The 28th BSPC is taking place in Oslo, Norway. The themes on the agenda for this conference are clean oceans, the working life in the future as well as migration and integration. The delegates will discuss how oceans can be protected to meet the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and debate the future of working life as well as migration and integration. Oslo as the European Green Capital sets the excellent scene for the meeting of delegates from eleven nations and nine regional parliaments, who will also talk about a rapidly changing labour market.
On Sunday, the first day of the conference, the BSPC Drafting Committee and the BSPC Standing Committee held their first sessions in the Norwegian Parliament- Stortinget building. They discussed possible compromises in difficult policy areas. In the afternoon, the delegates took a boat trip and learned about the City of Oslo’s strategies and activities to become greener.
In his address during the reception hosted by the Mayor of Oslo on Sunday evening, Mr Jorodd Asphjell, the BSPC President, stressed that the city of Oslo had taken good care of its natural areas, for example by cleaning up the Oslo Fjord and restoring the city’s waterways. These were among the many reasons why Oslo had won the European Green Capital Award for 2019. The President mentioned improving the public transport system by putting on more and better services as well as increasing the number of buses and cars running on electricity or biogas and thus reducing the effect on the climate. “I hope this will inspire us when we will talk about how we treat the Baltic Sea. (…) We must work together to improve the health of the Baltic Sea.” With this call to action, the President ended his first speech at the 28th BSPC.