension were reported by Ms Lina Marcinkut, a rep-resentative of the European Commission. The report on ManagingMacro-regional Strategies produced in May 2014 found that pro-gress was needed. Regarding the Northern Dimension Environ-mental Partnership (NDEP), Ms Marcinkut admitted that itswastewater-treatment projects in north-west Russia and in Belarushad helped to improve the condition of the Baltic Sea.The progress of the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Planwas reported by Mr Harry Liiv, Chairman of HELCOM. Over 30% of actions planned for 2017 have been completed and 60 % ini-tiated or partly completed. As far as eutrophication is concerned,despite the actions being undertaken to mitigate the process, theBaltic Sea is still in a difficult position. A positive fact is the decreaseof the dumping of nutrients into the Baltic by approximately 10%from 1994 to 2010, with the depositing of nutrients being reducedby 18 % and of phosphates by 16 %. A decrease in the emission ofpollutants is also a priority of the Estonian Presidency in HELCOM.In closing, Mr Liiv announced that a regional action plan to limit thelevel of waste being dumped into the waters of the sea has been draft-ed and the final version should be approved the following year. In herspeech Ms Sylvia Bretschneider, President of the Parliament of Meck-lenburg-Vorpommern and the BSPC Observer at HELCOM, em-phasised the fruitful cooperation between BSPC and HELCOM,which had been going on for 12 years and spoke about her participa-tion and address at the Ministerial Meeting in Helsinki on behalf ofthe BSPC.Ms Valentina Pivnenko, Member of the Duma of the Federal As-sembly of the Russian Federation, informed the participants aboutthe Strategy of the socio-economic development of the North-WestFederal District. The main goal behind the Strategy until 2020 is toincrease the Well-being of the population and offset and/or reducethe differences in the standard of living in individual territories thatlie within those 11 regions. In support of the development of theeconomy and innovation and of removing limitations on transport,energy and the infrastructure, 24 national programmes have beenlaunched costing circa 390 million rubles. Russia is interested in25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 79joining forces with the European Union to solve the problems ofthe region as part of the coordinated implementation of the region-al strategies, the NWFD Strategy, and EUSBSR – so that the effortsrelated to the Russian participation in the Interreg Baltic Sea Pro-gramme 2014-2020 would be very beneficial. Ms Pivnenko pre-sented her point of view on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, consid-ering it as an internal conflict in Ukraine.Ms Daria Akhutina and Päivi Kärnä from the NGO Forum of theBaltic Sea shared their remarks on the future and role of NGO net-works in the Region. The 12th Baltic Sea NGO Forum was held inJune 2014, bringing together 230 participants. The final documentnoted that constant cooperation between citizens promotes stabilityin the region by decreasing tensions, promoting traditions and goodneighbourliness, mutual trust and tolerance. Therefore, the parlia-ments of the BSPC are natural partners for the Baltic Sea NGONetwork. Ms Akutina concluded with an appeal for launching per-manent cooperation between the BSPC and the NGO Network.Mr Rumen Gechev, Member of the Bulgarian Parliament represent-ing the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP), pre-sented information on parliamentary cooperation within SEECPand admitted that the model of Baltic cooperation was to a great ex-tent a role model for the SEECP in the development of its Parlia-mentary Assembly. Furthermore, he expressed the conviction thatthe SEECP would soon apply for observer status at the BSPC.Further statements broadened the subject of the session. The speak-ers emphasised the very good cooperation within the BSPC and itsrole in strengthening democratic institutions and the building oftrust in the BSR, and called for action in support of avoiding a newCold War. The cooperation of young people in the Region was un-derlined and support for establishing a solid basis for young people’sparticipation in the BSR was expressed.Session two, on Environmental legacy – environmental challenges, be-gan with an optimistic statement by Mr Andrzej Jagusiewicz, ChiefInspector of the Environmental Protection of the Republic of Po-land, that his country would achieve the goals of the Baltic Sea Ac-tion Plan by 2021 through the implementation of the National Pro-gramme of Construction of Wastewater-Treatment Plants. The pro-gramme, with a budget of €20 billion, covers the construction, ex-pansion and/or upgrading of wastewater-processing plants in allclusters of 2,000 or more residents by 2015. Mr Jagusiewicz re-ferred to the problem of chemical munitions lying in the Baltic. Po-land leads UMBRELA (the Underwater Munitions Baltic80 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceRemediation cluster LeAgue), the EUSBSR flagship project, and isactively involved in other projects in this field.In her Progress Report on Eutrophication, Ms Christina Gestrin,Member of the Finnish Parliament, underlined that eutrophicationwas the worst problem faced by the Baltic