30^TH EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING IN CESIS

The 30^th meeting of the UBC Executive Board was held on the 16-17 March 2001 in Cesis, Latvia, upon the invitation of Mr Janis Beikmanis, Mayor of Cesis. The first part of the meeting was attended by the Members of the Board, the second part was open to all Member Cities.

Mr Engström informed that UBC VicePresident Eugenijus Gentvilas has become a Minister for Economics of Lithuania. The Board expressed sincere thanks to Mr Gentvilas for his outstanding contribution to the UBC work during last years and wished him a lot of success in his new challenging and responsible post.

EU enlargement

The situation today regarding the involvement of cities in the EU enlargement process is not satisfactory. The discussion is carried out almost entirely between the EU and the national governments. The Board issued a statement calling for the cities involvement in the EU enlargement processes. The paper shall be sent to the EU, CBSS, Ministries of Foreign Affairs of all Baltic Sea countries.

VI General Conference

Ms Petra Hamann, Rostock, introduced the preliminary programme of the conference. First day of the conference will be devoted to "Social justice in the new millennium". The second day of the conference -the General Assembly - is devoted to internal UBC matters such as reports, elections etc. The organisers succeeded to attract very important speakers eg. Ms Anna Diamantopoulou, EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs.

UBC 10^th Anniversary

The Board expressed opinion that main anniversary celebrations should be held during the General Conference in Rostock. The arrangements could include for example: exhibition of photographs, culture events, etc. The President created a special working group responsible for the anniversary arrangements.

Finances

Mr Pawel Zaboklicki, Secretary General, submitted UBC financial report for 2000. Mr Zaboklicki underlined that all member cities but one paid their membership fees and the financial position of the Union is secure. Mr Zaboklicki also presented the adjusted version of UBC budget for the year 2001. The Board took note of the financial report for 2000 and adopted the adjusted budget for 2001.

A new Commission ?

City of St. Petersburg put forward a proposal to create the UBC Commission on Information Technology, as the IT is a strategic sector for the whole Baltic Sea region. The Board asked St. Petersburg to organise a conference to discuss the ways of UBC involvement in the IT sector. The Board requested member cities interested to participate in the working group on IT, to take a contact with St. Petersburg.

Information on ISPA

The Board invited to the meeting Mr Gunter Weiss, Head of EC delegation in Latvia, who introduced the new EU programme ISPA - Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession. ISPA is one of the EU's three financial assistance programmes set up to assist the 10 candidate countries in CEE to prepare for accession. Program supports infrastructure projects in the fields of transport and environment. ISPA's budget in the period 2000-2006 is 1.040 million Euro.

UBC LA21 Action Program

Mr Risto Veivo, UBC Environmental Coordinator, reminded that the UBC LA21 Action Program 2000-2002 was approved by the V General Conference in 1999. He stressed that the overall implementation of the program was successful. Mr Veivo said it is necessary to prepare a new program for 2002-2003. The Board authorised the Commission on Environment and the UBC LA21 WG to start preparations on the new program.

Other matters

Representatives of the UBC Commissions submitted activity reports from the period June 2000 - February 2001. Most of the Commissions will have their annual meetings in the first half of 2001. Mr Juhan Janusson, UBC EU Coordinator, informed that this year he had three national meetings about the Interreg III B, ie. in Tartu, Gdansk and Cesis. The next one shall be held in Šiauliai, right after the Board meeting. During these meetings cities from applicant countries discussed project proposals to Interreg III B.

Within the UBC-LVRLAC project the study tour in the BSR for 15 high-level city decision makers from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania is scheduled in April 2001. The representatives of LVRLAC will visit Stockholm, Nacka, Turku, Kalmar, Gdynia and Gdansk. The study tour shall concentrate on environmental protection issues.

Next Meeting of the Executive Board shall be held in Malbork on 15-17 June 2001.

by Pawel Zaboklicki
UBC Secretary General