25 Years of BSPC Final-Edititon

25 Years of Baltic SeaParliamentary ConferencePlatform for cooperation,commitment and competence inpolitical dialogue of parliamentsin the Baltic Sea RegionFinal-Edititon52YEARS52YEARSBaltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceBSPC25 Years of Baltic SeaParliamentary ConferencePlatform for cooperation,commitment and competence inpolitical dialogue of parliamentsin the Baltic Sea RegionFinal-Edititon52YEARSBaltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceBSPC225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference© BSPC SecretariatT exts: Andrzej Januszewski, Päivikki Lindroos,Jan Widberg, Malgorzata Ludwiczek, Florian Lipowski, Bodo BahrEditing: Bodo BahrLayout: produktionsbüro TINUSPhotos: Jan Widberg, Bodo Bahr,on the photos named photographersPrint: produktionsbüro TINUSCopies: 200Printed on environmentally-friendly paperPrinted in Germany2nd Edition, including the 25th BSPC in RigaBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencewww.bspc.netBodo BahrHead of BSPC Secretariatbb@bspc.netBSPC Secretariatc/o Lennéstraße 119053 SchwerinGermanyPhone (+49) 385 525 2777The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) was established in 1991 as a forum forpolitical dialogue between parliamentarians from the Baltic Sea Region. BSPC aims at rais-ing awareness and opinion on issues of current political interest and relevance for the Baltic Sea Region. It promotes and drives various in-itiatives and efforts to support a sustainable environmental, social and economic develop-ment of the Baltic Sea Region. It strives at en-hancing the visibility of the Baltic Sea Region and its issues in a wider European context.BSPC gathers parliamentarians from 11national parliaments, 11 regional parliaments and 5 parliamentary organisations around the Baltic Sea. The BSPC thus constitutes a unique parliamentary bridge between all the EU- and non-EU countries of the Baltic Sea Region.BSPC external interfaces include parlia-mentary, governmental, sub-regional and oth-er organizations in the Baltic Sea Region and the Northern Dimension area, among them CBSS, HELCOM, the Northern Dimension Partnership 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 strengthen democratic institutions in the participating states; 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 between national and regional parliaments on the basis of equality; and initiate and guide political ac-tivities in the Baltic Sea Region, endowing them with additional democratic legitimacy and parliamentary authority.The political recommendations of the an-nual Parliamentary Conferences are expressed in a Conference Resolution adopted by con-sensus by the Conference. The adopted Reso-lution shall be submitted to the governments of the Baltic Sea Region, the CBSS and the EU, and disseminated to other relevant na-tional, regional and local stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region and its neighbourhood.3ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferences 1991–2016 . . . . . . . . . 91st BSPC – 1991 Helsinki, Finnland .................... 102ndBSPC – 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, Ice land .................... 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 ...... 8425th BSPC – 2015 Riga, Latvia ......................... 91Impressions from some Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceINTRODUCTIONAs the President of the BSPC2015-2016, it is my great pleas-ure to be the host of the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Riga on our organisation’s Silver Jubilee.Under the motto “High QualityEducation and Labour – The Future of the Baltic Sea Region”, the conference will focus on is-sues related to the labour market and labour mobility in the re-gion. Namely, we will discuss “how to develop competitive-ness in the Baltic Sea Region by linking education and the la-bour market”, and how to take advantage of employment op-portunities by “improving la-bour mobility and combating youth unemployment”. Both issues are of fundamental importance for 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 five conferences, follows up on the last such publication, which was is-sued on the occasion of the 20th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Confer-ence in Helsinki.625 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 the region, strengthening the common identity of the countries and states 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 Committee to hold its first session of the year in Brussels, thus enabling our organisation 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, which was attended by the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, that the European Commission decided to maintain the policy area “Health” within the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.The BSPC and its executive counterpart, the Council of the BalticSea States, also come together on a semi-annual basis: within the framework of the Standing Committee winter meeting, as well as on the occasion of the BSPC’s annual conferences. This has al-lowed the BSPC to coordinate activities with the CBSS and to be informed 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 to approach the governments and regional organisations on issues of common 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 same vein, European Commissioners have recently informed the Baltic Sea parliamentarians about European level initiatives that are of relevance to our work. The 2015 conference in Rostock has intro-duced the Round Table format, in order to induce the conferences with 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 the Baltic Sea Region. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the former725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceChairman of the BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Socialand Healthcare, our colleague and friend Raimonds Vējonis, has now 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, the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee agreed on a concrete timetable for the prevention of pollution by sewage from ships. The BSPC has urged the governments to support and fulfil the 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 HELCOM have 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 focused on the topics at hand and addressing these in the framework of its annual conferences. Around the turn of the millennium, to fur-ther support its work the BSPC introduced Working Groups on topics such as maritime safety, eutrophication, climate change, la-bour market and welfare, trafficking in human beings, integrated maritime policy, and most recently – sustainable tourism. Since the introduction of a joint financial mechanism, the BSPC took another step towards further streamlining of its work. Most re-cently, besides thinking further about means of cooperation in the region, 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 denying the fact that there have also been signs of tension in the Baltic Sea Region. Especially in times like these, trustworthy, candid, and longstanding cooperation and dialogue are more important than ever before, in particular at the inter-parliamentary level. The rep-resentatives from the countries around the Baltic Sea, chosen by their constituents, must jointly work towards maintaining the peaceful cooperation that has characterised the region for the past 25 years.On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the BSPC, the Baltic SeaParliamentary Conference is more vital than ever before. One of stated goals of the BSPC is to support and strengthen the demo-cratic institutions in the participating states. Therefore, it is in the825 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 Region ever closer together.People coming together is the basis for any cooperation. T rusting 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 2015-2016925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceTHE BALTIC SEAPARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCES1991–20161025 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference1st 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 Parliamentary Conference on Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Area. Six successive Conferences had the English name of the “Parliamentary Confer-ence on Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Area”. The 7th Parliamentary Conference 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 Faroe Islands, and the USSR. Observers were sent by the U. N. European Economic Conference, EFTA, the Helsinki Committee, the In-ter-parliamentary Union, the Nordic Council, and the Council of Europe.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 werePhoto: shutterstock.com | Estea1125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencediscussed 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 the Leningrad area was vital to the region’s integration and that the West should develop an appropriate mechanism for assisting those areas. The speakers expressed their hope for a rapid opening of the East to a capitalist economy, e. g. through free economic zones. However, they also emphasised that political stability free from armed conflicts is a pre-condition of development.During the debate on environmental protection, the invited expertspresented the situation regarding the contamination of the Baltic Sea 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 successful though joint action. Consequently, solution of ecological problems requires not only technological solutions but also political will and broad understanding. The participants called for urgent action to prevent 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 of ships using the Baltic Sea.The Conference also pointed out the importance of developing co-operation in the fields of education and culture. The participants voiced their hope that this cooperation would enable Northern Eu-rope to be a model for co-existence within and between regions and ethnic minorities. The Nordic Council reported a number of initia-tives intended to intensify cooperation with the Baltic States: the Council opened its information centres in the capitals of those countries, and the Danish Culture Institute did the same in Riga. At the same time, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia opened similar centres in Copenhagen.The political debate was dominated by developments in the BalticStates. Their representatives strongly protested against measures1225 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 proposed Nordic nuclear weapon-free zone, and cooperation to combat inter-national crime. There was also a proposal to establish a Baltic Sea Council that would compile plans for cooperation in the region, in-itially in the fields of culture and economy, and later in areas such as technology, power industry, and education. This proposal was soon implemented. 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 organisation at governmental level. The Foreign Ministers of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden, as well as representatives of the European Commission met in Copenhagen on 5–6 March 1992. They set up the Council of Baltic 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. The Council is now one of the most important players for international cooperation in the region.The Conference did not produce any formal conclusions or a reso-lution, but it should be considered as extremely important because of 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 waving stripes. This logo is still in use today.1325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference2nd 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 April 1992.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. The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 created a totally new situation in the region and opened new perspectives. The delegates had to de-velop a plan for cooperation under the new circumstances and they had to find a place for the parliamentary dimension, particularly in the 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 Institutional Frameworks for Interparliamentary Cooperation in the Baltic Sea. The aim of the Conference was also to discuss issues relating to infra-structure and communications.These topics were discussed at the 2nd Plenary Session.Photo: shutterstock.com | joyfull1425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceAs the Conference progressed, differences emerged as to the defini-tion of the range of subjects for Baltic cooperation. Delegations from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia represented an opinion that this cooperation should above all include security issues. In this context, they all demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from their 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 Russian minority 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 be considered 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 in its final Resolution.The debate over the criteria for participation in the Baltic confer-ence of parliamentarians took much of the Conference’s time. The participants agreed that cooperation should involve not only coun-tries but also autonomous areas, regions, and some cities. They also recognised the right of parliamentary multi-national organisations, such as the Nordic Council and the Baltic Assembly, to take part in the Conferences. They also concluded that the geographical criteri-on, i. e. the location in the immediate area around the Baltic Sea, is not an explicit condition for participation in the Conference. A ge-ographic criterion was the reason why Iceland was not a member of the 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 of CBSS.As regards positioning the Parliamentary Conference in relation tothe Council of Baltic Sea States, the Norwegians made the most far-reaching proposals, suggesting that the Conference be held to-gether with the CBSS meetings. The Conference would then fulfil functions similar to those of a parliament in relation to executive authorities. However, this idea was deemed premature though all participants agreed that mutual coordination of measures and prob-lems discussed would benefit both organisations.1525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe 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 Conference as 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, development of democracy). It called on participating governments to recognise the 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 T ransport in Szczecin (17–18 March 1992) and appealed for programmes to develop in-frastructure in the region and to develop telecommunications and mass media cooperation. It also asked the governments to present reports 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:•The Conference is a body that initiates and coordinates cooper-ation on the forum of parliamentary debate;•Decisions are adopted by consensus;•Participants 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;•The 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 the secretariat (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.The document listed the Finnish, Scandinavian, Russian, Polish,Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, German and English languages, but the number of languages was much smaller in practice;1625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference• It 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 to organise the Conference.The Parliamentary Conference in Oslo can be considered the final phase in setting up the institutional foundations of parliamentary cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, in a period when the main principles of the organisation’s activities were crystallising.1725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference3rd 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 cancel the meeting previously scheduled for 3–4 June 1993 because of a political crisis in Poland and dissolution of the Polish Parliament by President Lech Wałe ̧sa. After consultation with the Nordic Coun-cil, the conference was postponed until the following year and the decision 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 impact of parliamentary activity on the transitional process in the Baltic re-gion. The framework for this discussion was the issues discussed 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-mentaryWorking