Sea. She recalled that theBSPC working group had developed and adopted the Clear andClean Report in 2007. Ms Gestrin also emphasised the importance ofthe HELCOM Baltic Sea Plan. Also, she noted that the Northern Di-mension Environmental Partnership plays a significant role in com-bining the efforts of non-EU States, especially Russia, Ukraine andBelarus, and EU Member States to overcome environmental prob-lems in the BSR. In her closing remarks Ms Gestrin noted that thecurrent political situation in the region was a threat to the lasting pos-itive process of the protection of the Baltic Sea and expressed hope fora prompt return of the political situation to normal.Interesting projects in the framework of the EU Strategy for theBaltic Sea Region, and methods for monitoring the maritime eco-system of the Baltic Sea, were presented in the last two inputs ofthat session. In the CHEMISEA project the research teams under-took to identify the locations of chemical munitions in areas thathad not yet been investigated, to estimate the concentration ofchemical-warfare agents and to assess the risk related to the naturalor accidental release of such substances into the ecosystem of theBaltic Sea. In turn, a new strategy for monitoring and assessmenthad been approved by HELCOM in 2013. Monitoring measuresare being coordinated between countries and whenever possiblemade accessible throughout the region. International cooperationin that respect is the most efficient way of reducing the cost of re-search and monitoring, both as far as investment and the essentialactivities are concerned – that was the conclusion of that part of thesession.In their comments the speakers presented varying views on the sit-uation in the Baltic Sea environment. On the one hand, the repre-sentative of the Åland Islands spoke about the mass growth of algaeobserved around the islands in 2014 and called for more intensivesteps to be taken by other countries; on the other hand, remarkableprogress had been made in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern towardsreaching HELCOM goals on eutrophication. In Warmia and Ma-zury a comprehensive Green University programme had been intro-duced at the University of Olsztyn, which led to the setting up of anew scientific institute dealing with the issues of environmentalprotection with special focus on limnology.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 81The third session on The Baltic Sea Cultural Heritage providing ori-entation for good partnership, was a direct reference to the title of the23rd BSPC. Mr Piotr Zuchowski, Secretary of State at the PolishMinistry of Culture and the National Heritage, stressed that theBaltic Sea Region was one of the priorities of Polish cultural policy.Poland had coordinated the Culture Priority Area in the EUSBSRsince 2013. In parallel, since 2014 Poland had presided over theNorthern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC). In July2015 Poland will assume its Presidency of the Council of the BalticSea States with special focus on culture and cultural heritage. MsAnke Spoorendonk, the Minister of Justice, Cultural and EuropeanAffairs of Schleswig-Holstein, added that culture is a value in itself,as it builds bridges, unites, and brings people and regions together.She claimed that joint cultural actions are significant for the inclu-sion of Russian partners in Baltic cooperation, even during the con-flict in Ukraine, and emphasised that the conflict could result in thebreaking down of communication. The speaker emphasised the sig-nificance of the business aspect in culture and the creative indus-tries, which provide the EU with 4,5 % of its added value. Cultureis a significant catalyst for innovation and is important for othersectors as well.Prof. Henryk Samsonowicz focused his considerations on the themeof The Baltic Sea – a Frontier or a Meeting Point?, pointing to the his-torical multitude of economic, cultural and social relations acrossthe southern Baltic.Prof. Jörg Hackmann, University of Szczecin, presented informa-tion on the Baltic Sea History Project, which is a flagship project ofthe culture priority area in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Re-gion. The objective of the project is to look at the history of the Bal-tic Sea Region from a new perspective and to present various per-ceptions of Baltic Sea history.Mr Mikko Härö, Director of the Department of Cultural Environ-ment Protection of the National Board of Antiquities of Finland,suggested in his presentation that the only constant feature of herit-age is permanent change. The new approach to heritage assumesthat the definitions of heritage should be developed by communi-ties and not by administrations. The speaker mentioned the FaroConvention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society of theCouncil of Europe of 2005, which makes it possible to inscribe her-itage into human activity and disassociate it from political associa-tions. The speaker also recognised the European Commission Com-munication Towards an integrated approach to a cultural heritage forEurope (July 2014) as a milestone in the EU’s approach to heritage.82 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceDr. Hanna Hagmark-Cooper from the Åland Maritime Museumexpressed her conviction that maritime