MINUTES FROM THE 47^th MEETING OF THE UBC EXECUTIVE BOARD

Gdynia, Poland, 19-20 October 2006

CLOSED SESSION, 19 October

The 47^th meeting of the UBC Executive Board was held on 19-20 October 2006 in the City of Gdynia, Poland, upon the invitation of Mr Wojciech Szczurek, Mayor of Gdynia.

The meeting consisted of the closed session attended by the members of Executive Board and the open session attended by the Board members, commissions leaders and delegates of member cities. Over 60 delegates from 28 member cities participated in open session. Additionally on 19 October there was a working meeting of the leaders of UBC commissions.

1. Welcome by the Mayor of Gdynia.

Ewa Depka, Head of Foreign Relations Division, Gdynia, heartily welcomed all participants on behalf of Wojciech Szczurek, Mayor of Gdynia, and wished them a fruitful meeting. Ms Depka informed that this year Gdynia celebrates 80^th anniversary of receiving the city rights.

2. Opening of the meeting and adoption of the agenda.

The meeting was opened by Per Boedker Andersen, the President of the Union. Mr Andersen expressed his gratitude to the hosts of the meeting for inviting the UBC Executive Board to Gdynia. The Board adopted the agenda of the meeting.

3. Election of two persons who, together with the President, will check the minutes.   

Marie-Louise Rönnmark, UBC 1^st Vice-President, Mayor of Umeå and Soeren Revsbaek, UBC Board Member, Deputy Mayor of Naestved, were elected to check the minutes together with the President.

4. Applications for membership from Robertsfors and Jyväskylä.

Michael Noren, Robertsfors, Sweden and Maija-Liisa Havia, Jyväskylä, submitted applications of their cities to join the Union of the Baltic Cities. Applications were followed by multimodal presentations of Robertsfors and Jyväskylä. 

Decision:

The Board decided to accept Robertsfors and Jyväskylä as members of the Union of the Baltic Cities and wished them a successful cooperation with other UBC member cities.

5. Proposal to establish the UBC Commission on Energy.

Peter Wretlund, Mayor of the City of Oskarshamn, recalled Oskarshamn's proposal of 06.02.2006 to establish the UBC Commission on Energy (the official  proposal is attached to the minutes). The main areas of interest of the new Commission on Energy would be as follows: renewable energy, safety of supplies, possibilities of increasing the efficiency, exchanging best practices, knowledge, education, information etc. The Commission on Energy will be open for all member cities and intends to coordinate its work with other UBC commissions. Oskarshamn's proposal to establish a new commission was supported by Kalmar, Kolding, Pärnu.

Decision:

The Board decided to create the Commission on Energy with Oskarshamn as lead city. The Board expressed its hope that the Commission on Energy will promote renewable environment-friendly energy sources. The Board encouraged the member cities to participate in the work of the new commission and to take part in the first seminar of EnergyCom to be held in Oskarshamn on 21-23 November 2006.

6. Preparations to IX General Conference in Pärnu, 27-28 September 2007 - information from the task force.

Secretary General Pawel Zaboklicki reminded that in St.Petersburg the Board decided to create a Task Force responsible for the preparation of the General Conference programme. The task force met in Pärnu on 29 September.

The task force proposes the following themes to be taken up at the General Conference:

1. Security and threats issues - crime, terrorism, natural catastrophes, threats for environment (gas pipeline), energy supplies etc

2. Communication - transport connections (physical communication) and e-communication (virtual communication)

3. Culture as driving force for municipal development - eg. using European capital of culture for economic development

4. Involvement of youth in democracy and in the life of the society.

An overall theme could be for example "Leadership for change" - the role of leadership in initiating (stimulating) positive changes in various areas.

The potential speakers could be: President or Prime Minister of Estonia, Commissioner Margot Wallström, chairman of Council of Baltic Sea States senior officials committee and others. As usual, in connection with the UBC General Conference, the meeting of the committee of senior officials of CBSS and the coordination meeting of Baltic Sea organisations might take place.

Bjarne Ugland, Kristiansand, said that he would concentrate on two subjects. Culture as a driving force for municipal development - many European cities eg. Bilbao, Glasgow, Liverpool, successfully used it. He said also that the topic on involvement of youth in democracy could be interesting as a challenge for cities.

