Asphjell closing speech at 28 BSPC

The 28th Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceOslo, Norway, 25 – 27 August 2019Clean Oceans & the Future of Working LifeChallenges and VisionsTuesday, 27 AugustCLOSING OF THE 28TH BSPCMr Jorodd Asphjell,President of the BSPC 2018-2019Check against delivery. Only the speech as given has any validity.Members of Parliament,Ladies and Gentlemen,Dear delegates,To most things in life, there is a beginning, and there is an end.Now dear colleagues, we have reached the end of this conference. I would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank you for making it so useful, productive and enjoyable. Thank you for your hard work, for your kind support of the different Chairs and Vice Chairs of our sessions, Vice-Chair Jørgen Pettersson and myself. It has been a great honour to serve as your host as President of the BSPC.Thank you also so much to our secretariat and interpreters, for making us able to do our work and be able to communicate so well.I sincerely hope that the discussions and debates have given you food for thought and inspiration for your work back home. I believe that conferences like this are very important for building up trust and deepening ties between our countries, for making us grow closer as Baltic Sea countries.We have heard the incoming President of the BSPC, Mr Valerijus Simulik, present Lithuania’s plans for their presidency next year. Listening to him, I am sure that next year’s conference will be very successful. I am already looking forward to seeing you again in Lithuania in 2020.I now declare the 28th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference closed.Thank you, or as we say in Norwegian “a thousand thanks”- “tusen takk”,and have a safe journey home!