museums had a key role toplay in the maintenance and promotion of the marine cultural her-itage and that through their activities they attracted the commit-ment of local communities. Museums have become involved in ex-ternal and international cooperation, as five Baltic Sea Region Cul-tural Heritage Forums have been organised since 2013. Ms AnitaVaivade, from the Latvian Academy of Culture and expert for UN-ESCO, introduced participants to the prospects of cooperation inthe field of intangible cultural heritage. The speaker mentioned“The Baltic Way”, a human chain formed in the Baltic States on 23August 1989, as an example of intangible cultural heritage in theBaltic Sea Region. In closing, she emphasised that intangible herit-age was of greatest importance for the functioning of local commu-nities.In the comments all speakers underlined the profound role culturehad in supporting peaceful development, overcoming barriers anddifferences with knowledge–based tools and dialogue and in build-ing a clean and prosperous Baltic Sea Region.In his introductory presentation to the 4th session on The Baltic SeaRegion in search of a harmonious and sustainable future, Dr. LeszekMelibruda from the SWPS University in Warsaw referred to thecontemporary revolution in notions of trust, authority and free-dom. The scholar expressed the opinion that politicians frequentlycould not influence the way they were presented in the media, andyet it was in the media that their image was built. That was why thedevelopment of public trust was currently being made extremelydifficult, explained Mr Melibruda.Ms Kinga Dudzińska of the Polish Institute of International Affairs(PISM) presented a report entitled Cross-Border Movement betweenGdańsk, Olsztyn, and Kaliningrad, expressing the view that the in-troduction of an agreement on local border traffic between the Re-public of Poland and the Russian Federation had proved to be a suc-cess in the social, economic, and cultural dimensions. This made itpossible for the residents of the Kaliningrad Oblast, and some coun-ties in the Pomorskie and Warmia and Mazury regions, to cross theborder on the basis of permits, initiating more-frequent contacts.Ms Olaug Bollestad, Chairwoman of the BSPC WG on Innovationin Social and Health Care, presented the Midway Report from theBSPC Working Group on Innovation in Social and Health Care.The speaker mentioned the main healthcare problems that thegroup had been investigating – the ageing of the population,25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 83inequalities in health care, lifestyle-related diseases, and financialpressures. Innovation was highlighted as a tool to meet these chal-lenges in a cost-effective manner without compromising the qualityof health services. Among the preliminary recommendations of theWorking Group were strategies and action plans for the promotionof innovation in social and health care, organisational and structur-al reforms, fiscal incentives to help SME’s, favourable financingconditions for the health economy, the foundation of skill centresfor the commercialisation of scientific knowledge, and competenceenhancement in education and training, equal availability of health-care and social-welfare services, a greater awareness of the needs ofelderly people, and the exchange of best practices, as well as the con-tinued support of the work of the Northern Dimension Partnershipin Public Health and Social Well-being. The results of the activitiescarried out by the Working Group were welcomed by Ms ValentinaPivnenko who expressed her belief that the interest of the BSPC inthe area of healthcare would also continue in the years to followonce the Working Group had finished its operations.Mr Mikalai Katsetski from Belarus, and Mr Piotr Bauć, Member ofthe Polish Parliament, emphasised the importance of the E40 wa-terway-revival project. The waterway, crossing the territories of bothEU and non-EU States, provides an opportunity to develop com-mercial and tourist relations, as well as to strengthen ties betweencommunities.In conclusion of the conference, Mr Ryszard Górecki and Ms SylviaBretschneider, Chair of the BSPC 2014–2015, thanked Jan Wid-berg for his long-standing, dedicated work in the post of GeneralSecretary of the BSPC.84 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhoto: shutterstock. com |Sean Pavone24th BSPC – 2015 Rostock, Mecklenburg-VorpommernThe 24th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference took place in Rostock,31 August-1 September 2015 and for the second time in the historyof the BSPC was hosted by the Parliament of Mecklenburg Vorpom-mern. The subject matter of the conference focused strongly on vari-ous aspects of one main topic, namely health, with the title of theconference - Baltic Sea Region - a Role Model for Innovation in Socialand Healthcare. This was the new strategic approach to – apart fromthe issue of cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region – focus on one mainissue, which was also the topic of the BSPC working group. Addi-tionally, the goal was to involve responsible representatives of the gov-ernments of the Baltic Sea States, which was requested during severalof the former conferences. This granted a possibility to deepen oneimportant political area, to discuss it not only with experts but alsowith representatives of governments and to inforce future develop-ment of this political issue by a comprehensive list of actions andmeasures which are to be realised. The BSPC has succeeded in achiev-ing this strategic approach.Opening and welcoming words were given by Ms Sylvia Bretschnei-der, President of Mecklenburg Vorpommern and Mr Erwin Sellering,the Prime Minister of that Land. The Conference was honoured bythe presence of Mr Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner forDigital Economy and Society as well as present and former Ministersand Vice-ministers of Health from the Baltic Sea States.