The very first online BSSSC Board Meeting

on June 10th, 2020

The meeting gathered the representatives from the regions working together within BSSSC, cooperating organizations from the Baltic Sea Region and the Youth. Although moved to the virtual space, the BSSSC Board allowed for exchanging the information on the COVID-19 situation in the BSR countries and covering the most vital topics on the BSSSC working agenda.

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Among the topics discussed at the Board, there were: the Youth involvement and empowerment in the Baltic Sea Region, including the report from the BSSSC Spring Youth Event and the update about the Baltic Youth Camp; BSSSC Annual Conference, which is planned to be organized online on 30thSeptember-1st October 2020; the status of the EUSBSR Action Plan revision and the Annual Forum; the current situation in the Interreg Programmes with the emphasis on the main focus of the future programmes; update on Cohesion Policy and European budget; as well as cultural initiatives and projects in the Baltic Sea Region. Special stress was put on the Committee of the Regions INTERREGIONAL GROUP Baltic Sea macro-region 2020-2025. The group, headed by a BSSSC Board Member- Ms Sari Rautio is supposed to start its work in July and one of the flagship initiatives that it wants to discuss is the idea of the Baltic as the first plastic-free sea. 

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European context is extremely important for the work of the BSSSC, so it was with great interest that the Board listened to the presentation of the recent developments in the EU institutions, presented by the BSSSC Brussels Antenna, Ms Anna Drążek from Pomorskie in the EU Association.

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BSSSC always underlines the importance of the cooperation of various Baltic organizations and networks to fully benefit from the multilevel and cross-sector cooperation in the Region. We had the pleasure to host: Mr Benrd. Hemingway, Deputy Director-General of the CBSS Secretariat, who talked about the plans for the next months and the work contributing to the EUSBSR goals and Ms Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło - Head of the Euroregion Baltic International Secretariat, who presented shortly the latest ERB policy paper on the Future of the South Baltic Programme with the special attention on the capacity building initiatives for small and local actors. She also introduced the BSSSC Board members to the series of Umbrella project webinars being organized on ZOOM.

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Finally, the Board was updated about the communication activities of the Secretariat and the plans for the following weeks as presented by Ms Marta Czarnecka-Gallas.

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The next Board Meeting has been scheduled to 30th September and will, take place online, too.

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by Marta Czarnecka-Gallas