43^rd Executive Board meeting at Chojnice

There are two strands today in the UBC - one aiming at common Baltic policy towards Brussels and the other one - to keep the organisation tightly together - concluded the members of the 43rd UBC Executive Board Meeting. This time the Board met on 11 June 2005 at Chojnice, Poland, upon the invitation of the Mayor Arseniusz Finster.

The meeting was dominated by the organisational matters related to the VIII UBC General Conference in Turku, Finland, as well as by the UBC European policy. Additionally, the discussion devoted to the UBC future development was held.

Mr Mikko Lohikoski, Turku, informed the Board about the speakers invited to present the keynote speeches during the General Conference. Before the Board Meeting, the preliminary invitations to the GC have been sent out to the member and non member cities, international organisations and to the speakers.

President Per Bodker Andersen reminded that UBC together with other Baltic organisations sent to the European Commission the joint " statement on the objective 3 of the reformed cohesion policy from 2007. The statement emphasizes the fact that the cross-border cooperation in the BSR may be severely harmed if the limit of 150 km for maritime border is introduced. However, the European Commission replied that it intended to introduce 150 km threshold for the cross-border strand. The Board members informed that they urged respective ministers to take up this issue during negotiations on new cohesion policy 2007-2013. The Board concluded that the lobbying on this issue must be continued.

The working group on UBC future development consisting of: Mikko Lohikoski (Turku, chair), Lillian Westerberg (Stockholm), Ingemann Olsen (Kolding), Ina Sidlauskiene (Klaipeda), Pawel Zaboklicki (UBC SG) presented the results of its work and recommendations. The WG suggested basically more active work of the UBC Commissions especially in connection with new financing possibilities as well as more frequent meetings and thematic seminars. The WG agreed also that it is important to ensure a more effective UBC's presence in Brussels.

Last but not least, the Board discussed the candidates to the UBC Presidium and membership fees for 2006-2007. The Board maintained also its support to the Pärnu's (Estonia) proposal to hold the IX General Conference in 2007.