Under the Chairmanship of BSPC-President Prof. Dr. Jānis Vucāns, the BSPC Standing Committee gathered in the Latvian city of Liepāja to prepare the Silver Jubilee edition of the conference this August in Riga. Delegations from the Baltic Assembly, Denmark, Finland, the German Bundestag, Hamburg, Latvia, Lithuania, the Nordic Council, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the Åland-Islands participated in the meeting.
The meeting was greeted by the Deputy Mayor of Liepāja Mr Gunārs Ansiņš, who highlighted the industrial strengths of the city as well as its touristic assets.
The meeting was also preceded by presentations from Ilya Ermakov, Senior Adviser Economic Cooperation, Maritime Policy, Energy at the Secretariat of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), and Dr. Uwe Sassenberg, Project leader of the International Project “Baltic Tram” (Transnational Research Access in the Macroregion).
Mr Ermakov provided the meeting with some general information about the Baltic Sea Labour Forum as well as recent events and activities. The CBSS Secretariat is lead and coordinator of the Baltic Sea Labour Forum. The meeting discussed, amongst others, possible input by the Baltic Sea Labour Forum for the annual conference of the BSPC this August in Riga, whose main focus will be education and labour mobility in the Baltic Sea Region.
Dr. Uwe Sassenberg briefed the parliamentarians on the Baltic TRAM project – one of several activities of the ScienceLink network, which is a cooperative venture involving leading universities, research centres and regional development partners in the Baltic Sea region, whose aim is to turn scientific findings into innovations more swiftly. The key aim of BALTIC TRAM is to link Research Infrastructures at research centres and universities with industrial enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region.
The meeting then had a very extensive exchange of opinions on a number of issues. The meeting further prepared the 25th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, to take place on 28-30 August 2016 in Riga, discussed the follow-up of the resolution of the 24th annual conference in Rostock, informed itself about the work of the BSPC Working Group on Sustainable Tourism, and deliberated on the conclusions from a mission by the BSPC to Belarus, whose parliament had earlier applied for the status of Observer at the BSPC.