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 85Traditionally, the first session covered the subject matter of Cooper-ation in the Baltic Sea Region. Ms Sylvia Bretschneider, Chair of theBSPC, gave examples of visible progress which had been achievedduring realisation of the goals of the BSPC mission statement. Shementioned: the contribution of the Standing Committee in keep-ing health in the Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the Baltic SeaRegion, the intensified cooperation with the Northern DimensionPartnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS) anda joint letter to the IMO with the demands concerning protectionof the Baltic Sea and modernization of wastewater treatment capac-ity throughout the Baltic Sea Region. Participation of the BSPC inPan-European Dialogue in Cruise Tourism in Brussels and in theBaltic Sea Tourism Forum were also reported.Information on cooperation with the CBSS was provided by boththe outgoing chair of the CBSS, Mr Mälk, Ambassador of Estoniaand by the incoming Chair, Mr Czyż, Ambassador of Poland. MrMälk admitted that the main task of the Estonian Presidency wasto implement new long term priorities, adopted by the CBSSCouncil in June 2014. It has been held in a situation of changesoccurring in the international climate - the first cancelled PrimeMinisters meeting in its history, no meeting of foreign ministersand abandoned project ideas. The speaker underlined however,that although there had been a pause in a dialogue, there was acontinuation in the practical work of the CBSS. The representa-tive of the incoming Polish CBSS Presidency, Mr Czyż expressedthe opinion that BSPC as the vox populi of the region, togetherwith the CBSS, plays an essential role in defining and implement-ing a common vision of the region’s future. Mr Czyż furtherstressed that although the Polish Presidency comes in times of un-certainty for the region, caused, for an instance, by the crisis inUkraine, the usefulness of CBSS will become further apparent asan efficient platform for intergovernmental coordination. ThePolish ambassador saw room for more regional coherence and syn-ergy with the Northern Dimension, the EU Strategy for the BalticSea Region, the Nordic Council of Ministers, Barents Euro ArcticCouncil, the Arctic Council and others, for instance by establish-ing a structured dialogue.Next speaker Mr Jørn Dohrmann, Member of the European Parlia-ment provided the information on the recent revision of the EU-SBSR and underlined that although the strategy had been devisedwithin the EU, it could only be pursued in cooperation with exter-nal partners in the region and acknowledged the role played by theNorthern Dimension Partnership on Public Health and SocialWell-being as coordinator for health policy area within the EUStrategy.86 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceMs Valentina Pivnenko, Member of Duma of the Russian Federa-tion, acquainted the Conference with progress in development of thesecond regional strategy, namely the Strategy of Socio-Economic De-velopment of the North-West Federal District. Ms Pivnenko admit-ted that the economic situation, especially in the North-Western dis-trict, has made it necessary to update the current goals. The maingoals would be to achieve social stability and prosperity, to ensurecompetitiveness of businesses and to keep an eye on the budget. Thespeaker touched upon the natural resources of the Arctic, a part of theNorth-West District. The state saw the need to create infrastructure toaccess these resources and a number of projects are being developedwith foreign partners. Ms Pivnenko also stressed the importance ofthe relationship with Europe which could be witnessed in many sig-nificant areas of cooperation with the protection of the environmentas one of most promising fields of joint action of the EU and Russia.Finally, Ms Pivnenko addressed the role of Russia in the Ukraine bystressing the efforts of the Russian Federation to make the Agreementof Minsk reality.Mr Harry Liiv, Chair of HELCOM, wanted to shed light on the pro-gress of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan and its targets to reducepollution and underwater noise. In his speech he mentioned eutrophi-cation as one of the largest problems in the Baltic Sea and hence, the fo-cus of a large part of the work done by HELCOM. Other challengesthe speaker referred to were marine litter, heavy metals, underwaternoise and port reception of sewage. A number of measures, action plansand international laws were introduced to tackle these problems. MrLiiv underlined that, for this to be successful, it is important to ex-change best practices