Expert Group on Sustainable Maritime Economy
The promotion of land-based power generation for vessels was the priority of the Danish Presidency of the Expert Group on Sustainable Maritime Economy, and the last expert group meeting of the Presidency was fully devoted to this topic. The group concluded that this transition is still in its infancy, but the first steps in the Baltic Sea Region have been taken with several land-based power generation projects already completed and more on the way. The approach holds a great potential to improve urban environments and can further cement the Baltic Sea Region as a model region for sustainable ocean tourism. The Expert Group also published a Joint Statement after the meeting. An international conference on this topic organised by the Danish Presidency had to be postponed due to the pandemic and is foreseen to take place before the end of 2020.
High-level Labour meeting
⚲ Oslo, Norway
A High-Level Meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States Ministries of Labour and Social Affairs took place on the 26th of August 2019, during the 28th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Oslo, Norway.The event was a continuation of the successful meeting of Ministers and high-ranking representatives of labour ministries in Berlin in 2017, resulting in the Berlin Declaration. The meeting followed-up on the implementation of the declaration, focusing on the future of work, demographic challenges and sustainable inclusive labour markets in the Baltic Sea region. The representatives contributed to the vision and strategy for the future of working life on national and regional level.
BSN_Powerhouse project
⚲ Stockholm, Sweden
An extension of the Baltic Science Network project was kicked off at the CBSS Secretariat in October 2019. With representatives from 12 partner and 5 associated organisations from 8 different Member States in attendance, the new project and the future of the Baltic Science Network as a sustainable platform for international research cooperation was discussed. The BSN_Powerhouse project aims to increase young researcher mobility in the Region and help small research infrastructures scale up their operations to improve research outputs in the project’s previously identified priority research fields of Photon and Neutron Science, Life Sciences and Welfare State.
Baltic Sea Labour Forum for Sustainable Working Life project
⚲ Stockholm, Sweden
In November 2019, the Thematic Working groups of the project met at the CBSS Secretariat in Stockholm to launch the project’s implementation phase. The event marked the beginning of the work for the two thematic working groups “Age Management and Working Conditions” and “Future Job Opportunities for an Ageing Work Force, including Entrepreneurship”. The groups will identify good practices and assess ongoing initiatives to come up with actionable policy recommendations to better address the demographic challenges of ageing populations and lower fertility rates and their effects on the labour markets in the Baltic Sea Region. The groups will further focus on finding measures to strengthen synergies between education and employment for people aged 55+ in order to meet the skills requirements of the future labour market in the region.
Forum Strategov 2019
⚲ St Petersburg, Russia
The CBSS was actively engaged in many parts of the 2019 Forum Strategov in St. Petersburg. The forum is regarded as Russia’s main platform for discussion of methods and tools of strategic planning and attracts a lot of Russian and international participants. CBSS Director General Maira Mora spoke in the opening session. She confirmed the CBSS’ commitment to promoting sustainability and the SDGs in Russia and also outlined the CBSS’ role and engagement in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The Sustainable & Prosperous unit organized, participated in, and moderated several events and panel discussions on the topics of sustainability, circular economy and sustainable urban development. The CBSS also had an active role in the Forum’s Youth Platform.
Russia & EU interaction meeting (HA Neighbours)
⚲ St Petersburg, Russia
The CBSS and the Centrum Balticum Foundation, as co-coordinators of the EUSBSR Horizontal Action Neighbours, together with the Leontief Centre and the Swedish Institute, organised an event in conjunction with the Russian Forum Strategov on October 30th 2019 in St. Petersburg. The aim of the event was to network and promote cooperation possibilities. The event gathered both Russian and EU stakeholders (roughly 50/50). The main activity of the meeting was a match-making session, during which the participants were distributed according to their organizations’ expertise to discuss and develop cooperation possibilities either in existing cooperation platforms or new ones.
Expert Group on Sustainable Development
⚲ Helsinki, Finland
In line with the focus on climate adaptation of the Danish Presidency of the Expert Group on Sustainable Development, the group met on 17 October 2019 back-to-back with a set of seminars addressing urban storm waters, managing flood risk and resilience in the face of floods. Following a request from the group, statistics officers met informally online in March 2020 and agreed, in the perspective of the review of the “Baltic 2030 Bumps on the road” report, to explore the idea of using national data sources to report on the progress of SDG implementation in the region.
