Asphjell opening speech at 28 BSPC

The 28th Baltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceOslo, Norway, 25 – 27 August 2019Clean Oceans & the Future of Working LifeChallenges and VisionsMonday, 26 AugustOPENING OF THE 28TH BSPCMr Jorodd Asphjell,President of the BSPC«The Norwegian BSPC Presidency 2018-2019»Check against delivery. Only the speech as given has any validity.Members of Parliament,Ladies and Gentlemen,Dear delegates,It’s a great honour and pleasure for me to welcome you all to the 28th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in the Storting – the Norwegian Parliament – here in Oslo.I hope you all enjoyed yesterday afternoon and evening program. I was so happy to see old friends again and to make new friends. Hope you did the same, and learned something about the Oslo European Green Capital 2019, that you can bring with you back home. For Oslo have come a long way in a short time. Most of all I would have liked to take you to the beautiful fjords in my home county Sør-Trøndelag, but then we would unfortunately still been on board that boat.Clean oceans is one of the main topics of this year’s BSPC. In the third session this afternoon, we will focus on how we can protect our oceans and meet the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We will also discuss cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, the future of working life, and migration and integration. I hope you all will actively share you experiences and visions.The Storting hosted the second BSPC back in 1992. At that conference the work of the BSPC was formalized, and the members agreed to hold a two-day Parliamentary Conference every year.This Conference offers a platform for an open dialogue and joint reflections about issues that are important to the countries of the Baltic Sea Region. It is an excellent way for us MPs to raise awareness with our governments and civil society about matters of common interest in the region.I am confident that what we talk about today and tomorrow will be fruitful and will help us to work together even better in the years ahead.I would now like to give the floor to the President of the Storting, Tone Wilhelmsen Trøen, who will give the opening speech.Dear President, the floor is yours.