amongst the Baltic Sea countries.Ms Daria Akhutina from Baltic Sea NGO updated the Conferencewith the results of the 13th Baltic Sea NGO Forum that took place inTallinn on 10-11 June 2014. Final Statement adopted by the Forumconsisting of 120 representatives of NGO organisations has been sentto the BSPC.Session two Cross-border Cooperation in Healthcare was opened by MsRimantė Šalaševičiūtė – Minister for Health of Lithuania. The Min-ister informed the delegates about the innovations in the healthcaresector in Lithuania. The Lithuanian government prioritises the accel-eration of the development in innovative solutions for eHealth, thedevelopment of university studies into biomedicine, bioinformaticsand health informatics and also stroke diagnostics and treatment, in-farction, traumatology, child health and oncology. Future invest-ments (of approximately €600 million), admitted Ms Šalaševičiūtė,will be dedicated to, among other causes, smart specialisation of stemcells, laser technology and development of safer and healthier foods.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 87With the words of their Minister, the Lithuanian government hasstated that it is eager to cooperate on the international health plansand very willing to share its best practices, for instance in the field ofeHealth and antibiotics management.In the following speech Mr Dmitry Kostennikov, Vice Minister forHealth of the Russian Federation stressed the importance of the co-operation with BSPC to maintain good neighbourly relations andgave examples of many shared healthcare problems that must be tack-led in a combined effort. Infectious diseases such as HIV/Aids and tu-berculosis are the focus of the joint actions, while the fight against to-bacco and alcohol abuse could become such in the future. Promotinga healthy lifestyle was also mentioned as a subject worthy of coopera-tion. The speaker shared results of a recent ban on public smoking,including the workplace, as well as the advertisement and open dis-plays of tobacco products in Russia. Since the beginning of this pro-gramme, the level of tobacco use has dropped to 16-17 percent. MrKostennikov pointed to the possibilities of the telemedicine ande-Health, especially in sparsely populated areas.In her address Ms Annette Widmann-Mauz, Parliamentary State Sec-retary of the German Ministry for Health recalled main political andhealth challenges of the Region - demographic change, non-commu-nicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes as well as infectious dis-eases such as HIV/AIDS and especially tuberculosis. The speakerpraised the influence of Northern Dimension Partnership and PublicHealth and Social Well-being (NDPHS) – currently chaired by Ger-many - for its cross-border efforts in achieving high quality and for itscooperation with international organisations such as the WHO, theInternational Organisation for Migration and the International La-bour Organisation. Ms Widmann-Mauz underlined her belief in in-ternational cooperation and exchange, and the potential it carries, forinstance in drug and alcohol policy.The representative of the WHO, Ms Nedret Emiroglu outlined thesubject of cross-border cooperation in health from the WHO per-spective. Particularly important matter that offers itself for cross-bor-der collaboration is health security. The international communityhas seen many threats recently, such as the Ebola and polio. MsEmiroglu emphasised that the International Health Regulations arethe most important tool with which the international communityshould respond to all public health threats. She reminded her audi-ence that the framework is a legally binding document that enteredinto force in 2007 and that there is a full commitment with 55 sig-natory parties in the European region alone. “Health 2020” is thehealth policy framework for health and Well-being in Europe, high-lighted by the speaker. The Framework, which has been adopted by88 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceall 53 member states in the European Area of the WHO, is a valuebased, action-oriented framework and aims to improve health anddiminish inequalities in health, obtain its goals with a whole-of-so-ciety and a whole-of-government approach. Another issue touchedupon by Ms Emiroglu was The Post-2015 Development Agenda tobe discussed by the United Nations in the autumn 2015. Thatframework continues the world development agenda beyond themillennium goals. Health is one of them, and it is considered as afoundation for development.The last speaker of the second session, Mr Bo Könberg, FormerMinister for Health of Sweden, presented his report about healthcooperation in Nordic countries. Mr Könberg’s work has resulted infourteen proposals, the most important of which involves the grow-ing antibiotic resistance. Mr Könberg therefore recommended re-ducing the prescription to the level used in Estonia and Netherlandswhich are the countries with the lowest use of antibiotics in Europe.Another recommendations applied to patient mobility, cooperationon health technology, including eHealth, and the development of aNordic search tool called “My Patient”. The speaker concluded thatof the fourteen proposals he made in the report, five were treatedduring the meeting of the Nordic ministers in October 2014 andthe