Baltic Sea States
Subregional
Co-operation
BSSSC Board Meeting in Potsdam, Germany
BSSSC Board met in Potsdam to talk about EduOffshore, Munitions clearance and Baltic Sea Strategy Point cooperation with BSSSC and other organizations in the BSR.
May 31th, 2023
BSSSC Board and guests met on the Board Meeting in Potsdam. The meeting gathered nearly thirty people - representatives of member regions, partner organizations, and networks as well as the youth.
Our Board Members met on 22nd May and on 23rd May visited the Operational Command of the German Armed Forces and talk about its tasks and requirements in the Baltic region.
The meeting was chaired by West Pomerania President Olgierd Geblewicz.
The Board Meeting was devoted to topics substantial for BSSSC in the development process and for the strengthening cooperation with other organisations.
Our agenda was very broad. A couple of important guests accepted the invitation to our meeting.
We had the pleasure of hosting online and physical visitors from CBSS and Baltic Sea Strategy Point as well as regular attendees of our meetings representatives from the BSPC among others.
Monika Pochroń-Frankowska from Pomorskie Region presented the topic of the EduOffshore Conference in Gdansk.
2023 as a final event, was preceded by an education programme conducted in secondary schools from November 2022 to March 2023.
The fair was visited by more than 6000 VISITORS
81 EXHIBITORS and PARTNERS inluding
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offshore wind developers
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manufactures and OWE service providers
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universities and edu organisations
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local authorities at different levels
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GWO training centres
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employer associations
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foreign companies
Mr Felix Schartner-Giertta, who is the project manager of the Cultural Pearl Project, presented the project and its main aims.
The BSR Cultural Pearls project aims to enable smaller cities and regions to increase their social resilience and maintain the quality of life with local assets in an innovative way.
Co-funded by the EU’s Interreg programme, aims to strengthen social resilience in Baltic Sea Region municipalities.
The project, officially starts in 2023 and runs for a period of three years.
Project will notably support authorities in the Baltic Seas Region to develop and implement action plans on “culture and resilience”, which will eventually strengthen social cohesion and foster connectedness and shared values so that crises can be overcome more easily.
This was followed by a presentation by Dr Florian Rudolph, Head of Department, CBSS Conference Report on offshore wind energy and dumped munitions, which are priorities of the German CBSS Presidency.
In a bid to support the shared regional goal of attaining climate neutrality by 2050 while, at the same time, addressing the issue of energy security, Germany has identified the promotion of offshore wind energy as the first priority under its presidency of the CBSS. In close cooperation with the energy ministers of the Baltic Sea region countries, Germany wishes to use the CBSS as a platform for initiating more concrete forms of regional cooperation regarding offshore wind.
The second German priority is on dumped munitions in the Baltic Sea, which pose a risk to public health, maritime activities and the marine environment. A legacy of the second world war, up to 400,000 tonnes of conventional explosives and around 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons are currently littering the Baltic’s seafloor. Germany therefore intends to use the CBSS as a platform for promoting a common regional understanding of the impacts and challenges associated with munitions dumped in the sea.
Our last presentation came from guests - Dr. Stefanie Wodrig and Marlene Riedel from Baltic Sea Strategy Point.
We talked about cooperation with the EUSBSR and discussed future cooperation and how to create further synergies between our two platforms.
Dr. Wodrig and Marlene Riedel introduced us to the state of the EUSBSR, and the Baltic Sea Strategy Point and gave a short overview of the work of the 14 Policy Areas.