Gunars Ansins, Liepaja, suggested that Latvian cities would be interested in the topic - how to build up capacity of municipal leadership. He said there is a possibility of crisis situation in the BSR concerning gas, energy and communication systems. The municipalities have no sufficient capacity to deal with these problems. This leadership issue would be the top priority for Latvian cities.

Marku Lumio, Vaasa, expressed an opinion that we should not have too many topics during the conference, and two or three headlines were a sufficient number. He supported two themes: communication and culture as driving force. He reminded that among UBC members, several cities were nominated or applied for the European Capital of Culture title.

President Andersen said that the first topic was widely discussed now in different ways, so there was a threat that there could be more headlines than substance. He said that the question of security could be rather devoted to the trafficking in women and children, crime across our borders or narcotics more than terrorism, natural catastrophes etc.

As regards communication problems it is important to send the UBC points of view to the European Commission, European Parliament and other institutions. He expressed an opinion that the topics concerning culture and democracy could be too wide ones. They could be used for example in workshops.

Marie-Louise Rönnmark, Umeå, agreed that presented topics are very important and that we should not limit ourselves. In her opinion there should be four highlights in the agenda.

Secretary General Paweł Żaboklicki reminded that during the plenary session of the VIII General Conference in Turku several different topics were tackled.

President Andersen suggested that the task force could also try to find out, what topics would be on the agenda in the EU next year.

Paweł Żaboklicki said that the leader of the UBC Commission on Youth Issues had informed him that the Commission would most probably obtain a project grant from the EU program Youth. Within the project, the CoYI intends to organise a conference for 100 young people from the BSR in conjunction with the UBC IX General Conference in Parnu. The Board supported this idea.

Referring to the topic on security and threats issues, Simmo Saar from Parnu said that being a government member for security questions he must admit that terrorism, crime and the natural catastrophes are the real threats and the municipalities from the BSR have generally lack of experiences and know-how. The General Conference presenting this topic would be a great opportunity to discuss how to protect from those threats.

The Board commissioned the task force to continue the work on preparations to the General Conference.

7. UBC Antenna Office in Brussels.

On 2 October 2006 the UBC antenna office in Brussels began to operate. The aim is to lobby the UBC cities' interests more effectively, to increase UBC visibility among European institutions and to influence EU policies which have an impact on local authorities. UBC representation office in Brussels is hosted by the Stockholm Region's Office in Brussels. The agreement between the UBC and the Stockholm Region is attached to the minutes. Stockholm Region has appointed Ms Åsa Fornander who would act as UBC contact point in Brussels. The UBC antenna office will also serve as a useful device for those member cities who do not have their own representation in Brussels. Each member city may use the office for a few days when staying in Brussels. The office is equipped with the computer, internet, telephone, library etc. Each member city that would like to book an office for a few days is asked to contact the UBC Secretariat in Gdansk in advance.

Mikko Lohikoski, Turku, said that UBC should convene a meeting of UBC member cities representatives in Brussels in order to discuss future activities as well as setting up a steering group for the antenna.

An official opening celebration of UBC antenna office will take place in Brussels on 6 December 2006. Representatives of member cities and European institutions will be invited.

Decision:

The Board encouraged all member cities to use the UBC antenna office in Brussels and invited member cities to attend an opening ceremony on 6 December 2006.

The Board decided to create a new budget line for the antenna office, the respective resources shall be moved from the budget reserve.

8. New EU Cohesion Policy - territorial cooperation.

At the UBC initiative, in April 2006, the major Baltic Sea organisations sent to the EU institutions and to the Baltic Sea states governments, the second joint statement on the new Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 - the European Territorial Cooperation still opposing the limit of 150 km in cross-border strand and calling for complementing the thematic areas within transnational part with those essential for municipal cooperation. UBC received a reply from the EC informing that President Barroso had received the statement with interest and had taken note of its contents. 

The efforts of UBC and other organisations, regions and cities have already brought the positive results.  Despite the 150 km limit, the cross-border cooperation program for the South Baltic Area will be established. The Programme is now under preparation. The Drafting Team consisting of the representatives of the regions participating in the programme has been assigned to discuss and formulate the programme. The overall goal of the programme is "Strengthening the sustainable development of the South Baltic Area through increasing its competitiveness potential and promoting integration among people and institutions". The participating regions are: West Pomerania, Pomerania, Warmia-Mazury (part), Kalmar, Blekinge, Skåne, Kronoberg, Bornholm, Klaipeda County, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The proposal of the Cross-border Cooperation Programme for the SBA is expected to be sent out to national governments by 30 November 2006. In January 2007 the proposal will be sent to the EU Commission. The Programme should be approved in May 2007. The first call for proposals can be expected in July/August next year.