Group with the membership as proposed thePhoto: shutterstock.com | itsmejust1825 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, thegroup was then usually called the “Standing Com-mittee”. This group would be responsible for preparing the next Conference 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, support 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 Helsinki Convention on Maritime Environmental Protection in the Baltic Sea 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 the Council, for example, to submit annual reports on its activities to the Conference Forum.1925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference4th 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 Con ference 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 Swe den 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 Scandi navian experiencein areas such as the labour market and con sumer protection, and he an -nouncedthe Union’s active involve ment 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.Photo: shutterstock.com | marchello742025 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 inthe region, especially in the context of Russiamaintaining a large military potential in the Kaliningrad District. As part of the implementation of the decisions included in the Resolu -tion of the 3rd Conference, Swedish Foreign Minister Ms Lena Hjelm- Wallen presented a report on the pro ceedings of the Council ofBaltic Sea States. From then on, the report of the CBSS representative(usually the foreign minister of the country currently presiding over the Council) has become a permanent feature of the Baltic Sea Parlia -mentary Conferences.Another r eport, “Democracy, the Human and Minority Rights”, waspresented by Mr Ole Espersen, a CBSS Commissioner for Dem ocraticInstitutions and Human Rights, and “Persons Belonging to Ethnic Mi -norities”. This body was established as part of CBSS struc tures in M ay1994. Commissioner Espersen kept his mandate for two terms and wassucceeded by Ms Helle Degn. Commissioner Espersen discussed the role of a parliamentary ombudsman and the opportunities such a role would present. He also discussed questions relating to the granting of citizenship and the continuation of the death penalty in some countriesof the region. Deputy Włodzimierz Konarski of Poland presented thePolish proposal for confidence-enhancing measures as a programme of concrete 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 Confer ence Resolution spoke about support for coopera tion at re -gional level and action by non-governmental organisa tions, and it en -couraged the European Union to cooperate in con trolling organisedcrime and to support regional pro-ecology pro jects. The Resolution de-voted a lot of attention to the Standing Committee. Parliamentarianscame out in fav our of continuing the Committee’s activities. They sug -gested that delegations of the Con ference should be permanent, andthat they should be elected by the parliaments involved, and they alsoproposed establishing a per manent secretariat to support the work ofthe Committee. The CBSS was supposed to establish a similar struc -ture, and its Secretar iat, 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 a permanent parliamentary assembly that applied democratic procedures to support the actions taken by the CBSS.2125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference5th BSPC – 1996 Riga, LatviaThe 5th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Riga on10–11 September 1996, following an invitation from the Latvian Parliament. 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 the subjects discussed. It emphasised environmental protection issues in the Baltic region and discussed the activities of the European 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 document “TheInitiative of the Baltic Sea Region”, adopted in Visby, on the Swed-ish island of Gotland, on 3 May 1996, which defined the Union’s policy on the region. The main areas of this policy included strength-ening and stabilising democracy, economic development resulting from trade liberalisation, building transport and power infrastruc-ture, and support for sub-regional cooperation. The participantsalso discussed questions of trans-border cooperation in the region.The main areas of this cooperation were identified as eco nomic co-operation to promote sustainable development, ecology and thesphere of contacts among citizens, and local initiatives. The speakersPhoto: shutterstock.com | f9photos2225 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 by the Conference. Its participants once again called for an intensi-fication of contacts with the CBSS and close cooperation in fisher -ies, scientificresearch and other areas. The Resolution also drew at-tention to the necessity of solving the power problems of the region by implementing joint power management and utilisation of re-newable sources at an industrial scale.2325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference6th BSPC – 1997 Gdansk, PolandThe 6th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Gdanskon 15–16 September 1997. During the meeting of the Standing Committee in Copenhagen on 15 December 1995, Deputy Longin Pastusiak 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 March 1996) Deputy Pastusiak officially renewed the invitation. The invi-tation was accepted because of the anniversary, although only two years 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 Nostrum.It focused on the broad regional cooperation to which it devoted itsfirst and third Plenary Sessions, and also paid a lot of attention to cooperation in controlling organised crime in the Baltic 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 find answers to questions about the changing balance of power in thePhoto: shutterstock.com | Marcin Krzyzak2425 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 of neutrality of the Baltic Sea.Apart from addressing such issues as cooperation with the Councilof Baltic Sea States and control of organised crime, the Resolution also appealed to the governments for political support for regional and 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 in their applications for EU membership by providing expertise andby changing its internal structure to allow enlargement.The Resolution confirmed the role of the Standing Committee as a link between the Conference and the CBSS and it appealed for the allocation of resources and personnel in the countries involved to support 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 relieve the 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 speakers (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 influ encedby the anniversary celebrations taking place in Gdansk at the sametime.2525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference7th 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 originally planned for Kiel, as mentioned in the Gdansk Resolution. The Chairman 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 process 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 thePhoto: shutterstock.com | sunfun2625 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 prin ciplesthat offered hope for developing cooperation in the Baltic Sea Re-gion and improving effectiveness. It should be noted that all the parliamentarians stressed the need to combine the processes of Bal-tic integration with European integration. Consequently, they did not describe the regional cooperation as an alternative but rather a supplement 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. This switched the focus from strategic discussions to ways of promotingand supporting actual projects. Measures included coordi nation 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 following 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 policy 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. The Resolution appealed to the candidate countries to quickly adopt the EU 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: the Union of Baltic Towns, the Sub-regional Cooperation of Baltic Sea States, the Association of Baltic Chambers of Commerce, and the Conference of Europe’s Peripheral Sea Regions. The Resolution ex-pressly recommended that the Standing Committee implement the Resolution’s provisions adopted by the Conference. The document also referred to the idea of the Northern Dimension, which becameanother major influence onthe Conference’s activities. The conceptof developing the “Northern Dimension” of the European Union was proposed by Finland in 1997. The idea was that countries and2725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceregions around the Baltic Sea including Rus sia (also Iceland andBritain) would play an important role in the political stabilisationand economic development of the growing European Union. On25 November 1998, the European Commis sion adopted a reporton the “Northern Dimension of the Euro pean Union’s Policy” afterwhich the EU summit in Vienna, Decem ber 1998, decided to in-corporate the Finnish initiative in the offi cial programme of theUnion.2825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference8th BSPC – 1999 Mariehamn, Åland IslandsThe 8th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Parliamentary Conference washeld on 7–8 September 1999 in Mariehamn, Åland Islands, on the invitation of the regional Parliament. The Chairman of the Standing 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 represented the 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 the Committee wor k, unless already represented on the Committee.The Committee also started work on drafting a new Mandate for the Parliamentary Conference and the Standing Committee for the 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 the social-democratic 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 forPhoto: Magne Kveseth2925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencefurther consolida tion of Conference str uctures 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 tioninthe 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 R esolution adopted included a number of principles regard -ing environmental protection, particularly the eradication of con-tamination sources in the region, and referred to the European Union’s policy on the candidate countries.3025 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference9th 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 mottoof the Conference was Baltic Sea Cooperation – Bridgestowards the Future. Malmö was chosen for the Confer ence becauseofthe opening (in July 2000) of the bridge linking the city with Co-penhagen across the Öresund strait. This transport route created new opportunities for local and regional cooperation 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 cooperation in the region and methods for bridging the economic gaps between the Baltic States, in order to establish an integrated economic area.There were three Plenary Sessions: Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Re-gion, Northern Dimension – Chances and Challenges for Regional andPhoto: shutterstock. com | Mikhail Markovskiy3125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceSub-regional Cooperation, and a recap session. The second Sessioninvolved two working groups, discussing TransEuropean Networks and 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 cooperation and to assist cross-border cooperation, particularly by building new trans-European network links (e. g. roads, power, information high-ways, etc). The Resolution also supported the promotion 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.3225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference10th BSPC – 2001 Greif s wald,Mecklenburg-VorpommernThe 10th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Greif s-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 main issues – 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 around the Baltic Sea – a parliamentary sister organisation to the CBSS.The Conference discussed how the concept of civil society waschanging. Cooperation concerning youth issues, democratic and civil rights in all countries around the Baltic Sea was addressed. The interventions displayed the variety of opinions of the participantsregarding the idea of democracy and human rights.Photo: shutterstock. com | Gl0ck3325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe Conference also discussed its own working methods. Therewere deliberations on the experiences of the first ten years of the BSPC, as well as its future tasks, structures and working methods. Constructive proposals were put forward in the discussion, which was also an occasion for self-critical stocktaking and for confrontingsome contentious issues.It was noted that in the early years of parliamentary coopera tion,coming together and getting acquainted were top priorities. After tenyears, the personal contacts, or even friendships, repre sent 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 issue was 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 Germany 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 quotas ofparliamentarians were not in proportion to the re-spective populations. During the Conference preparations, a number of 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 always been 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 the problems 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 internationalcrime was also a prominent issue at the Conference.The complex issue of safety of shipping and sea transport lanes was widely discussed. Before the Conference, the host Parliament had organised a hearing on the topic and drafted a comprehensive re-port. The problem of preventing accidents and improving maritimesafety was deemed complicated and difficult to overcome. Preven-tion of oil spills was another concern for the Conference. A difficult3425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceproblem was eutrophication caused by excess discharge of phospho-rus and nitrogen. A BSPC Working Group, the Commit tee 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 attended the Conference and gave reports on the situation of young people and their organisations in the region. It was argued that involving young people is a basic premise for a healthy democracy, and that young people must be involved in the decision-making processes.This led to demands that youth issues should be a permanent topic at the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference. It was also agreed that adelegation representing young people should be provided a seat at the annual Baltic Sea Parliamentary 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 to as a guarantor for the development of sustainable, stable and pros-perous societies. Issues regarding minorities were tackled. Delegates pointed out the utmost importance of majorities allowing forums for 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 delegatesfrom Italy, Greece and Croatia, members of the Adriatic-Ion ian 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 them the 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 of which is included in the first nine chapters of this publication, and by 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 secondpart was dedicated to safety at sea, prepared by COMs3525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference11th BSPC – 2002 St. Petersburg, RussiaThe 11th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was organised inSt. Petersburg on 30 September-1 October 2002 under the theme Baltic 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, its role in the Northern Dimension, and cooperation with other coun-tries both in and outside the region. Kaliningrad was again high on the agenda of the Conference. Many of the participants expressed that Kaliningrad is both a joint problem and a joint responsibility. The Russian parliamentarians wished to see Kaliningrad as a pilotprojectfor 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 sawthe 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 a question about Kaliningrad. They stated that Russia will participate actively in the Northern Dimension of the EU, both in economic and environmental spheres. According to them the main objectivePhoto: shutterstock. com | Brian Kinney3625 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 developing cooperation 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. The message was that it should have embraced cooperation, not only as-sistance, and dedicated funds should have been allocated. The Northern 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 the harbour porpoise, one of the smallest marine mammals, and its ability to survive in the Baltic Sea. This was an example of how en-thusiastic projects can be transformed into political standpoints, as the porpoise issue was incorporated in the Conference Resolution.The Conference also discussed the health issue which was, and still is,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 implemen tation 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. Consequently,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 be improved between the numerous regional bodies and Working Groups and that duplication of projects would be minimised.