To UBC Member Cities and Commissions,

Dear friends, 

The Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is organized this year in Vilnius, Lithuania, the chairman of the European Commission.   

The registration has now been opened (below). It is important, that as many as possible of the UBC Cities and Commissions will actively participate in the Annual Forum, to learn about recent developments show “UBC flag” and find partners to cooperate with. The EU Baltic Sea Strategy is a great opportunity for the region to achieve concrete results towards  saving the Sea, connecting the region and building prosperity. 

Besides the main meeting, it would be especially important to participate in the back-to-back events of various Priority Areas and Horizontal Actions (these are listed at the end of the draft programme). Among the very interesting ones there is a workshop on “Baltic Sea Youth Forum” starting already on Sunday 10 November at 13.00 ( participation of the Youth Commission and its members important);. On Monday morning, the HA Neighbours on how to engage Russian ja Norwegian partners meets at 08.30, like also a meeting on multiölevel governance (role of cities) and gender and leadership. Also on Tuesday and Wednesday, there are several interesting back-to-back meetings. 

In 2014, the Annual Forum will take place in Turku (3-4 June) as part of what may become the biggest Baltic Sea related event of recent times, with Prime Ministers Summit, Baltic Development Forum and Baltic NGO Forum all gathering in parallel during the “Turku Baltic Sea Days 2014”.  Save this date also in the calendar! 

See you in Mariehamn – and then in Vilnius!

Per Boedker Andersen

President of UBC