9. UBC further development.

Mikko Lohikoski, Turku, chair of the working group, presented the ideas for UBC further development. Presentation was followed by the discussion.

President Andersen admitted that UBC is a successful organisation, most of the UBC commissions are active in carrying our projects and events. He also stressed that UBC had the smallest secretariat among all international Baltic organisations, but efficient. President underlined that the further development of UBC was an important item and UBC member cities should be asked for comments before any decisions are made at the General Conference in Parnu.

Roland Methling, Rostock, stressed, that the city of Rostock had been a member of UBC since the very beginning and this network is very needed. He proposed to keep the present structure of UBC and to go on with the work. He also suggested that Board should give more often recommendations to the commissions. He said that the cities should know the UBC structure and that they can use this structure to find partnership through the commissions. There is a need to think over how to make the work of the commissions more effective and where they could get more money for activities because many cities have problems with financing. We should discuss how to divide the work in the Secretariat in Gdansk and in Brussels office.

Soeren Revsbaek, Naestved, stressed, that UBC should not adopt the Eurocities model of activity, because that would make UBC unneeded. He said that the strength of UBC was being a kind of loose network and UBC should not be a too tight organisation. However, we should strengthen the political part of our organisation, not only by the mayors' meetings, but also in a broader political scale by involvement of elected politicians. They should participate in the Union's seminars, meetings. That would strengthen UBC influence in other places.

Bjarne Ugland expressed an opinion that UBC might become a better tool for member cities. He suggested that apart from engaging the working group in the UBC further development, UBC could also hire some professional help. UBC could also take examples from other European organisations which are successful. He also said that the cooperation between the commissions and the Board should be strengthened.

Maciej Lisicki, Gdansk, informed that he had participated in the assemblies of the Conference of the Atlantic Arc Cities and in the conference prepared by the University of Ancona about the development of the cooperation in the Adriatic Sea zone. The conclusions made by those UBC partners were that they could learn much more from UBC than UBC from them. Lisicki underlined that UBC works on two levels. The first one is the daily life of the cities - the  commissions deal with certain daily problems of the cities and they are good forums to discuss matters. The second one is the political level. We should be more active on this platform, e.g. elaborating documents, political statements towards the European Commission.  Lisicki said that both levels were important. Active people are the base for the commissions. On the other hand it would be difficult to activate the political officials from cities, as they are usually very occupied with their cities' businesses. On one hand we should build up more active political life of UBC and on the other hand we should defend the actual status of our commissions.

President Andersen said that we should keep the good standard of the commissions. However some commissions are more active and accomplishing more that the other. We can check if they could learn from the other organisations. Andersen informed that he took part in the General Conference of the Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities. Adriatic cities would like to take an example from our commissions in building up their structure. On the other hand that organisation has got a stronger political voice than UBC. They are more influential towards the regional or state authorities. So this is what we could learn from them.

Vytautas Juodagalvis said that in his opinion different forums could co-exist together with the UBC commissions. The forums could be a kind of ladders where we can put different commissions and where we also could invite different organisations to some events like Baltic universities, etc. The forums could formulate the common documents, political resolutions, etc.

Roland Methling suggested that UBC could find an "additional face" like a project, event or award which could be presented year by year. Such example could be the Baltic Youth Symphonic Orchestra, supported by the cities and having yearly events gathering young people. Also if we would have the prize for the project or activity, it could bring the Baltic Cities closer together. 

Mikko Lohikoski said that we should continue the discussion on how we could make our organisation serving better its member cities. Establishing the UBC antenna in Brussels means that we would like to have an influence on the policies in the European decision making process. This puts requirements on us, not to send only opinions, but mostly formulate policies and take a stand on the European Union issues. This position requires professionalism. UBC works on the basis of commissions and participation of cities. The question is not to dissolve the commissions, but to make them be more effective. In his opinion it could be accomplished by e.g. limiting number of commissions' secretariats.

The Board authorised the secretariat to send the proposals on UBC further development to the member cities for comments.