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 Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference called upon the Council of Baltic Sea States (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 and navigation, and to cooperate internationally in this field. The Con-ference also expressed its satisfaction that it had been granted ob-server status with HELCOM.3725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceEutrophication was mentioned as the most pressing problem in theBaltic Sea. Run-off from agriculture and air emissions from the use of fossil fuel was mentioned as the largest contributors to the nitro-gen load. Urban and industrial sewage was the largest phosphorussource.Some participants tabled a HELCOM report from 1992/93 which stated that after World War II, some 300,000 tons of German chemical munitions were dumped in the Baltic Sea, including about 65,000 tons of poisonous gases. This was not known for a long time, since military documents were classified. In the Resolution,one of the recommendations was that the governments of the HEL-COM parties should carry out further investigations to localise and identify dumped chemical munitions.The Resolution also noted that the COMS Working Group hadproved to be a useful instrument for developing political opinion and 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.3825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference12th BSPC – 2003 Oulu, FinlandThe 12th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was organised inOulu, Finland, 8–9 September 2003. The theme of the Conference was The Baltic Sea Region – An Area of Knowledge, which was an ap-propriate topic to be discussed in Oulu, being an IT and knowledgecentre in the Gulf of Bothnia, Northern Finland. The upcom ing 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 assumed and hoped that it would further underline the importance 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 was the largest single investment during the decade to improve the con-dition of the Baltic Sea. The project was warmly welcomed by the parliamentarians. The establishment of the Northern DimensionEnvironmental Partnership was another breakthrough.It was stated that greater efficiency in agriculture should not lead to increased runoff of nutrients. Support from the European UnionPhoto: shutterstock. com | HildaWeges Photography3925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencewould be vital especially for environmental protection in Russia,and the Northern Dimension Partnership Fund in the EBRD should be a vital instrument in improving the state of the Baltic Sea.The situation of the NGOs was once again discussed. A rapporteurwas 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 tackled 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 the statutes, the committee could not fully participate in discussions between the Conferences and take a position on a single issue if this issue had not been mentioned in the Resolutions. The EU enlarge-ment and its impact on the region, as well as an increasing role of the 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 had been given the status of one of the regional organisations cooperat-ing with the CBSS, thereby allowing it to monitor the work of the CBSS. The parliamentarians wished to strengthen and develop the structures 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 2001 and 2002. The results of the BSPC Working Group COMS, which had been appointed in 2000, had also included the BSPC applying for 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 and goods, 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 of4025 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 the Baltic Sea and its heavy sea traffic. All ships, regardless of flag, are now required to comply with more stringent discharge regulationswhen 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 and lifelong learning will complement each other. The idea of founding a “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 and the creation of multi-institutional degrees in the Baltic 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 entire Baltic Sea Region labour market. The Conference also stressed that the Baltic Sea Region can only flourish if there are well-functioning labour 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.4125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference13th 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 r egional parliamentary cooperation was well established.Change because this was the first Conference after the enlarge -ment ofthe 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 Baltic Sea cooperation. The impact of EU enlargement was not sched -uled for separate discussion but became a constant thread in thedebates on the pr esent and future of Baltic Sea cooperation. Thefollowing points were repeatedly mentioned as the most impor -tant aspects of the enlarged Union for regional cooperation in Northern 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 necessity of a parliamentaryaspect to the Northern Dimension; and theneed for future participation of the European Parliament in the BSPC.Photo: shutterstock. com | TTphoto4225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe theme of chang e 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 diverging views as to how this should be accomplished. A ParliamentarianPartnership for Northern Europe, as an overarching structure for the geographical area and a driving force in relations with thegovernments and the EU Commission, was proposed as food for thought and inspiration. The idea received support but did notlead to any major changes in the parliamentary structures in Northern Europe.The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference has no mandate to makebinding decisions. Its strength lies in bringing together differentvoices from the Baltic Sea States. Parliamentarians from nationaland regional parliaments around the Baltic Sea attend the Con -ference, many of them also representing regional organisations like the B altic Assembly or the Nordic Council. The Conferencewas again joined by representatives from the Adriatic Ionian Initiative and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Eco -nomic Cooperation, reminding the Baltic Sea parliamentarians again 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 joint measures were possible. A number of successful initiatives were mentioned by the parliamentarians, such as measures for reduc -ing the load of heavy metals discharged into the sea. But bones of contention 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 theoften 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 discussed are long-term projects.During the past year, the Standing Committee, whose task is torepresent the BSPC outside the annual meetings, had concen -4325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencetrated on concrete political activities, such as the Northern Di-mension, EU enlargement and the European Neighbourhood policy .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 continue this 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. Russian parliamentarians, while supporting the idea in the final Resolu -tion of the 12th BSPC in Oulu, remained strictly opposed to the idea.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 Baltic Sea as a PSSA” was not supported by all participants. Instead, thewording “Support effective associated protective measures with respect to relevant provisions in all the Resolutions of the BSPC on the protection of marine environment” was chosen. By formu -lating the text in this way, the 13th BSPC declared that it stood behind all its pr evious Resolutions, thereby including its supportfor the PSSA designation.Before the Conference, a new function had been established bythe Standing Committee, through nomination of a rapporteur for Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad had grown considerably, but around 180,000 inhabitants of the region still lived below the poverty level.Since the previous Conference, another parliamentarian had beenacting as BSPC Rapporteur on the legislation regarding NGOs in the 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 the wellbeingof 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 region were put forward.4425 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 and the desire to strengthen the BSPC had surfaced. This was brought to a head at the 13th BSPC, where the BSPC Standing Committee was given the task of making concrete proposals on the restructur-ing of the parliamentary Conference. It was asked to elaborate a proposal for how to develop the parliamentary dimension in coop-eration with the CBSS and the participating parlia ments and rele-vant inter-parliamentary bodies. The discussions showed clearly that the goal of strengthening the BSPC was shared by all members of the Standing Committee and the BSPC, although there were dis-agreements on how to achieve it.4525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference14th BSPC – 2005 Vilnius, LithuaniaThe 14th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference convened in Vilnius,Lithuania 28–30 August 2005. The theme of the Conference was Shared Concerns and Responsibilities for Stability and Democracy, andit was aimed at strengthening the parliamentary dimension of the Baltic Sea Region and debating the shared concerns and responsi-bilities of the region. The broad participation, with over 90 parliamentarians and150 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 brokered new possibilities for regional cooperation in Northern Europe, es-pecially with regard to the new options of additional EU funds for the various projects in the Baltic Sea Region. An important stepwasthe participation of the European Parliament in the work of the BSPC Standing Committee. It was also obvious that the role of the CBSS had grown in view of the recent enlargement of the Europe-an Union.Photo: shutterstock. com | JuliusKielaitis4625 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 again crucial topics. In addition to enhanced cooperation with the CBSS, the main emphasis of future cooperation and development would be 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 Committee and 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 and democracy in the Baltic Sea Region. One of the main issues in the Resolutions of 2003 and 2004 was the request for the Standing Committee 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 Conference to reform the BSPC Rules of Procedure. Through the participation of 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 whilst several proposals and comments accompanied the debate.The Conference noted that, in July 2005, the Marine EnvironmentProtection 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 Baltic Sea PSSA status in 2003, this status is now regarded as a success for the entire Baltic Sea Region. When an area is approved as a particu-larly sensitive area, special protection is granted due to its ecological significance, and specific measures can be used to restrict traffic in that 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 concerns the 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 the Baltic Sea Region was again a main issue, the Conference was4725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceattended 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. The biggest change concerned the Standing Committee, whose mandate was expanded to work between the Conferences, and whose mem-bership now included representatives of the European Parliament and the German Bundestag. Moreover, an Extended Standing Committee acts as Drafting Committee during the Conference inorder to strengthen continuity in the parliamentary work. Theamended Rules and Conference Resolution, including the estab-lishment of a BSPC Working Group on Eutrophication, were adopted unanimously.4825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference15th BSPC – 2006 Reykjavik, Ice landThe 15th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Reykjavik, Ice land,3–5 September 2006 addressed the Northern Dimension and theOceans and Seas. The Conference was held in the northern most 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 N orthern 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 in the work of the BSPC.There was a lively debate throughout the two-day event in Reykjavik,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 Proce dure, had pr eparedthe 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 the work of the Conference more effective, i. e. how to move from the discussion of issues to their implementation. The underlying conceptof the Rules of Procedure for the Standing Committee, as the perma -nent political body of the Conference, was to make the presence ofPhoto: shutterstock. com | Paul van den Berg4925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceparliamentary cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region felt beyond theannual Conference.According to the new Rules adopted in Vilnius in 2005, repre sentativesfrom both Bundestag in Germany and the European Par liament nowhad assumed their tasks in the Standing Committee. This was seen as apositive development that would hopefully secure continuity in the representation of the national and regional parliaments. Another im -portant issue had been to implement the Conference Resolution and also to wor k according to the guide lines in a written Work Programmethat had been developed dur ing the previous year.A lively discussion broke out regarding Belarus and its possible status as an observer at the Conference. Some of the participants thought that isolating an entire country, its parliament and people from any di -alogue with its surrounding region was unacceptable. Others felt that due to the political ev ents taking place in Belarus, granting it eithermembership or even observer status at the BSPC could be difficult for some of the members of the BSPC. The Integrated Maritime Policy of the EU was felt to offer promising opportunities for the Region, notleast in financial terMs Greater cooperation and coordination in order to 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 N ord 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 ensure that the feasibility assessment for the pipeline is carried out with a highlevel of transpar ency andin 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 and lifeless ar eas 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 andindustries. It expressed its full support to the HELCOMactivities in the whole catchment area in order to fight eutrophication in the Baltic Sea.5025 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference16th BSPC – 2007 Berlin, GermanyThe 16th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held on 27–28August 2007 in Berlin under the theme Social Welfare, Maritime Policy, Energy Security. It was the first time that the Bundestag had organised the Conference. It had been held in Germany twice be-fore, having been hosted by the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag in 1998 and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Landtag in 2001. The Conference was the biggest so far in BSPC’s history, gathering over 200 participants. The Conference acknowledged the collaborative spirit 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 supported by 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 of the main avenues for parliamentarians to drive and follow up the discussion on maritime policies. It was also said that more focus should be put on labour market cooperation, the