Olsson Speech

27 August 2018Remarks by Ambassador Hans Olsson, Sweden, Outgoing Chair of the CBSS Committee of Senior Officials, 27th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, Mariehamn 26-28 August, 2018.Dear Mr. President,Sweden was chairing the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) up until 30 June 2018. During the Swedish Presidency the key priorities were Sustainability, Continuity and Adaptability to change and new challenges. All these priorities fall under the goals and priorities of Agenda 2030.In the Stockholm Declaration, adopted at the Ministerial Meeting on 18 June, the participating states express the need of a more focused and flexible work within the CBSS in order to, without risking overlapping, enhance the co-operation with other international for a and regional working formats. The declaration also calls for clearer results within those areas where CBSS has a unique possibility to contribute. It also contains a request to future presidencies to speed up the reform process with the aim to reach a political agreement on a concrete plan of action to reform the Council and reach tangible results by 2020.An important part of the Swedish presidency was the follow-up of the Reykjavik Declaration from 2017. In this respect, the task was given to a group of independent experts to come up with a report with suggestions for the tasks and working methods of the Council after 2020. Much has changed since the CBSS was established in 1992. The group’s report was presented at the Stockholm Ministerial meeting and will be further discussed during the Latvian Presidency.I would like to use this opportunity to give you some examples of results achieved during the last year:CBSS started implementation of the new Baltic 2030 Action Plan with special emphasis on goals 12 (sustainable consumption and production), 13 (climate) and 17 (good governance);Implementation of the Joint Position on Enhancing Cooperation in Civil Protection Area (involving not only national governments but also regional and local authorities) cooperation to combat disasters and major accidents;Increased cooperation within the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction;Coordinated implementation of the Baltic Leadership Programme focusing on societal security in a broad sense;Increased work within the Task Force against Trafficking in Human Beeings including trafficking related to migration flows;Continued efforts and projects to the work carried out within the framework of the Children at Risk Group, for example expansion of the “Barnahus” concept to more Member States but also to countries outside the CBSS Area;Continued efforts to improve research and science-related co-operation in the Region for example within the Baltic TRAM framework by organizing a Baltic TRAM Mid-Term Conference and a Baltic TRAM High Level Group Meeting;Reactivation of the Expert Group on Maritime Issues with a new mandate.Mr. President,In conclusion, I would like to underline that no presidency would achieve much without the active support from the International Secretariat of the CBSS. I would therefore take this opportunity to express my thanks and gratitude to the members of the Secretariat for the strong and benevolent support during our presidency.Last, but definitely not least, I would like to express our best wishes to the current Presidency, the Republic of Latvia. I am convinced that it will be a fruitful and successful one and lead to the further development of our co-operation. We wish Latvia success and if there is anything your predecessor can do to support you, please let us know!Thank you for your attention.