10. UBC contribution to Green Paper on European Maritime Policy - plan of work.

At the Executive Board meeting in St.Petersburg the Board decided to adopt the UBC Maritime Logistics Policy Paper and commissioned the UBC Secretariat to send it out to the other European organisations and institutions. The document was sent out to the EU institutions, other organisations and to the ministers of transport of the Baltic Sea countries. 

President Andersen informed about positive letter reactions of President Barroso and Commissioner Borg on UBC maritime logistics policy. Both EC high executives strongly encouraged UBC to contribute to the Green Paper on future European maritime policy. 

Also in St.Petersburg, the Board authorised the UBC Logistics Task Force to start the work on UBC contribution to the Green Paper on EU Maritime Policy on the basis of the UBC Policy on Maritime Logistics.

Vice-President Aleksi Randell informed the Board that we can expect first draft of contribution from the task force at the next Board meeting. 

11. Proposals from Rostock.

Roland Methling informed that the city of Rostock would carry out a project for young people in connection with the G8 meeting to be held next year in Rostock. Last week Rostock was informed by the German government that they invited ca 120 young people from 60 countries. Methling informed that taking the opportunity of being in the city of Gdynia, the Rostock delegation visited the American High School and got a promise that the Polish ship "Dar Mlodziezy" would take part in the project. The flag with UBC logo will be also hung on the ship.

Roland Methling informed also about the proposal of Europaisches Integrationszentrum Rostock e.V. (European Integration Centre) to revitalise the UBC EU-coordinators network. Ms Mandy Kroppelin, Head of the Centre, presented ideas of activities which could be carried out by  the revitalised network.

Moreover Roland Methling informed that additional Rostock proposals are presented in written form but he did not go into the details. The proposals from Rostock are attached to the minutes.

President Andersen said that the question of revitalisation of the EU-coordinators network would be further discussed at the next Board meetings. The President said that other proposals might be also discussed.

12. Proposals from the Commission on Environment.

Secretary General Paweł Żaboklicki presented two proposals of the Commission on Environment submitted to the Executive Board. 

The first proposal concerns the project for new INTERREG Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013. Integrated Urban-Rural Management System aims at developing the BSR into a model region through successfully functioning integrated management systems. The project is to lead to policy recommendations to apply IMS to the authorities at local, regional and national levels. As a result, the resources will be allocated in more coordinated way to ensure sustainable development and competitiveness of the entire urban area. 

Decision:

The Board accepted this project as a UBC strategic project for the INTERREG Baltic Sea Region Programme for 2007-2013.

The second proposal concerned the Aalborg Commitments perceived as a common element for the work promoting the sustainable development. Since 2004, the Commitments have been signed by several hundreds of local authorities throughout Europe. The Commitments are in compliance with the principles adopted by UBC as regards our activities in the field of Agenda 21.

Decision:

The Board recommended the member cities to sign the Aalborg Commitments and to run the municipal operations in accordance with them.

13. Latest conferences attended by UBC representatives.

President Andersen informed that below UBC representatives represented UBC at the following international conferences: 

- Structured Dialogue Meeting on Plan D, 15 June, Brussels (Marie-Louise Rönnmark, UBC 1st Vice-President)

- Structured Dialogue Meeting with Commissioner Ján Figel, 20 June, Brussels  (Olov Gibson, UBC Commission on Culture)

- 7th General Assembly of the Conference of Atlantic Arc Cities, 29 June - 1 July, Figueira da Foz (Maciej Lisicki, UBC Board Member)

- Conference "Towards future maritime policy of the EU", 19-21 July, Turku (City of Turku)

- Conference "Prosperity and Sustainability - Local Cooperation in the Baltic Sea region", 16-18 August, Visby  (Marie-Louise Rönnmark UBC 1st Vice-President, Paweł Żaboklicki UBC Secretary General)

- 15th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference BSPC, 4-5 September 2006, Reykjavik (Paweł Żaboklicki, UBC Secretary General)

- Baltic Metropolitan Economic Forum, 15-16 September 2006, Gdańsk (Paweł Żaboklicki, UBC Secretary General)

- 8th International Conference Littoral 2006 „Coastal Innovations and Initiatives", 18-20 September 2006, Gdańsk (UBC Secretariat)

- Conference on European Maritime Policy and BSSSC General Conference, 20-21 September, Kiel (Aleksi Randell UBC Vice-President, Mikko Lohikoski Turku)

- Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities General Assembly, 29 September - 1 October 2006, Koper (Per Bødker Andersen, UBC President)

- Conference on Safe, Sustainable and Financed Motorways of the Sea, 2-3 October, Helsinki (Christian Ramberg, UBC Logistics Task Force)

- 66th Plenary Session of the Committee of the Regions and the Open Days, 11 October, Brussels, (Per Bødker Andersen, UBC President)

The Board took note of the information. 