development ofcivil society, and the fight against organised crime. Coordi nationPhoto: shutterstock. com | Sean Pavone5125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencewith other organisations was also deemed important. The Confer-ence felt satisfaction that there now was clear evidence of progress on the issues mentioned in earlier BSPC Resolutions. This showed that the opinions of parliamentarians and their work were being taken 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 suggested that one possible, specific and realistic project could be the lifting of these munitions. Then they would not pose any danger 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 unfriendly action towards some of the countries. There were also concerns about the possible grave ecological consequences. The risk of terror-ist attacks against the pipeline was another of the arguments against building 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 com mentson the pipeline. As for the risk of terrorist attacks, it was argued that the same threat applies to land-based pipelines.Concerning labour market issues, the Conference discussed social welfare 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 peaceful labour market conditions are central prerequisites for a prosperous and fair social and economic development. It is important to take measures to promote a closer exchange of information and initia-tives between social partners.One question was how to regulate flexicurity, which is sup posed tocombine social security with opennessto flexibility and mobility.The term “decent work” was applied, underlining that work as such is central for human dignity and individual self-appreciation. Newissues facing societies, such as immigrant workers, cross-border workers, young and elderly people and work-related diseases were listed by the participants. Major priorities in the years to come will include providing decent jobs, skills enhancement and life-longlearning. The problem is not so much a deficit of work but ratheradapting the labour market to new conditions. After the thorough discussion on labour market issues the Conference decided to ask5225 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 as more environmentally sound agricultural production regimes; more efficient cleaning of municipal and industrial waste water and waste water 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 Conference.5325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference17th 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 concernabout the situation in the Baltic Sea – one of the most pol luted seasin the world, with excessive concentrations of phospho rus and ni-trogen due to discharge from sources such as agriculture, traffic andflush toilets. The biggest problem is eutrophication, causing algae blooming and fish death. The Conference expressed support for HELCOM’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 phosphorus would 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, and flooding, was seen as one of the worst crises that politicians have toPhoto: shutterstock. com | Pixach5425 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 and investments inenergy savings. Development of new, ecological-ly-pure energy technologies was desirable. The discussion cannot just concern 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 active players in the Baltic Sea Region and is a strategic partner to CBSS.In one of the discussions ̧ it was emphasised that Belarus must be included when considering the environment in the Baltic Sea. It was also emphasised that chemical weapons stored on the bed of the Baltic Sea might pose an important ecological problem that should be solved at European level, especially in view of the fact that the routing 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 impact assessments 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 maritime safety. Much remains to be done in the area of safety, particularly in view of the large increase in the number of maritime transport movements. The situation has actually been improved as a result of the 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 the5525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceRules of Procedure of the BSPC state unequivocally that decisionsduring the plenary session are to be taken in consensus between the participating delegations. Following the debate, the Conference de-cided to adopt the Resolution by consensus.5625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference18th BSPC – 2009 Nyborg, DenmarkThe 18th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was held in Nyborg,on the Island of Fyn, Denmark, 30 August-1 September 2009. The theme of the Conference was New Security Challenges, and it attract-ed some 200 government representatives, parliamentarians 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 important role of the CBSS in initiating and coordinating actions to meet the challenges of the Baltic Sea Region. It also reiterated its support for the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) as a central tool for restoring 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.Photo: Bodo Bahr5725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceOn 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, and concrete projects to implement maritime spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region. The Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the North-East Atlantic and the Irish Sea, should be designated as Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA), as is already the case with the Eng-lish Channel, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Vessel T raffic 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 enhance security of energy supply, increase the use of renewable energy, and strengthen 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 dia loguebetween 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 convene twice a year and the Standing Committee convene twice a year, with the Standing Committee open for observers from national and regional parliaments that are not represented in the Standing Com-mittee. The Conference also decided to establish a Working Group on Integrated Maritime Policy, especially infrastructure and logis-tics, and a Working Group on Civil Security, especially traffickingin 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 theEnlarged Standing Committee) had three extensive dis -cussions during the Conference, after which the Resolution couldbe adopted by consensus.5825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference19th BSPC – 2010 Mariehamn, Åland IslandsThe 19th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was convened inMariehamn, Åland Islands, on 29–31 August 2010. The theme of the 19th BSPC was Cooperation on Environment and Security, and it drew some 200 politicians, experts and officials. Once again the Conference could observe that, although a lot has been done to help the Baltic Sea to recover, the environmental problems in the region are still major and ongoing.The Conference reaffirmed the close, constructive and mutuallybeneficial exchange between BSPC and CBSS, as shown, for exam-ple, in the interactionbetween BSPC and CBSS, and the workinggroups on trafficking in human beings and on integrated maritime policy. 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.Photo: shutterstock. com | Jussi Kakela5925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe Conference urged governments of the region to fulfil their al-ready agreed obligations under the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, in particular by producing concrete National ImplementationPlans 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 (a core 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 ecosystemservices 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 Region and requested proposals on how to avoid such disadvantages whilemaintaining high environmental standards in the mari time 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 national preparedness and capacity to tackle major spills of oil and hazardous substances 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 natural 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, and to prepare guidelines for how to handle accidents involving sea-dumped chemical weapons.The BSPC Working Group on T rafficking in Human Beings de-livered an interim report. The report called for sufficient, per -manent and dedicated funds andresources to, for instance, pub-lic authorities, specialised agencies, NGOs, and inter-govern-mental organisations and projects, such as the CBSS Task Force on T rafficking 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 adopted6025 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 to evaluate 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 StandingCommittee) considered the draft in two sittings, and then the Con-ference adopted the Resolution by consensus. The Resolution is the main political tool for directing joint political standpoints and rec-ommendations to the governments of the Baltic Sea Region, the CBSS and the European Union.6125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference20th 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 same venue as the very first BSPC in 1991. Therefore, the atmosphere of those 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, onCooperation in the Baltic SeaRegion, Ms Christina Gestrin, Chairman of the BSPC, also pointedout that there had been quite remarkable developments in the Region since 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. H owever, 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, strengthening the common labour mar ket, 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 for the B altic Sea Region, which has been proposed by a group ofPhoto: shutterstock. com | Telia6225 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 work on an equal footing. The N orthern 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 r eview 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 of Schleswig-Holstein. He described the institutional development of the BSPC. Adopting an annual work programme, launching working groups and appointing rapporteurs with clearly defined missions, rep -resented, especially in the second decade, milestones towards greater efficiency and political impact. H e also underlined the well-function-ing model of parliamentary cooperation involving both national and regional parliaments. MrSchöning 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 E urope 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 b y 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 regulations for se wage discharges from passenger ships, the disposal of sewage bycruise ships through a voluntary call by cities, working together with private companies on port-reception facilities, a flagship project in the framework 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 B altic Sea as a Nitrogen Dioxide EmissionControl Area. Mr Jochen Schulte, Chair of the BSPC WG on6325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceIntegrated Maritime Policy, expressed concerns regarding possible dis-advantages for the Baltic Sea shipping business as a consequence of the designation of the B altic Sea as a Sulphur Emission Control Area. Ac-cording to the Working Group, uniform environmental standards should be intr oduced 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 Sea and 150 million tonnes of oil per y ear 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 in order to minimise the risk of shipping accidents, greater control overports is needed and both the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the HELCOM 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 T rafficking. The mosturgent request expressed by Mr Andre Oktay Dahl, Vice Chair of the Group, 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 the relevant 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 trafficking must not be tr eated 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 topic were modern slavery organised by globalised crime groups and the problems caused by large-scale emigration from the Baltic countries. The discussion led to the general conclusion that parliamentarians have a key role in their capacity as opinion-makers and legislators. Therefore, it is extremely important that they keep exerting political pressure 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. The Northern Dimension on Public Health and Social Well-being(NDPHS), as presented by Mr Maciejowski, the head of the NDPHS’s Secretariat, supports initiatives strengthening policies and actions in the field of the prevention of non-communicable diseases which have6425 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 Maciejowski concluded that more coordination and pooling of resources could be an answer to the common challenges BSR countries are facing with re -gard to public health and social Well-being. Alcohol consumption patterns ar e risk factors relating to diseases and injuries. The EuropeanAction Plan presented in the next part of the session consisted of a thorough diagnosis of the situation and the objectives of the Plan. The participants agreed that in order to reduce the incidence of alcohol-re -lated diseases and injuries, more work had to be done – awareness of the bur dens 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 be spread, and coordination between stakeholders should be improved.The BSPC, appreciating the importance of cooperation in the field of health and social Well-being, granted BSPC Observer status to the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-be -ing.The four th session, onGreen Growth and Energy Efficiency, includedpresentations on a variety of issues from different perspectives.Mr Berndt Voss, a Schleswig-Holstein MP , described green growth and energy efficiency in Schleswig-Holstein. Mr Hans Brask present -ed the activities of the Baltic Development Forum, and Ms Lene Grønning, 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 prospective social and economic dev elopment of the BSR. The debate was over-shadowed by the terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July and in that context the fundamental r esponsibility of parliamentarians to standfor democracy, openness and humanity was strongly emphasised. In the final part of the session Ms Holznagel, a Mecklenburg-Vorpom -mern MP , pointed out that a debate over the Resolution of the BSPC should bea daily practice of each BSPC parliament, in the same wayas it happens in the Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.6525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference21st 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 parliamentary cooperation 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 a best-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 CBSS under the Russian Presidency and the Presidency of Russia in the BSPC. Ambassador Mr Gerhard Almer, Head of the Task Force for the German Presidency of the CBSS 2011–2012, referred to the ex-traordinary meeting held in Schloss Plön in February 2012 when the 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 andPhoto: shutterstock. com | Eugene Sergeev6625 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 administrative levels. Other issues of utmost importance mentioned by Ms Piv-nenko were public-private interaction and the maritime strategy for curbing eutrophication, maritime safety for better protection of the environment, energy efficiency, nuclear safety, and the infrastruc-ture for increasing the competitiveness of the BSR in Europe and globally. She stressed the fact that such a wide range of goals could be only achieved in close cooperation with sub-regional and non-governmental organisations, such as HELCOM, BSSSC, and the Northern Dimension. During this session two strategies were presented: Mr Jacek Protasiewicz, Vice-President of the European Parliament, outlined the objectives of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, and Mr Stanislav Lazowsky introduced the participants to 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 living there. “Therefore, both shall contribute to the development of the Baltic Sea area” – that was the final conclusion of the session which was included in the text of the BSPC Resolution. Mr Jakko Hetton-nen, Manager of the NDEP assured, that the Northern