26TH MEETING OF THE UBC EXECUTIVE BOARD

The 26th meeting of the UBC Executive Board was held on the 27 November 1999 in the City of Šiauliai, Lithuania, at the invitation of Mr Alfredas Lankauskas, Mayor of Šiauliai.

New Board 
President Anders Engström reminded that at the General Conference in Stockholm, new cities have been elected to the Executive Board: Liepāja, Pori, Šiauliai, St. Petersburg, Tartu. Mr Engström warmly welcomed representatives of newly elected Board cities. The President presented the most important questions to be handled by the new Board: internal organisation; action plan; strategic projects e. g. EU enlargement, Agenda 21; EU program for BSR; cooperation with Baltic organisations; youth network; cities in Belarus; northern dimension.

New Members 
Secretary General Pawel Zaboklicki informed about new applications for membership submitted by the cities of: Kronshtadt, Lomonosov, Peterhof (Russia) and Jelgava (Latvia). The Board decided to accept mentioned cities as UBC members. The number of Union member cities reached the figure 96.

Strategy follow-up 
President Engström reminded that the new UBC Strategy was adopted at the V General Conference. During the discussion the Board members expressed opinions that in order to implement the Strategy an Action Plan should be developed. The Board appointed a working group to prepare, in close cooperation with the Commissions, the draft of the Action Plan.

UBC structure 
President Engström reminded that at present UBC has the following structures: General Conference, Presidium, Executive Board, Commissions, Board of Audit, Secretariat. There are also working networks ie. Contact Persons, EU Coordinators, Women's Network etc. Mr Engström expressed an opinion there is a need to reactivate a task force on information. A working group was set up to prepare a proposal of tasks to be carried out by the new task force. The Board asked the Secretariat to

remind the member cities that all  cities have the right to participate in the work of all Commissions.

UBC-EU Coordinator 
President Engström informed he has applied to Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) for resources to extend the employment of Mr Janusson for another year. The President proposed to change Mr Janusson's title to the UBCEU Coordinator; the new title would reflect in a better way his actual tasks. The Board decided to employ Mr Janusson as UBCEU Coordinator for another year.

LA21, women and youth 
President Engström expressed an opinion that UBC Commissions should involve LA21 aspects in their daily work. The Commissions should also strive to involve more women and young people in their activities. The Board agreed with

the President's opinion and encouraged all UBC Commissions to follow these guidelines. Mr Engström informed that UBC was approached by a network of young people who want to strengthen contacts between the youth from UBC cities. The network would like to act as UBC informal structure. The Board endorsed the youth network initiative and encouraged all cities to support it.

Situation in Belarus 
President Engström reminded that Belarus government informed him in April that it would like cities from Belarus to join UBC. In June the President invited to Tartu two representatives of Sapieha Foundation who introduced the Board with the situation of cities in Belarus. They informed that local authorities in Belarus are not elected democratically but appointed by the government. Mr Eugenijus Gentvilas, Vice-President, who investigated the situation of cities in Belarus, 

confirmed the information provided by the Foundation. Mr Gentvilas proposed that in order to work out the UBC policy towards the cities in Belarus, UBC should meet Mr Siemion Szarecki, leader of democratically elected parliament, dissolved by Mr Lukaszenko. The Board authorised the Presidium to meet Mr Szarecki and discuss the problem.

UBC at Victoria Lake 
President Engström informed, SIDA carries out a project to help the cities from Victoria Lake region in Africa to strengthen their network. Within the frames of the project, SIDA sponsored the trip of Mr Engström and Mr Mikko Jokinen to Uganda and Kenya. UBC delegation had several meetings with the authorities of cities situated in the VL region. The President signed a "Partnership Document" between UBC and LVRLAC. SIDA asked if UBC could help to establish the secretariat of LVRLAC.

MEAs Validation 
Mr Risto Veivo, UBC Environmental Coordinator, informed that MEAs have so far been run in Tallinn, Pärnu, Panevėžys, Klaipėda, Turku and Pori. In order to give additional support to the follow-up and implementation of proposed improvements, the Commission proposed that each audit should be validated by external body. Suitable external bodies for validation would be the UBC and HELCOM. The Board approved the proposal.

General Conference 2001 
Mrs Karin Wohlgemuth, Rostock, proposed the following theme for the VI General Conference to be held in Rostock in 2001: "Social justice in the Baltic Sea Region in the new Millennium". Special fields could be: social equality, involvement of youth, strengthening of handicapped. The conference would adopt a UBC 'Social Charter'. Mrs Wohlgemuth proposed 12-13 October 2001 as date of the conference. The Board approved the theme and the date of the conference.

Next Meeting 
The Board decided that following an invitation from Mr Juhani Leino, Mayor of Kemi, the next meeting of the UBC Executive Board will be held in Kemi, Finland, in the end of March 2000.