14. Any other business.

14.1 Continuation of sponsoring agreement with Fortum

Fortum Power and Heat Oy decided to continue to sponsor UBC in the years 2006-2007 with 10.000 eur annually. Presidents of UBC and Fortum signed the relevant annex to the sponsoring agreement.

Decision:

The Board expressed its gratitude to Fortum for sponsoring UBC. The Board decided to make amendment in the budget for 2006 - the sponsoring fee from Fortum in amount of 10000 eur shall be added to budget reserve (when received). The Board stressed that UBC should develop its own sponsoring strategy.

14.2 Baltic Sea CD.

At the General Conference in Turku last year, all participants received a CD with classical music from the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm's Berwaldhallen, the CD was co-financed by CBSS (Prime Minister of Estonia) and the City of Turku. CBSS proposed UBC participate in the second edition of the CD from the Baltic Sea Festival 2006 (the letter is attached). The CBSS and UBC share would be ca. 2800 EUR each. The CDs would be given to the participants of the GC in Parnu.

Decision:

The Board decided to join the project. 

14.3 Publication "UBC Business Mixer"

Secretary General Pawel Zaboklicki informed that the Secretariat plans to produce a publication called "UBC Business Mixer". The aim of the publication is to encourage the business environment of the UBC member cities to effectively use the Union as an economic forum of making new contacts, establishing partnerships, initiating common undertakings and projects. We would like the business circles to "mix" with the local authorities to enhance the cooperation between them and make it more dynamic and fruitful. 

The directory would include:

1. "Let's do business" - short city description from the economic point of view including:  economic statistics, infrastructure, human resources - why is it worth investing in your city?  investment profile, investment areas, facilities for local, national and foreign investors, etc.

2. "What the city does for entrepreneurs" - information on special departments/division in your cities responsible for business and entrepreneurship development and support, names of contact persons, contact details, city development strategies - priorities, city promotional campaigns/ projects

3. "Need for support?" - information concerning business organisations, branch unions, chambers of commerce etc. acting in your city; names, contact details; goals; main undertakings/  projects

4. "Meetings' fora" - events calendar - conferences, business fora, meetings and seminars in your city - Where, when, who is invited?

The Board encouraged all member cities to send their contributions to the publications.

14.4 Support to handicapped youth in Africa.

President Andersen informed that Anders Engström UBC Honorary President who has been involved in Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation project, took part in event with the handicapped youth in Africa. As the LVRLAC supported financially the youth with 300 USD, Mr Engström thought that it would be appropriate if UBC should do the same. Having in mind above, President Andersen proposed to donate 300 USD for handicapped youth in Africa.

Decision:

The Board decided to donate 300 USD for the handicapped youth in Africa. For this purpose in the budget for 2006, the Board decided to move 250 EUR from the budget reserve to the line miscellaneous.

14.5 Forthcoming bulletin "Baltic Sea Cities in Brussels".

Secretary General Pawel Zaboklicki presented on the beamer the new UBC bulletin titled "Baltic Sea Cities in Brussels" that will be printed in the end of October and distributed in November. The bulletin is connected with the opening of UBC antenna office in Brussels.

Member cities have been invited to describe their representations in Brussels. How are they represented - in the city or regional offices? How do these offices work? Establishing such antenna offices is always connected with a hope for success, tangible results and benefits. What advantages can the city get from being represented in Brussels? How is the potential of the Brussels' offices used? How does your antenna office help lobbying regional/municipal interests in Brussels? How does it contribute to enriching the international cooperation and /or help in finding new partners? Does your antenna office meet the challenge of promoting the city it expects? Those cities who are not directly represented in Brussels were asked to write articles on their activities in the European Union. Does your city have developed any EU Strategy? What do you do to be closer to the EU policies? What is your cities' experience with participation in the European consultations, projects and programmes? How do you manage the load of information received from the EU institutions to the benefit of your own city/region?