Dimension Environmental 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, Chair of HELCOM. As regards the progress of BASAP implementation, it has been acknowledged that the municipal wastewater-treatment sector and the industrial sector have been successful in reducing their 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 and biodiversity. However, a lot of work still has to be done to limit eu-trophication, which was the biggest environmental problem. The EU regulations regarding the use of phosphates and phosphorus compounds in the households were adopted in 2017, but the last part of that hazardous substance originating from agriculture re-quires special attention. Ms Christina Gestrin, BSPC HELCOM observer, 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 the IMO to prohibit nitrogen-oxide discharges in the Baltic Sea. Ms Gestrin concluded her speech by a call for the implementation of existing plans instead of making new recommendations.6725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceMany interesting examples of environmental cooperation were pre-sented during that session. What is more, the hosts’ representative gave an assurance that the subsequent Ministerial Meeting in 2013 would provide reports from each country on the implementation of national 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 important conclusion of the subsequent part of the conference. It was claimed that, together with innovation, going ecological can be a long-term driver 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 Policy and, 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 maritime policy have been able to work together and managed to take an in-tegrated approach on such issues as reduction of emission, maritime transport 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 to the aging society, the growing burden of non-communicable diseas-es, antimicrobial resistance, diabetics and other socially significant diseases. The speakers representatives of NDPHS, the State Univer-sity of Karelia and the Baltic Assembly – agreed that cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, both political and project-related, had to be continued and developed in order to bring about new solutions to prevent the premature mortality from preventable causes. The next section, dealing with labour-market issues, was dominated by the discussion on high youth unemployment. It was said that, as Eu-rope was facing demographic aging, the full potential of a small working 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 or6825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencewell-functioning apprenticeship and internship systeMs An exten-sive report on youth unemployment and measures to combat the problem in the Baltic Sea Region was recommended by Mr Franz Thönnes, 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 was mentioned 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.6925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference22nd BSPC – 2013 Pärnu, EstoniaThe 22nd BSPC conference was hosted by Riigikogu, the Parlia-ment of Estonia in Pärnu, 25-27 August 2013, and was honoured by the opening address by H. E. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia. Mr Ilves pointed out that the Baltic Sea Region 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 on innovation, sustainability and competitiveness, which are on the agenda 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 the fact that after a tough period of recession, the Baltic Sea RegionPhoto: -jkb-7025 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 Working Group on Innovation in Social and Health Care. Once again the close connection between BSCP and CBSS was confirmed by Ms Satu 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 the promotion of clean navigation and the use of alternative fuels, the prevention of maritime accidents, and the strengthening of civil soci-ety, are close to the topics discussed within the BSPC. Ms Mattila stressed 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 is of an utmost importance. The next speaker, Mr Sergey Petrovich, for-mer Chair of the CBSS Russian presidency, continued the important issue of the implementation of political decisions by giving extensive examples of projects that had been launched in North-West Russia as a result of CBSS initiatives. Ms Darya Akhutina representing the Bal-tic NGO Forum and the recently established Baltic NGO Network presented a number of recommendations with reference to enhancing the participation of civil society organisations in the decision-making process. In order to facilitate cooperation visa mobility system should be 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 in Kiel and to create the Baltic Sea Youth Forum, a network of local, regional and national youth organisations operating in the Baltic Sea Region. Also in a comment by Mr Franz Thönnes, Member of Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, youth issues were highlighted. Mr Thönnes invited the Finnish CBSS presidency to organise 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. This time 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 high on the agenda of the ministerial meeting. Reaching an agreement on7125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencethe distribution of reductions in phosphorus and nitrogen among theinvolved countries would be one of the main tasks of the ministerial meeting in October 2013. Only timely implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan can lead to a healthy Baltic Sea. As to the situation in the maritime sector, it is expected that the ministerial meeting will agree on a new initiative ‒ the establishment of a Green Technology and Alternative Fuels Platform for Shipping. Ms Stankiewicz invited the 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 the BSPC Observer at HELCOM, mentioned the contribution of theBSPC to the ministerial meeting regarding an integrated maritime policy, energy and environmental protection.Mr Pat the Cope Gallagher, Member of the European Parliament,briefed the BSPC on the development of the EUSBSR and the Northern Dimension. The Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region has been revised and currently the Revised Action Plan has only three objectives: 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 agenda of the Northern Dimension, and cooperation with Russia is crucial in order to effectively address regional challenge, concluded Mr Gal-lagher. In their comments Ms Christina Gestrin and Mr Vantar Yagya supported such high expectations for EUSBSR and claimed that more compatibility with other strategies, e. g. the Social and Economic Development of the North-West Federal Districts of the Russian 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-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) announced that the 44th General Assembly of PABSEC had 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 with a 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 Does the Region Need to Become Sustainable? featured an interesting dis-cussion on key trends affecting the Baltic Sea Region and on the other gave many examples of innovation initiatives.7225 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 in the next decades will not be driven by Europe. If Europe wants to continue its economic and social development it must adapt to the changes taking place in the global area. Therefore, Baltic Sea coun-tries should restructure their economies, namely the industries and the proportion of high-tech production, develop new servic-es, and revise the geographical patterns of their economic ties. For Mr Jari Kaivo-Oja from Finland’s Futures Research Centre, the most significant effects of globalisation are those interlinked with changes 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 the bio-economy are the main trends affecting the BSR. Ms Silvia Stiller from the Hamburg Institute of International Economics re-ferred to the future potential and the challenges of the BSR area of innovation. She indicated that the Baltic Sea Region was charac-terised by substantial structural and developmental differences in the 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 in R&D; and fourthly differences in education systeMs Ms Stiller pointed out that the analyses confirmed that innovation and the introduction of novelties to the economy are closely linked with the general education level of society.After analysing the challenges to build the Baltic Sea Region inno-vative area, many encouraging and promising examples of activities and 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 brings together 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 6 months 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 transform the Baltic Sea Research system into a durable, cooperative and mul-tinational system. Nordic Innovation assists policy makers, policy implementers, and business and research organisations. The Nordic High Growth Entrepreneurship Initiative is aimed at facilitating national activities in increasing the capacities of innovative compa-nies. The Nordic Built Initiative is aimed at the building industry and focuses on the harmonisation of standards and the promotion7325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceof innovation in industry. In their final comments the parliamentar-ians stressed the importance of innovation as the key-driving force in economic growth, welcomed the amendments to the resolution regarding 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 Energy Efficiency report, presented by Chairperson Ms Cecile Ten-fjord-Toftby. The political recommendations have been clustered in four core proposals and covered such issues as raising the awareness of the energy efficiency and green growth among households and enterprises, providing uniform technical standards and building codes, promoting green public procurement investments in the area of infrastructure, business and buildings, and implementing finan-cial schemes that support green growth and energy efficiency. All of these have been included in the text of the 22nd BSPC Resolution. The remarkable results of the Group’s work were highly esteemed by the audience. The CBSS, in 2014, in recognising the importance of the 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 Timo Mäkelä 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’s major 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 the BSR. The key messages which needed to be delivered to the decision makers 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 structures around the Baltic Sea cities have to begin adapting. Some cities, like Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Rostock, are already adapt-ing but still, as Ms Deppish admitted, social and ecological aspects so 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 were7425 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 in meteorology, agriculture and forestry could be seen as reflecting the fact 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 recognised innovation 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 agreed that increasing public awareness of green energy and energy efficiency might change people’s attitudes and the market demand. The first step can be taken by politicians who should distribute the report in the parliaments of their countries. Apart from that, the Baltic Sea countries should also take into account the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The Economic and Social Conditions for Creative Entrepreneurshipwere discussed during the fourth session of the Conference. What could be done to support and develop creative entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region – the answer to that question appeared not to be simple but there are many ideas, recommendations and initia-tives towards building a creative Baltic Sea area. Some of them were worked out by the European Design Leadership Board and present-ed as 21 policy recommendations at the Design and Innovation Summit in Helsinki. They were enumerated by Ms Deborah Daw-ton, President of the Bureau of European Design Associations, and referred 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 21st Century, 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 World Summit Award, which is aimed at facilitating innovative solutions, providing smart content and thus contributing to the knowl-edge-driven society.7525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceFor Mr Pritt Sauna, Co-Founder of the Garage 48 Foundation, themain basis for creative entrepreneurship is the experts who are able to create products, designers who make products appealing to cus-tomers, experts who sell the products and the experts who supervise the whole process. With the reports from the BSPC Rapporteurs on Maritime Policy and T rafficking in Human Beings the session ended.In her closing remarks, Ms Laine Randjärv underlined that the22nd Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference had articulated its strong conviction that the Future of the Region lies in smart specialisation and defining the competitive areas of growth. The world is changing and there is a need to take into account globalisation, demographic change, ageing and longevity. People are better involved and em-powered through social media and web-based solutions. This leads to finding and using more efficient technologies, and the success of cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region will be judged by the Region’s ability to exert a positive impact on people’s everyday lives.7625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference23rd 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, The Baltic Sea the Quest for Harmony: cultural and natural heritage as anelement in the harmonious development of the Baltic Sea Region, has come to have a special significance in the times of political conflict caused by the Ukrainian crisis. A total of 200 parliamentarians, ex-perts and officials from all the countries of the Baltic Sea Region gathered to discuss the history, heritage and culture shared by the people living on the Baltic Sea. In his opening address Mr Ryszard Górecki, Chairman of the BSPC and Senator of the Republic of Po-land, stressed the great value of the political dialogue that has taken place 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 of challenges to be faced.H. E. Bogdan Borusewicz, President of the Senate of the Republicof Poland, emphasised that it was the third time that Poland had hosted the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, the most impor-tant forum of parliamentary exchange in the region. He expressed the opinion that the Baltic Sea Region was an area of growingPhoto: shutterstock. com | Lukasz Szwaj7725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencepotential for cooperation, ever better integrated and prosperous,which was currently facing an opportunity to reinforce its position in 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 the BSPC – the CBSS, HELCOM, the European Commission, and the NGO 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 Region was still mired in profound economic recession; currently, the BSR is proving to have the highest growth in the European Union. The proper 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, on the 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 Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Erkki T uomioja. The CBSS also stepped up its cooperation with HELCOM. A conference on the use 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 T urku in June 2014. With the intention of reinforcing the role of civil society and the 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 T urku and the Baltic Sea Labour Forum (BSLF) meeting in Helsinki. In conclusion, Ms Mattila noted that the political climate changed midway through the Presidency and the planned CBSS summit in T urku was not held, 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 the7825 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 provided information on the meetings planned in 2014 and 2015 and em-phasised that the CBSS considered the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference 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 Managing Macro-regional Strategies produced in May 2014 found that pro-gress was needed. Regarding the Northern Dimension Environ-mental Partnership (NDEP), Ms Marcinkut admitted that its wastewater-treatment projects in north-west Russia and in Belarus had 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, the Baltic Sea is still in a difficult position. A positive fact is the decrease of the dumping of nutrients into the Baltic by approximately 10% from 1994 to 2010, with the depositing of nutrients being reduced by 18 % and of phosphates by 16 %. A decrease in the emission of pollutants is also a priority of the Estonian Presidency in HELCOM .In closing, Mr Liiv announced that a regional action plan to limit the level 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 her speech 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 of the BSPC.Ms Valentina Pivnenko, Member of the Duma of the Federal As-sembly of the Russian Federation, informed the participants about the Strategy of the socio-economic development of the North-West Federal District. The main goal behind the Strategy until 2020 is to increase the Well-being of the population and offset and/or reduce the differences in the standard of living in individual territories that lie within those 11 regions. In support of the development of the economy and innovation and of removing limitations on transport, energy and the infrastructure, 24 national programmes have been launched costing circa 390 million rubles. Russia is interested in7925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencejoining 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 efforts related 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 in June 2014, bringing together 230 participants. The final document noted that constant cooperation between citizens promotes stability in the region by decreasing tensions, promoting traditions and good neighbourliness, mutual trust and tolerance. Therefore, the parlia-ments of the BSPC are natural partners for the Baltic Sea NGO Network. 