timeframe for the achievability of the recommendations in hisreport is five to ten years.Mr Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Digital Econo-my and Society opened the third session of the conference Health andEconomy – Paving the Way for Innovation in Social- and Health care„eHealth – the European Dimension”. He began with a strong messageto the participants underlying that Europe consists of more than justthe European Union and that the existence of regional networks suchas the BSPC, comprised of new member states of the EU and impor-tant neighbouring countries, is beneficial for its citizens and the re-spective economies. Mr Oettinger shared his view on the digital rev-olution through which the global community currently lives, this isquickly shifting away from services only provided by the IT sectorand telecommunications, and is rapidly moving towards the digitali-sation of the „real” economy, with online media and autonomousdriving. Healthcare is currently going through similar digitalisation,with mHealth, eHealth and digital operation, explained the speaker.The Commissioner informed the Conference on the European Com-mission’s initiatives aiming at creating a European data security cul-ture, such as Information Secure Active Network, a single Europeandigital market and reliable and high-speed network.Dr Horst Klinkmann, President of BioCon Valley and Dr Jaanus Pi-kani, Vice President of ScanBalt in their speeches provided the25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 89participants with a wide range of good practice examples of coopera-tion in the health economy area.Dr Dennis Ostwald, CEO of WifOR pointed out that accordingly toWifOR research, 11.1 percent of Germany’s gross value-added comesfrom healthcare and healthcare forms 7.4 percent of the overall Ger-man export. One million new jobs were created in this industry since2008, not counting the two million indirect jobs, and ten million in-duced jobs. Besides jobs directly related to the healthcare sector, trade,medical sales and real estate profit from the growing healthcare sector,too. The speaker argued that the healthcare sector as very significanteconomically and healthcare should be seen rather as the factor ofeconomic growth than necessary expenditure.Ms Sylvia Bretschneider, President of the Landtag Mecklenburg-Vor-pommern, opened the second day of plenary sessions of the 24th Bal-tic Sea Parliamentary Conference with a speech commemorating theoutbreak of the Second World War, which started on 1 September1939. The horrors of war still shock us to this day, she said. The endof the war did not automatically deliver freedom, justice and self-de-termination to all, and it was clear that people still face challenges insociety. People must learn from their history and maintain an aware-ness of the events of that war. The President then urged the represent-atives to seek answers and bear responsibility for the Well-being of allcitizens, and to uphold the memory of those who suffered then.With a keynote speech „Demographic Challenges and Care” Ms Ma-nuela Schwesig, German Federal Minister for Families, Senior Citi-zens, Women and Youth opened a discussion at the fourth sessionSustainable and Accessible Social- and Healthcare – at the Crossroads ofHealthcare Provision, the Demographic Shift and Shrinking Budgets.The Minister focused on two important issues - demographic changeand situation of young families. Closely connected to the first issue,from the minister’s viewpoint, is the current refugee crisis. The Min-ister claimed, that the refugees must not be seen as a burden; they canbe a counter-effect to the steady ageing of Germany. With regard toyoung families, young people need support in taking the step to forma family, especially if they want to have a career and, perhaps, need totake care of sick relatives at the same time, underlined the Minister.Among solutions implemented by the government Ms Schwesigmentioned “family working hours” - paid leave for taking care of sickrelatives and reduced working hours for those providing healthcare totheir relatives. Concluding, the Minister called for mutual intergener-ational cooperation and support.The final report of the BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Socialand Healthcare was presented by Ms Olaug Bollestad, Member of90 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceParliament of Norway and Chair of the Group. The 14 members,representatives of 9 countries, during intense 2 year period took partin study visits, working meetings and, also, have completed so-calledhomework to gain more insight into demography, ethics and strate-gies for innovation in the respective countries. The final report result-ed in three sets of recommendations. The first set concerns cross-bor-der cooperation within healthcare. The second set of recommenda-tions surrounds health economy. The last set of recommendations iscentered on sustainable and accessible social- and healthcare. Amongrecommendations which have been included in the 24th BSPC reso-lution there is the demand to strengthen cooperation and use syner-gies with existing strategies, institutions and organizations, to exercisestronger prevention policy, and to improve healthcare accessibility. Fi-nally, Ms Ollestad concluded that most