The Secretariat received a number of interesting stories describing the work of city and region offices in Brussels. The bulletin brings also information on latest UBC meetings and activities, news from the member cities and more.

15. Next meetings of the Executive Board.

President Andersen presented the invitation of the Mayor of the City of Gävle, Sweden, to hold the Board meeting on 9 March 2007 and the invitation of the Mayor of the City of Jekabpils, Latvia, to hold the Board meeting on 15 June 2007. Invitations from Gävle and Jekabpils are attached.

Decision: 

The Board decided to hold its 48^th meeting in Gävle on 9 March 2007 and 49^th meeting in Jekabpils on 15 June 2007.

OPEN SESSION - 20 October

1. Presentation of the City of Gdynia.

The hosts of the meeting displayed a video presentation introducing the city of Gdynia.

2. Activity reports of the UBC working commissions.

The following representatives of the UBC Commissions submitted the annual activity reports since the General Conference in Turku held in September/October 2005. 

Commission on Business Cooperation - Mr Jorma Sipila

Commission on Culture - Ms Tarja Hautamaeki

Commission on Education - Mr Kurt Pettersson

Commission on Environment - Ms Stella Aaltonen

Commission on Health & Social - Ms Karin Wohlgemuth

Commission on Sport - Ms Beata Łęgowska

Commission on Tourism - Mr Ryszard Zdrojewski

Commission on Transportation - Mr Marcin Wołek

Commission on Urban Planning - Mr Gvido Princis

Commission on Youth Issues - Ms Charlotte Gustafsson

Commission on Information Society was not represented but provided a written report.

The Board appreciated efforts and actions carried out by the Commissions.

As regards the UBC Gender Equality Network, Mikko Lohikoski informed that NGO Femina Aboensis, Turku, is no longer capable to lead the network.

Vice-President Marie-Louise Rönnmark stressed it is very important for UBC to go on with the work promoting the gender equality.

Following the proposal of President Andersen, the Board authorised Ms Rönnmark to present at the next Board meeting, the concept for continuation of UBC work in the field of gender equality.

3. Information about the meeting of the leaders of the commissions held on 19.10.06.

Marcin Wołek, chairman of the Commission on Transportation, informed about the working meeting of the commissions' leaders held on 19 October. The meeting gathered the leaders of 10 UBC commissions who informed each other about latest activities and plans for near future. The participants exchanged also ideas on the UBC further development. In the opinion of the commissions, the network structure is valuable and basically it should be continued. The leaders expressed an opinion that UBC needs a better information and promotional strategy both internal and external. This means that the flow of information between the commissions should be improved. Additionally, in the commissions' opinion, the role and position of the UBC should be re-defined in connection with the enlarged EU. The Union should also precise its vision where it is going to be in 10, 15 years. The participants also discussed the involvement of cities in the commissions' work. Mr Wołek said it is obvious that the particular commissions are based on the network of several cities only. But joining forces, the commissions can have bigger potential. The EU funded projects like BUSTRIP are very helpful tools to make the cooperation between commissions more effective.

4. Presentation of Europaisches Integrationszentrum Rostock e.V.

This item was discussed at the closed session.

Additionally representatives of the City of Marijampole, Lithuania, made a PowerPoint presentation introducing their city.

At the end of the meeting, Marek Stępa, Deputy Mayor of Gdynia, welcomed the participants of the Board meeting emphasizing that it is a privilege and pleasure for Gdynia to host the UBC meeting second time after 11 years. He expressed a hope that UBC recognizes Gdynia as active member. He recalled that Gdynia leads two UBC Commissions on Transportation and on Sport. He added that Gdynia organises many meetings and events with participation of UBC member cities. Mr Stępa mentioned the Youth Sport Games organised every year for all Gdynia's twin cities who are mostly also the UBC members. He promised that Gdynia would be an active member also in next years. Mr Stępa wished all participants a very good time in Gdynia.

5. Closing of the Meeting.   

President Per Boedker Andersen expressed his thanks to all participants for the successful meeting and to the City of Gdynia for its warm hospitality and closed the 47^th Meeting of the Executive Board of the Union of the Baltic Cities. 

Mr Per Bødker Andersen                            Mr Pawel Zaboklicki
Chairman                                                       Secretary

Ms Marie-Louise Rönnmark                        Mr Soeren Revsbaek
Adjuster                                                          Adjuster