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 SEECP and 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 that the 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 its role in strengthening democratic institutions and the building of trust in the BSR, and called for action in support of avoiding a new Cold War. The cooperation of young people in the Region was un-derlined and support for establishing a solid basis for young people’s participation in the BSR was expressed.Session two, on Environmental legacy – environmental challenges, be-gan with an optimistic statement by Mr Andrzej Jagusiewicz, Chief Inspector 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-T reatment Plants. The pro-gramme, with a budget of €20 billion, covers the construction, ex-pansion and/or upgrading of wastewater-processing plants in all clusters 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 Baltic8025 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 eutrophication was the worst problem faced by the Baltic Sea. She recalled that the BSPC working group had developed and adopted the Clear and Clean Report in 2007. Ms Gestrin also emphasised the importance of the 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 and Belarus, and EU Member States to overcome environmental prob-lems in the BSR. In her closing remarks Ms Gestrin noted that the current political situation in the region was a threat to the lasting pos-itive process of the protection of the Baltic Sea and expressed hope for a 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 of that session. In the CHEMISEA project the research teams under-took to identify the locations of chemical munitions in areas that had not yet been investigated, to estimate the concentration of chemical-warfare agents and to assess the risk related to the natural or accidental release of such substances into the ecosystem of the Baltic Sea. In turn, a new strategy for monitoring and assessment had been approved by HELCOM in 2013. Monitoring measures are being coordinated between countries and whenever possible made accessible throughout the region. International cooperation in that respect is the most efficient way of reducing the cost of re-search and monitoring, both as far as investment and the essential activities are concerned – that was the conclusion of that part of the session.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 algae observed around the islands in 2014 and called for more intensive steps to be taken by other countries; on the other hand, remarkable progress had been made in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern towards reaching 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 a new scientific institute dealing with the issues of environmental protection with special focus on limnology.8125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceThe 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 Polish Ministry of Culture and the National Heritage, stressed that the Baltic Sea Region was one of the priorities of Polish cultural policy. Poland had coordinated the Culture Priority Area in the EUSBSR since 2013. In parallel, since 2014 Poland had presided over the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC). In July 2015 Poland will assume its Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States with special focus on culture and cultural heritage. Ms Anke Spoorendonk, the Minister of Justice, Cultural and European Affairs 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 the breaking 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. Culture is a significant catalyst for innovation and is important for other sectors 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 across the southern Baltic.Prof. Jörg Hackmann, University of Szczecin, presented informa-tion on the Baltic Sea History Project, which is a flagship project of the 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 assumes that the definitions of heritage should be developed by communi-ties and not by administrations. The speaker mentioned the Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society of the Council 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.8225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceDr. Hanna Hagmark-Cooper from the Åland Maritime Museumexpressed her conviction that maritime museums had a key role to play 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 Anita Vaivade, from the Latvian Academy of Culture and expert for UN-ESCO, introduced participants to the prospects of cooperation in the field of intangible cultural heritage. The speaker mentioned “The Baltic Way”, a human chain formed in the Baltic States on 23 August 1989, as an example of intangible cultural heritage in the Baltic 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 and differences 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. Leszek Melibruda from the SWPS University in Warsaw referred to the contemporary revolution in notions of trust, authority and free-dom. The scholar expressed the opinion that politicians frequently could not influence the way they were presented in the media, and yet it was in the media that their image was built. That was why the development of public trust was currently being made extremely difficult, explained Mr Melibruda.Ms Kinga Dudzińska of the Polish Institute of International Affairs(PISM) presented a report entitled Cross-Border Movement between Gdańsk, 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 it possible for the residents of the Kaliningrad Oblast, and some coun-ties in the Pomorskie and Warmia and Mazury regions, to cross the border 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 the BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Social and Health Care. The speaker mentioned the main healthcare problems that the group had been investigating – the ageing of the population,8325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceinequalities 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 quality of health services. Among the preliminary recommendations of the Working Group were strategies and action plans for the promotion of innovation in social and health care, organisational and structur-al reforms, fiscal incentives to help SME’s, favourable financing conditions for the health economy, the foundation of skill centres for the commercialisation of scientific knowledge, and competence enhancement in education and training, equal availability of health-care and social-welfare services, a greater awareness of the needs of elderly people, and the exchange of best practices, as well as the con-tinued support of the work of the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being. The results of the activities carried out by the Working Group were welcomed by Ms Valentina Pivnenko who expressed her belief that the interest of the BSPC in the area of healthcare would also continue in the years to follow once 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 both EU and non-EU States, provides an opportunity to develop com-mercial and tourist relations, as well as to strengthen ties between communities.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 General Secretary of the BSPC.8425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference24th 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 history of 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 the conference - Baltic Sea Region - a Role Model for Innovation in Social and Healthcare. This was the new strategic approach to – apart from the issue of cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region – focus on one main issue, 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 several of the former conferences. This granted a possibility to deepen one important political area, to discuss it not only with experts but also with representatives of governments and to inforce future develop-ment of this political issue by a comprehensive list of actions and measures 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 by the presence of Mr Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society as well as present and former Ministers and Vice-ministers of Health from the Baltic Sea States.Photo: shutterstock. com |Sean Pavone8525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceT raditionally, the first session covered the subject matter of Cooper-ation in the Baltic Sea Region. Ms Sylvia Bretschneider, Chair of the BSPC, gave examples of visible progress which had been achieved during realisation of the goals of the BSPC mission statement. She mentioned: the contribution of the Standing Committee in keep-ing health in the Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, the intensified cooperation with the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS) and a joint letter to the IMO with the demands concerning protection of the Baltic Sea and modernization of wastewater treatment capac-ity throughout the Baltic Sea Region. Participation of the BSPC in Pan-European Dialogue in Cruise Tourism in Brussels and in the Baltic 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 Estonia and by the incoming Chair, Mr Czyż, Ambassador of Poland. Mr Mälk admitted that the main task of the Estonian Presidency was to implement new long term priorities, adopted by the CBSS Council in June 2014. It has been held in a situation of changes occurring in the international climate - the first cancelled Prime Ministers meeting in its history, no meeting of foreign ministers and abandoned project ideas. The speaker underlined however, that although there had been a pause in a dialogue, there was a continuation in the practical work of the CBSS. The representa-tive of the incoming Polish CBSS Presidency, Mr Czyż expressed the opinion that BSPC as the vox populi of the region, together with the CBSS, plays an essential role in defining and implement-ing a common vision of the region’s future. Mr Czyż further stressed that although the Polish Presidency comes in times of un-certainty for the region, caused, for an instance, by the crisis in Ukraine, the usefulness of CBSS will become further apparent as an efficient platform for intergovernmental coordination. The Polish ambassador saw room for more regional coherence and syn-ergy with the Northern Dimension, the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, the Nordic Council of Ministers, Barents Euro Arctic Council, 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 devised within the EU, it could only be pursued in cooperation with exter-nal partners in the region and acknowledged the role played by the Northern Dimension Partnership on Public Health and Social Well-being as coordinator for health policy area within the EU Strategy.8625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceMs Valentina Pivnenko, Member of Duma of the Russian Federa-tion, acquainted the Conference with progress in development of the second 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 main goals would be to achieve social stability and prosperity, to ensure competitiveness of businesses and to keep an eye on the budget. The speaker touched upon the natural resources of the Arctic, a part of the North-West District. The state saw the need to create infrastructure to access these resources and a number of projects are being developed with foreign partners. Ms Pivnenko also stressed the importance of the relationship with Europe which could be witnessed in many sig-nificant areas of cooperation with the protection of the environment as one of most promising fields of joint action of the EU and Russia. Finally, Ms Pivnenko addressed the role of Russia in the Ukraine by stressing the efforts of the Russian Federation to make the Agreement of 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 reduce pollution 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 challenges the speaker referred to were marine litter, heavy metals, underwater noise and port reception of sewage. A number of measures, action plans and international laws were introduced to tackle these problems. Mr Liiv 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 in Tallinn on 10-11 June 2014. Final Statement adopted by the Forum consisting of 120 representatives of NGO organisations has been sent to 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 healthcare sector in Lithuania. The Lithuanian government prioritises the accel-eration of the development in innovative solutions for eHealth, the development of university studies into biomedicine, bioinformatics and 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 stem cells, laser technology and development of safer and healthier foods.8725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceWith the words of their Minister, the Lithuanian government hasstated that it is eager to cooperate on the international health plans and very willing to share its best practices, for instance in the field of eHealth 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 and gave 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. Promoting a 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. Mr Kostennikov pointed to the possibilities of the telemedicine and e-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 and health 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 speaker praised the influence of Northern Dimension Partnership and Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS) – currently chaired by Ger-many - for its cross-border efforts in achieving high quality and for its cooperation with international organisations such as the WHO, the International 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, for instance 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 community has seen many threats recently, such as the Ebola and polio. Ms Emiroglu emphasised that the International Health Regulations are the most important tool with which the international community should respond to all public health threats. She reminded her audi-ence that the framework is a legally binding document that entered into force in 2007 and that there is a full commitment with 55 sig-natory parties in the European region alone. “Health 2020” is the health policy framework for health and Well-being in Europe, high-lighted by the speaker. The Framework, which has been adopted by8825 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 and diminish inequalities in health, obtain its goals with a whole-of-so-ciety and a whole-of-government approach. Another issue touched upon by Ms Emiroglu was The Post-2015 Development Agenda to be discussed by the United Nations in the autumn 2015. That framework continues the world development agenda beyond the millennium goals. Health is one of them, and it is considered as a foundation for development.The last speaker of the second session, Mr Bo Könberg, FormerMinister for Health of Sweden, presented his report about health cooperation in Nordic countries. Mr Könberg’s work has resulted in fourteen 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 Netherlands which are the countries with the lowest use of antibiotics in Europe. Another recommendations applied to patient mobility, cooperation on health technology, including eHealth, and the development of a Nordic search tool called “My Patient”. The speaker concluded that of the fourteen proposals he made in the report, five were treated during the meeting of the Nordic ministers in October 2014 and the timeframe for the achievability of the recommendations in his report is five to ten years.Mr Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Digital Econo-my and Society opened the third session of the conference Health and Economy – Paving the Way for Innovation in Social- and Health care „eHealth – the European Dimension”. He began with a strong message to the participants underlying that Europe consists of more than just the European Union and that the existence of regional networks such as 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 is quickly shifting away from services only provided by the IT sector and telecommunications, and is rapidly moving towards the digitali-sation of the „real” economy, with online media and autonomous driving. 