UBC Board met in Tallinn

The 59^th meeting of the Union of the Baltic Cities Executive Board took place in Tallinn on 13-14 October 2010 upon the invitation of the Mayor of Tallinn Mr Edgar Savisaar. The meeting was held in connection with the 1^st Annual Forum on the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, Tallinn, 14-15 October 2010. The forum was attended by 500 participants - Commissioners and General Directors of the European Commission, representatives of governments, the Baltic cities, regions, organisations and institutions. The EU forum discussed the implementation of the strategy during the first year since its adoption. UBC took active part in the forum, President Per Bødker Andersen participated in the plenary discussion summarizing the event, together with General Director of DG Regio, President of CPMR Baltic Sea Commission, Executive Secretary of HELCOM.

The Board took note of the action plans provided by the UBC commissions for 2011 and decided to assign resources for the commissions'activities in 2011. Four UBC commissions presented annual activity reports October 2009 - September 2010 and action plans for 2011: Sport, Tourism, Transportation, and Youth Issues.

The Board discussed the theme of the XI General Conference to be held in Liepāja in autumn 2011.The commissions can send proposals concerning the main theme of the conference by 1 December 2010.

Secretary General Pawel Zaboklicki informed the Board on the latest developments concerning the four flagship projects of the EU Strategy for BSR selected by the Executive Board in Naestved in February 2010. Following the proposal of the Commission on Environment, the Board decided to select one more flagship project namely 5.3 'Create a network of sustainable cities and villages'.

The city of Arendal, Norway, presented its vast activities devoted to environment protection and climate change issues.

The cities of Tallinn and Turku - the European Capitals of Culture 2011 - made presentations introducing immense range of cultural activities planned for the year 2011.