1. Labour Market

International Project of the Labour Offices "ROLAST", 1998-1999
Communities of Storstroem (D), Landskrona (S), Rostock (G) together with Labour Offices of the cities have been involved in a project on comparison of systems dealing with unemployment, the adult education and the connection of them both with the business sector. Lists of so called bottleneck professions have been elaborated by each partner and distributed to the labour offices in the other partner regions in order to mobilise such labour to work in the other countries. Next step was to organise and offer help for certain professional groups (training, language, accommodation, etc.) in all participating cities. The jobs are offered in databases of the labour offices. Another aim of the project was to create according to demands of the industry new job-profiles. The UBC commission was actively involved in networking and reporting.

ECOS / Ouverture Project "Baltic Cities Tourism", 1998-2001
Transnational project on strategies and instruments of city tourism marketing. Partners are Gdynia, Vilnius, Tallinn, Kalmar, Karlskrona, Tourism Region Syd (DK) and Rostock. The project modules are the following: Establishment of a Marketing Point for Baltic Cities' Tourism, Creation of a Baltic Event Calendar (as periodical hardcopy and internet versions, covering a three-months period), starting the Baltic Tourism Academy with a seven-seminars course (one in each partner city, theory and practical experiences, creation of a Baltic City Tourism Network of 10 nations around the Baltic Sea, a Baltic Cities' Conference on Strategies and Instruments of Baltic Cities' Tourism Marketing including a market place. The total project volume is of ECU 1,25 million, and it will cover a two-year period. The main applicant (Rostock) and the UBC Office defended the project in Brussels in 1998. The EU DG XVI accepted the project in 1999.

Seniors
Book about the Social State of Elderly Citizens around the Baltic Sea , 1999
Our call for a partnership within UBC was made via UBC mailing list to reach all member cities. Finally 17 UBC member cities from 8 countries decided to participate. The book has just been published with financial means of the regional funds of the international Year of Senior Citizens. Soon it will be sent out to all member cities.

2. Health Policy
Agreement about collaboration between UBC and WHO, Copenhagen, November 1998
Participants: WHO Regional Centre Europe, Copenhagen - Healthy Cities Project Coordinator and WHO Coordinator for the Baltic Region, the WHO Subregional Centre Baltic, Turku and UBC Commission on Health and Social Affairs, Rostock. UBC gave explanations about the organisation, statute, structure, aims, current projects, network and media possibilities. WHO offered to provide political commitment and support to cities' health policy, sustainable campaigns, Healthy Cities Programmes, information about main policies, events and common projects for the Bulletins and is ready to provide experiences in form of lectures, seminars or written statements as well as training and capacity building. Already in this Bulletin you can find a contribution to discussions about the UBC Social Charter. Both sides expressed their wish and willingness for future cooperation.

3. UBC Activities

UBC Local Agenda 21 Working Group Meetings, January and July 1999 
It is a great responsibility for our Commission to participate active in the overall goal of this working group. Very often only environmental aspects of the LA21 are considered while thinking about the tasks of LA. We strongly support the working group with contributions about the social aspects of LA 21, the role of labour market situations, mobility of inhabitants, involvement of citizens, gender equality, healthy cities and many other subjects. 

Baltic Cities - Bulletin on Health and Social Affairs / 3 editions since 1998
The first UBC Social and Health Bulletin edited by the Commission in May 1998 and since then another three editions were published. It was distributed by mail to all UBC member cities and institutions working together with UBC and the EU and to the UBC homepage administrator. It includes policies and activities of the Commission, further discussion about a UBC Social Charter, reports, experiences, information and topics e.g.: evaluation of the Health Questionnaire and establishing of a database; introduction of a Social Market Place, co-ordination of a help for the Russian cities. Many cities already took the opportunity to write about activities of their cities and introduced projects and results.
Now it is planned to reorganise the contents, e.g. to devote the ditions to special topics etc.