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 European digital 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 the8925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceparticipants 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 comes from healthcare and healthcare forms 7.4 percent of the overall Ger-man export. One million new jobs were created in this industry since 2008, 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 significant economically and healthcare should be seen rather as the factor of economic 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 the outbreak of the Second World War, which started on 1 September 1939. The horrors of war still shock us to this day, she said. The end of the war did not automatically deliver freedom, justice and self-de-termination to all, and it was clear that people still face challenges in society. 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 all citizens, 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 session Sustainable and Accessible Social- and Healthcare – at the Crossroads of Healthcare Provision, the Demographic Shift and Shrinking Budgets. The Minister focused on two important issues - demographic change and 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 can be a counter-effect to the steady ageing of Germany. With regard to young families, young people need support in taking the step to form a family, especially if they want to have a career and, perhaps, need to take care of sick relatives at the same time, underlined the Minister. Among solutions implemented by the government Ms Schwesig mentioned “family working hours” - paid leave for taking care of sick relatives and reduced working hours for those providing healthcare to their 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 of9025 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 part in study visits, working meetings and, also, have completed so-called homework 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 is centered on sustainable and accessible social- and healthcare. Among recommendations 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 exercise stronger prevention policy, and to improve healthcare accessibility. Fi-nally, Ms Ollestad concluded that most importantly, health should be taken 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 the BSPC Youth Forum Mr Maximilian Priebe and Ms Madara Muizniece presented final key points of the Forum Resolution, among them labelling on food products, a tax reduction on healthy food 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. Additionally the 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 to host 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.9125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference25th BSPC – 2016, Riga, LatviaThe 25th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference took place in Riga,Latvia, 29-31 August 2016. Around 200 delegates met at the Univer-sity of Latvia Academic Centre of Natural Sciences right in the city centre of Riga with the aim to discuss the topic of the conference High Quality Education, and Labour – The Future of the Baltic Sea Region, and to pass a resolution on developing the Baltic Sea Region as a role model for future high quality education and labour. A special session on the second day commemorated the Silver Jubilee of the BSPC.The BSPC Drafting Committee and the BSPC Standing Committeeheld their first sessions on Sunday, 28th August, in Saeima, the Par-liament of the Republic of Latvia. In the afternoon, a guided tour of Rundāle Castle and the reception at it, provided the participants with insight into the history and cultural wealth of Latvia.The Conference was opened by H.E. Mr Raimonds Vējonis, Presi-dent of the Republic of Latvia, and H.E. Ms Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. Mr Vējonis pointed out the fact that 25 years ago fifty years of the occupation of Latvia had come to an end. He also expressed his strong conviction that during those years, joint effort has transferred the Baltic Sea region into an9225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceeconomically vibrant, secure and stable area, and one of the most dy-namic, IT- and innovation-oriented regions of the world. In her speech, Ms Mūrniece recalled the vision of peace shared by the found-ing fathers of the Baltic Sea regional cooperation. She confirmed that today, when contemporary world is shattered by crises and conflicts, their vision inspires even more than ever to build bridges and tear down walls.The first session of the conference “Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Re-gion” was chaired by Prof. Dr Jānis Vucāns, President of the BSPC, and Mr Franz Thönnes, Member of German Parliament.In his report, the BSPC Chair Mr Vucāns mentioned the most im-portant BSPC activities which had been conducted during the past year. The BSPC has had a clear thematic focus, namely education, the labour market and labour mobility as core issues of its work. Another issue listed by Mr Vucāns was the modernisation of social protection systems. Additionally, a fruitful exchange of experiences about the dealing with the refugee crisis, in the BSPC member countries took place. According to the speaker, it did prove useful to get an idea of how the situation is handled elsewhere and to find inspiration for the dealing with the topic in parliaments and in international coopera-tion. Another issue of utmost importance for many other parliamen-tary conferences and assemblies was: to undertake joint efforts against terrorism. Mr Vucāns emphasized the need to defend both the secu-rity and the fundamental values that make European societies strong - freedom, democracy and human rights. The BSPC chair reported also on the discussions with the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus with regard of granting the observer status to the Belarusian Parliament by the BSPC, and announced that the final decision on that issue will be taken in 2017.Mr Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-president of the European Commis -sion, Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of F inancial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Mar -kets Union, outlined the role of the BSPC in the European dimen -sion. In his speech Mr Dombrovskis referred to the prominent political scientistFrancis Fukuyama – who in his book ‘PoliticalOrder and Political Decay’ - has created a motto around such a po -tential of the Baltic Sea Region Countries, which he calls ‘Getting to D enmark’. It has been a symbol of a well-governed, peacefuland prosperous place with low levels of corruption and a high level of social inclusion, despite its relatively small size. Mr Dombrovskis described current global and regional economic situation and men -tioned challenges such as, impact of the UK’s decision to leave the EU - and the uncer tainty this creates, the crisis around Ukraine9325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceand refugee flows. He underlined the importance of the agenda forjobs, growth and investment, introduced by the European Com -mission the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the Com -mission’s New Skills Agenda, in order to boost the cooperation and economic dev elopment of the region. In his final remark Mr Dom -brovskis encouraged the Baltic Sea states to use more actively the European Investment Projects Portal and the European InvestmentAdvisory Hub that are designed to help bring project managers and investors.Ms Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Parliamentary Secretary of theMinistry of Foreign Affairs, Latvia, referred to the importance of regional frameworks to keep a save, prosperous and connected re -gion and the importance of strong networking on expert level. Mr Michał Czyż, Ambassador of Poland and outgoing chair of theCouncil of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), informed the delegates about the latest activities and achievements of the council. Mr Czyż began his presentation by admitting that the Polish CBSS presi -dency took place at difficult times. The utmost concern was the sit -uation in Ukraine with its serious and long-lasting implications for the entir e region. From the beginning, the main assumption of thePolish presidency has been to secure and consolidate the high level of cooperation achieved so far in the region, and to establish possi -ble abutments facilitating the future progress. The three top prior -ities chosen by the presidency were Sustainability, Creativity and Safety. Amongst the activities mentioned by ambassador Czyż wasthe adoption of the Declaration 2030, on the political level. With regard to the priority Creativity, Culture has been established as a driving force for social and economic development in the region. Under Safety Poland emphasised the importance of cooperation in the area of civil protection as a mean to strengthen resilience in the Baltic Sea region towards major emergencies and disasters. Mr Czyż pointed out the involvement of the CBSS Secretariat in coor -dination with three EUSBSR Policy Areas and Horizontal Actions. At the end of his presentation Mr Czyż reported on the highlightof the CBSS Polish presidency, namely The Warsaw Declaration which Deputy Foreign Ministers adopted on 8 June in Warsaw. The Declaration clearly confirmed that the CBSS Member States, despite all differences and difficulties, uphold their regional com -mitments, have a strong feeling of regional responsibility, and are ready to build a common future through joint actions.Mr Guðmundur Árni Stefánsson, Ambassador of Iceland, presented an update on the priorities of the Icelandic CBSS Presidency. He em-phasized the focus on the rights of children, promoting democracy, equality and respect for human rights and gender equality.9425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceMs Carola Veit, Vice-president of the BSPC, reported on the govern-ments’ responses to the last year’s resolution. 10 governments out of 19 responded to the BSPC survey, 33% confirmed the implementa-tion of the BSPC resolution with regard to Cross-border Cooperation in Health Care, 28 % to Sustainable, Accessible Social Care, 27 % to Health and Economy, and 12% to BSR cooperation. The results are promising and further investigation is worth continuing, concluded Ms Veit.Ms Monika Stankiewicz, Executive Secretary of HELCOM, gave areport on the status of implementation of HELCOM commitments to achieve healthy marine ecosystems. Ms Stankiewicz expressed her gratitude to the BSPC for its very supportive role in the HELCOM work for the Baltic Sea marine environment. In her speech, she fo-cused on concrete achievements, especially in reducing inputs of ex-cessive nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus - which are responsible for eutrophication and algal blooms. This year the Baltic Sea coastal countries agreed and submitted a proposal to the International Mari-time Organization, IMO, the global regulator of shipping, to desig-nate the Baltic Sea as a NOx Emission Control Area (NECA). Anoth-er milestone in curbing nutrient inputs is the ban to discharge un-treated sewage from passenger ships in the Baltic Sea. The Contract-ing Parties had finally fulfilled the formal conditions for the ban to be enforced and the new regulations will take effect by 2021, at the lat-est, for most of the IMO registered passenger vessels. Ms Stankiewicz admitted that the HELCOM cooperation with IMO and industry stakeholders on the establishment of these special regimes for ships operating in the Baltic Sea is an example of a successful regional co-operation across sectors, the aim of which is the implementation of the global regulations.Following this, Ms Darja Akhutina, General Director, and Ms Mag-da Leszczyna-Rzucidło, BS NGO Network 2016 Forum Coordina-tor, reported from the Baltic Sea NGO Forum and Network and spoke about its focus on people-to-people cooperation and youth policy. The Conference was informed that the 14th Baltic Sea NGO Forum took place in Gdansk, June 2016, at the European Solidarity Centre. The Gdańsk Forum brought together over 150 representa-tives of social organisations, the Council of the Baltic Sea States, Un-ion of the Baltic Cities and other public authorities and officials from all eleven Baltic Sea countries. The general theme of the 14th Baltic Sea NGO Forum was “Solidarity as a new dimension in the Baltic Sea regional cooperation”. Work of the participants of the 14th Baltic Sea Forum took different forms: plenary sessions, panel discussions and workshops regarding the following thematic sessions: Culture and social innovation; Civic sector and social problems9525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference– self-independent youth and Migration processes in Europe. Allthese topics were discussed in the light of social economy, as it is be-lieved by the organisers, that this is the key issue for the Baltic Sea Re-gion and whole modern Europe.The first session ended by two speeches. Firstly, in her adress Ms MajaGojković, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) and Speaker of the National As-sembly of the Republic of Serbia, underlined the importance of strengthening the regional dialogue as a means of promoting democ-racy and the rule of law and the enhancement of economic coopera-tion, peace and stability in the Black Sea Region and Europe at large. She particularly noted that the parliamentary cooperation, develop-ment of bilateral contacts between national parliaments and closer in-teraction between regional and international parliamentary assem-blies paves the way towards more efficient pursuit of common goals. The PABSEC President expressed confidence for strengthening the cooperation between the two Assemblies and invited the BSPC to the 48th PABSEC General Assembly to be held in Belgrade in November 2016. She was followed by Mr Vitaly Busko, Chairman of the Com-mission on International Affairs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus.The second session, How to develop competitiveness in the Baltic SeaRegion by linking education and the labour market, was chaired by Ms Dorota Arciszewska-Mielewczyk, Member of Parliament of the Republic of Poland, and by Mr Pyry Niemi, Member of Parliament of Sweden.The speakers presented their views and statements on defining labourmarket needs, tools for forecasting trends in the labour market, voca-tional education, and cooperation in higher education and on corpo-rate social responsibility for systematic and sustainable introduction of work-based learning.Ms Līga Lejiņa, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Sci-ence, Latvia, presented lifelong guidance strategies and aspects of ca-reer management skills. Then, Ms Jadwiga Parada, Director of Voca-tional and Continuing Education Department from Ministry of Na-tional Education, Poland, informed on activities on