importantly, health should betaken into account in all policy considerations.At the 24th BSPC conference, the young generation also had a say onsocial and health care in the Baltic Sea Region. Representatives of theBSPC Youth Forum Mr Maximilian Priebe and Ms MadaraMuizniece presented final key points of the Forum Resolution,among them labelling on food products, a tax reduction on healthyfood and tax increase on unhealthy food.The last half an hour of the session has been dedicated to the round-table discussion of recognised BSR experts, who tackled such com-plex issues as self-responsibility, sharing results of studies on health-care, providing healthy food for pupils at schools, with an active par-ticipation of the audience.The 24th BSPC has been concluded by the unanimous agreement onthe resolution and the change in the Rules of Procedure. Additionallythe observer status was granted to the South-East European Process.Mr Jānis Vucāns, Vice-President of the Baltic Assembly and Incom-ing Chair of the BSPC expressed great pride at Latvia’s opportunity tohost the Silver Jubilee of the Conference, 25 years after the Iron Cur-tain fell. He reminded the delegates of the main goal as an elected rep-resentative: to keep up a dialogue, to conduct an active peace policy,and to establish the Baltic Sea as a Sea of Peace.25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 91IMPRESSIONSFROM SOMECONFERENCES92 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference10th BSPC – 2001 Greif s wald, Mecklenburg-VorpommernSvend Erik Hovmand, President of the Nordic Council, Heinz-Werner Arens, President of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament, Valeriy N. Ustyugov, Member of the Council of Federation, Russia, Jürgen Schöning,Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament, Romualds Razuks, Vice-Speaker of the Latvian Parliament,Hinrich Kuessner, Speaker of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Parliament.Lord Russell-Johnston, President of the Heinz-Werner Arens, President of the Schleswig-Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Holstein Parliament.Dr. Henning Klostermann, MP, Mecklenburg- Trivimi Velliste, Member of Parliament, Estonia,Vorpommern Chairman of the first BSPC Working President of the Baltic Assembly.Group Commit tee on Maritime Safety (COMS)25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 93Plenary Session of the 10th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, Max-Planck-Institute, Greifswald.Dorothee Stapelfeldt, Speaker of the State Parliament of the City of Hamburg, Franz Thönnes, Member ofthe Bundestag and Anke Spoorendonk, Member of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament.Wolfgang Thierse, Speaker of the German Handover of the Presidency fromBundestag Hinrich Kuessner to Valerij Ustjugow94 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference13th BSPC – 2004 Bergen, Norway25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 95Photos: Bodo Bahr96 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference14th BSPC – 2005 Vilnius, Lithuania25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 97Photos: Bodo Bahr98 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference15th BSPC – 2006 Reykjavik, Ice land25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 99100 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference16th BSPC – 2007 Berlin, Germany25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 101Photos: Stefan Müller102 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference17th BSPC – 2008 Visby, Sweden25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 103Photos: Johannes Jansson, NMR104 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference18th BSPC – 2009 Nyborg, Denmark25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 105Photos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit106 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference19th BSPC – 2010 Mariehamn, Åland Islands25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 107Photos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit108 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference20th BSPC – 2011 Helsinki, FinlandPhotos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 109Photos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit110 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference21st BSPC – 2012 St. Petersburg, Russia25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 111Photos: Jan Widberg, Bodo Bahr112 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference22nd BSPC – 2013 Pärnu, Estonia25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 113Photos: Olev Mihkelmaa114 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference23rd BSPC – 2014 Olsztyn, Poland25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 115Photos: Office for International and European Union Affairs, Chancellery of the Senate of the Republic of Poland116 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference24th BSPC – 2015 Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 117Photos: Landtag Mecklenburg-Vorpommern118 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conference Secretariatwww.bspc.netBSPC Secretariatc/o Lennéstraße 119053 SchwerinGermanyPhone (+49) 385 525 2777