Welcome to the Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation The Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation (BSSSC) is a political network for decentralised authorities (subregions) in the Baltic Sea Region.
The BSSSC was founded in Stavanger, Norway, 1993. Its participants are regional authorities (level directly below the national level authorities) of the 10 Baltic Sea littoral states.
The BSSSC is a political network whose main organisational bodies are: The Chairperson (elected by the Board on a rotational basis for a two-year period), the Board consisting of two representatives of each of the BSR countries, the Secretariat, which follows the Chairperson and ad hoc Work groups. The main BSSSC event is the annual conference held each year in early Autumn (end of September - beginning of October).
The BSSSC co-operates closely with other key Baltic Sea Region and European organisations and institutions.
The BSSSC has signed a Declaration of Common Interest with the Committee of the Regions in 2007 and opened its network for other BSR organisations on local and regional level to become participants (B7, UBC).
For BSSSCs Terms of Reference click on the link below.
Regional influence The time to come will be important to propagate the importance of the regions and influencing the nations within the Baltic Sea Region and the EU institutions when national and European policy in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) is formulated and implemented. BSSSC will also work for co-ordination of different EU policies and national policies. Northern Dimension will be developed to a platform for democracy and effective regional institutions.
Co-operation on Economic development It is necessary to create an environment for business and economic growth throughout the BSR in which trade and investments are able to develop and thrive. Sustainable economic development is necessary to secure full employment and a good quality of life in the regions. The BSSSC welcomes the initiatives already taken by Baltic Sea nations and the European Union to secure the base of economic development in the region. BSSSC will support such development by actively co-operate with the Baltic Development Forum (BDF) in its project “Baltic Sea Initiative 2010," and with other relevant Baltic Sea actors as the Baltic Chambers of Commerce Association (BCCA). BSSSC will further support the awareness and implementation of the Lisbon Agenda on the regional level in the BSR.
Co-operation and Co-ordination The BSSSC will work in close connection to other policy formulating Baltic Sea organisations to gather mutual political strength in various positions and to avoid duplication of work. This aim and ambition will be realised by the intensified change of information and concrete co-operation between the different Baltic Sea organisations. Important themes are vision and strategies, priorities, results of work in internal workgroups and position papers to be formulated. The BSSSC Work Groups shall as far as possibly seek co-operation with other Baltic Sea and European regional organisations dealing with the same theme as the Work Group. The BSSSC Annual Conference shall be developed to an important meeting place for all the different sub-national Baltic Sea Organisations, as was the vision of the founders of BSSSC.
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