vocational educa-tion, on cooperation in higher education and on cooperation with employers. Finally, Mr Poul Nielson, former EU Commissioner and Danish cabinet minister, author of the strategic review of the Nordic labour market, which was published 14th July 2016, presented the outcome of his work. He pointed out that apart from a number of differences between the countries in the Nordic region as regards the9625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencestructure and policies of their labour markets; generally, there is a coreof common types of employment, standards, and values which to-gether define the nature of working life and labour market policy in the Nordic countries, so that one can speak of a “Nordic model”. The model, in fundamental areas, is distinct from conditions in the la-bour market in most other countries – both in Europe and the rest of the world. Presented by Mr Nielson report assumes that the challeng-es and opportunities for identifying new ideas which could strength-en co-operation in the Nordic region in the field of working life can be divided into four categories: 1) Substantive, common Nordic top-ics, 2) Institutional topics in Nordic co-operation, 3) The Nordic la-bour market, and 4) the EU and The Nordic region in the world. The report contains 14 specific action-oriented proposals for improving Nordic co-operation in the field of working life over the next 5–10 years.Next speakers, Mr Jan Guz, OPZZ President and the Co-president ofthe Baltic Sea T rade Union Network, reported from the regional un-ion federation; Dr Martin Sauer, Baltic Sea Labour Forum, highlight-ed the creation of sustainable regional labour markets within the Bal-tic Sea Region; and Mr Vatanyar Yagiya, Professor of the Saint-Peters-burg State University and Councellor of the Saint - Petersburg Legis-lative Assembly Chairman, stressed the leading role of the develop-ment of education in the Baltic Sea Region.The ceremonial session held in honour of the 25th anniversary of theBSPC was conducted as a roundtable discussion chaired and moder-ated by Ms Carola Veit, Vice-president of the BSPC and President of the Parliament of Hamburg . The discussion circulated around the perspectives of “Baltic Sea parliamentary cooperation: yesterday, to-day, tomorrow”.Mr T rivimi Velliste, former President of the BSPC and the Baltic As-sembly, as well as former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Estonia, in his address went back in time and recalled some of the origins of parlia-mentary cooperation achievements. He underlined the fact that for 25 years the BSPC has furthered co-operation and provided a useful forum for open debate and exchange of information between Parlia-ments and other bodies of the Baltic Sea Region. This cooperation started due to a fundamental geopolitical change that had taken place in the region. The historic meeting held at Ronneby, Sweden, on 2 – 3 September 1990, was the first summit of political leaders around the Baltic Sea since the World War II, where representatives of several States could once more sit behind their own national flags. The BSPC, which had its first convention in January 1991, was among the very first Baltic Sea cooperation forums to be established after the9725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceend of the Cold War. It predated the founding of the CBSS. This, forMr Velliste, has been a symbolic landmark of democratic tradition.In his speech, Mr Franz Thönnes - in his capacity as former BSPCPresident and since 19 years member of the BSPC Standing Com-mittee - congratulated Latvia and Estonia on their 25th anniversary of gaining independence. He referred to “yesterday“, highlighting the development of a common identity, the stabilization of democratic structures and good neighbourhoods, and recapitulating the first steps of the BSPC 1991 in Helsinki. He reiterated, that the overall aim of the BSPC was to strengthen regional identity, to initiate more powerful political activities and to enhance interparliamentary, inter-governmental, and inter civil societal dialogue through close cooper-ation between national and regional parliaments. He pointed out that many achievements characteristic for the situation of “today“ were the result of this dialogue. The BSPC had proved to become a strong partner with considerable influence. It initiated claims which were in-corporated in the HELCOM Action Plan tackling the challenge of marine litter in the Baltic Sea. The “Clean Baltic Shipping” concept was another example to fight pollution. The Labour Forum brings to-gether numerous employer and union representatives to promote la-bour mobility and fair labour conditions in the Baltic Sea. Referring to “tomorrow“, he stressed the importance of further strengthening cooperation in order to look for answers to international challenges such as the refugee situation and the threat posed by terrorism. Coop-erating in fields like youth and sustainable tourism were essential to create a solid regional identity, he said. He concluded that as the re-gion would constantly face new challenges, the BSPC needed to con-tinuously work on dialogue, compromise and cooperation to face fu-ture challenges.Next, Ms Anna Abrahamsson, President of the Nordic Youth Coun-cil, reported on challenges which youth faces today regarding educa-tion and labour and what solutions can be found for tomorrow. Ms Abrahamsson stressed the topic serving as the theme for this confer-ence: education and employment, as for the youth, she said, educa-tion and meaningful occupation is one of the burning issues of our time. The youth of today is more educated than any generation be-fore. Yet, she noticed, young people are concerned about the econom-ic situation and the educational and job opportunities at hand. They have been hit harder by lack of jobs than the population overall and, for many, uncertain careers are the new norm. How to bridge this gap and provide more opportunities for all members of society, remains an important task for the future, she concluded. Another issue she touched upon was the democratic participation of youth. She ex-pressed the opinion that the fact many young people are feeling more9825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferenceand more excluded from the political sphere and are showing apathytowards democracy may form a dangerous trend in times of radical and extreme ideas on the rise. Ms Abrahamsson concluded her speech, and the session, by underlining her opinion that modern de-mocracy can only be strengthened by greater youth representation and inclusion.The third session, Realising employment opportunities – Improvinglabour mobility and combating youth unemployment, was chaired by Mr Jörgen Petterson, Member of Parliament from Åland Islands, and Giedrė Purvaneckienė, the Vice Chair of the Baltic Assambly and Member of Parliament of Lithuania.The speakers focused on labour mobility, including emigration/im-migration aspects, urbanization, trends, causes and solutions of youth unemployment, support mechanisms – the Youth Guarantee (sup-port in the framework of active labour market policies, vocational ed-ucation opportunities, measures to involve NEETs).Mr Jānis Reirs, Minister of Welfare, Latvia, shared experiences on theBaltic employment services and on labour mobility issues in the re-gion. Mr Reis pointed out that Latvia has a successful cross-border cooperation experience in addressing employment issues with its two Baltic neighbours –Lithuania and Estonia. For years, Baltic institu-tions have been cooperating in the regular exchange of information on the labour market, mutual learning, joint job fairs, cross-border branch organisations’ cooperation workshops. Latvia has also signif-icantly benefited from drawing on the experience shared by the Ger-man employment service in the framework of EURES. This success-ful cooperation among the Baltic employment services has been ac-knowledged at the European level, emphasized the Minister. T urning to the domestic labour mobility issue, the speaker admitted that re-gional unemployment differences are more pronounced in Latvia than, for example, in Lithuania or Estonia. In June this year, in the Rigaregion, unemployment was only 5.3%, while in the Latgale re-gion – as much as 18.0%. In this situation, the state must focus on promoting domestic labour mobility. Therefore, in 2013, Latvia in-troduced a regional mobility support programme. Another major fu-ture challenge is a population decline in Latvia. It is essential for Lat-via to maintain a relationship with each of its citizens, including those who have emigrated to other countries. Measures to maintain the links with the diaspora can encourage the expatriate population to re-turn. At the same time, their choice to come back will also depend on a range of socio-economic factors, such as the number of jobs. In con-clusion, Mr Reirs pointed out that if the countries of the Baltic Sea region learn from one another and share their experience, it can make9925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencean invaluable contribution to a smart and well-thought- out long-term policy.Ms Algimanta Pabedinskiene, Minister of Social Security and La-bour, Lithuania, presented aspects on labour force migration in Lith-uania, measures to reduce emigration and actions to fight youth un-employment. With regard to labour force migration, Ms Pabedinsk-iene presented the research showing that labour force emigrating from Lithuania is usually low-qualified or holds average qualifica-tions. In parallel to the low-qualified labour force emigration, the so-called brain drain process is also observed in Lithuania, where high-qualified specialists or those that potentially may become high-qualified specialists leave the country. Therefore, the Govern-ment is putting a lot of effort to change the situation. A number of legislative acts have already been adopted, and the new Labour Code that will hopefully be adopted include: a greater variety of employ-ment contracts, greater flexibility for work and life balance, simpler procedures of employment and dismissal of employees. With regard to solutions to youth unemployment Ms Pabedinskiene presented the Lithuanian Youth Guarantee Mechanism which was created after careful identification of major youth unemployment problems: skills mismatch between labour market and education; lack of qualification and work skills; discrepancy between labour supply and the expecta-tions of youth; lack of measures for combining work, education and family life. Ms Minister concluded by the statement, that the politi-cians and decision makers must keep pace with the changing world, provide timely professional assistance, analyse individual needs and opportunities of each person.More information on the situation in the labour market was provid-ed by Ms Anette Kramme, Parliamentary State Secretary of the La-bour and Social Affairs Ministry, Germany, who presented the causes and trends of youth unemployment and support mechanisms for the integration of refugees in the labour market; Mr Thor Kleppen Sæt-tem, State Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, pre-sented perspectives on youth employment promotion and on immi-gration in Norway, and Ms Egle Käärats, Deputy State Secretary General on Labour and Employment Policy, reported on the situa-tion in Estonia.During the next part of the session the Vice Chairman of the BSPCWorking Group on Sustainable Tourism, Sara Kemetter from the Åland Islands presented the Working Group’s Mid-way report to the conference participants. The group will elaborate its final report for the 26th BSPC in Hamburg. The parliamentarians were also updated on new developments in the respective fields of action by: the BSPC10025 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceRapporteur on Integrated Maritime Policy, Mr Jörgen Petterssonfrom the Åland Islands, the BSPC Rapporteur on Cultural Affairs, Sonja Mandt from Norway, the BSPC Rapporteur on T rafficking in Human Beings, Thomas Stritzl from Germany, and the BSPC Rap-porteur on Eutrophication, Saara-Sofia Sirén from Finland.The Silver Jubilee edition of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conferencewas an overwhelming success, according to the conference partici-pants. It was concluded with a unanimous adoption of the Resolu-tion on cooperation, education and the labour market in the Baltic Sea Region.The Conference unanimously appointed Carola Veit from Hamburgas new BSPC President. Jörgen Pettersson from the Åland Islands and Prof Dr Jānis Vucāns from Latvia were appointed Vice-Chairmen of the Conference. The 25th BSPC concluded by the presentation of the incoming President Carola Veit and a film impression of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – the location of the next - 26th BSPC as well as closing words of thanks by Prof. Dr Jānis Vucāns.10125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceIMPRESSIONSFROM SOMECONFERENCES10225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceSvend 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 theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.Dr. Henning Klostermann, MP , Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Chairman of the first BSPC Working Group Committee on Maritime Safety (COMS)Heinz-Werner Arens, President of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament.Trivimi Velliste, Member of Parliament, Estonia,President of the Baltic Assembly.10th BSPC – 2001 Greif s wald, Mecklenbur g-Vorpommern10325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePlenary Session of the 10th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, Max-Planck-Institute, Greifswald.Wolfgang Thierse, Speaker of the GermanBundestagHandover of the Presidency from Hinrich Kuessner to Valerij UstjugowDorothee Stapelfeldt, Speaker of the State Parliament of the City of Hamburg, Franz Thönnes, Member of the Bundestag and Anke Spoorendonk, Member of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament.10425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference13th BSPC – 2004 Bergen, Norway10525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Bodo Bahr10625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference14th BSPC – 2005 Vilnius, Lithuania10725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Bodo Bahr10825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference15th BSPC – 2006 Reykjavik, Ice land10925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference11025 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference16th BSPC – 2007 Berlin, Germany11125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Stefan Müller11225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference17th BSPC – 2008 Visby, Sweden11325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Johannes Jansson, NMR11425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference18th BSPC – 2009 Nyborg, Denmark11525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit11625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference19th BSPC – 2010 Mariehamn, Åland Islands11725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit11825 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference20th BSPC – 2011 Helsinki, FinlandPhotos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit11925 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Johannes Jansson, NMR, Publication Unit12025 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference21st BSPC – 2012 St. Petersburg, Russia12125 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Jan Widberg, Bodo Bahr12225 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference22nd BSPC – 2013 Pärnu, Estonia12325 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Olev Mihkelmaa12425 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference23rd BSPC – 2014 Olsztyn, Poland12525 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Office for International and European Union Affairs, Chancellery of the Senate of the Republic of Poland12625 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference24th BSPC – 2015 Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern12725 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferencePhotos: Landtag Mecklenburg-Vorpommern128 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference25th BSPC – 2016 Riga, Latvia129 25 Years of Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conference Secretariatwww.bspc.netBSPC Secretariatc/o Lennéstraße 119053 SchwerinGermanyPhone (+49) 385 525 2777