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MINUTES FROM THE 43RD MEETING OF THE
EXECUTIVE
BOARD OF THE The
43rd meeting of the Executive Board of the 1.
Opening of the meeting and adoption of the agenda. The
meeting was opened by Mr Per Bødker Andersen, the President of the The
meeting adopted the agenda. 2.
Election of two persons who, together with the President, will
check the minutes. Ms
Sirkka Kotola from Kotka and Mr Edward Pietrzyk from Chojnice were elected
to check the minutes. 3. Presentation of the
City of Mr Arseniusz Finster, Mayor of the City of
Chojnice, made a presentation introducing his city.
Chojnice is situated in the south-west part of the 4. VIII General
Conference in 4.1-4.3 Invitations, organisational matters, keynote speakers, workshops. Secretary General Paweł Żaboklicki informed that some
one thousand addresses to Baltic and European organisations and
institutions have been forwarded from the secretariat to
Turku. Mr Mikko Lohikoski, Turku, informed that preliminary conference
invitation have been sent out to the member cities, mentioned institutions
and to the keynote speakers. Mr Lohikoski informed that conference
programme, re-drafted in the light of Board discussion in
Luleå, and the practical arrangements are available
on the website www.turku.fi/ubc as
well as the registration form. As regards the keynote speakers Mr Lohikoski informed
that following persons have been approached and invited. Mr Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland, was
invited to deliver a major statement on the political development in the
Baltic Sea Region. Mr Andrus Ansip, Prime Minister of Estonia, the former
Mayor of Tartu, who for a long time has been successfully working on the
city level. A senior business representative is to speak about the
economic prospects in the region. An idea was to have a German speaker.
The name is open, but the organisers have spoken to the German Ambassador
to Mr Lohikoski added that the cultural speaker depends
whether Mr Ansip comes or not. The organisers have in mind also the very
well known writer Jaan Kross from
Estonia. On the next day, in the plenary session there is the EU
budget framework and its implications, an issue very important for UBC. A
Polish Commissioner Danuta Hübner was invited, but unfortunately she is
not in a position to come. We should all jointly push forward to have
either a representative from the Cabinet of Mrs Hübner or a senior
representative of the European Commission. Cities and competitiveness. An invitation was sent to
Carl Cederschiöld, a former Mayor of Stockholm to speak about
competitiveness and economic development - a very important issue for the
cities. Cities and good neighbourhood policies. An invitation
was sent to the Governor of St. Petersburg Ms Matvienko. Transport networks. A senior European Commission
representative has been invited as a speaker. As regards the Mediterranean view, Mr Joan Clos i
Matheu, the Mayor of Barcelona, has been invited. Concerning the governance issue, the concrete speaker
has not been invited yet. (The Mayor of Stockholm Ms Annika Billstrom has
been invited after the Board meeting at the proposal of the Swedish Board
member). As regards the parallel forums, Mr Christian Ramberg,
chair of UBC logistic task force, is preparing the meeting on the
Motorways of the Seas and the logistic issues. Mr Ramberg plans to have a
“conference in a conference”, up to hundred people from different
cities, from companies, shipping lines, agencies and so on. The report
from the latest meeting of the TF is attached to the minutes. Mr Lohikoski mentioned that there was a note from the
working group from Ina Sidlauskiene that Lithuanian cities proposed to
invite the leaders of the Associations of Local Authorities in the Mr Lohikoski added that cities will have exhibition
possibilities at the GC – information is on the conference website. He
also added that the translation to Finnish and Russian will be arranged in
order to attract more city politicians who do not speak English. President Andersen expressed an opinion that non-member
cities should also be invited to the general conference. Mr Żaboklicki
informed that non-member cities were also invited to the conference. 4.4 Elections. Candidates to the
Presidium. The following candidates to the Presidium have been
submitted: Mr Per Bødker Andersen, Mayor of Kolding – candidate
for President Ms Marie-Louise Rönnmark, Mayor of Umeå – candidate
for Vice-President Mr Mikko Pukkinen, forthcoming Mayor of Turku -
candidate for Vice-President The candidature for the remaining Vice-President has
not been submitted yet. Mr Paweł Żaboklicki informed that on the request
of the President he has contacted all “eastern” cities with women
mayors asking whether they would be interested to candidate for UBC
Vice-President. Mr Żaboklicki informed that due to various reasons none of
the “eastern” lady mayors was able to candidate. Decision: The Board decided to recommend the General Conference
the above mentioned candidates to the Presidium. The meeting authorised
the Board members from
Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, 4.5 Membership Fees 2006-2007. SG Paweł Żaboklicki provided the Board members with the
proposal of membership fees for 2006 and 2007. According to the
discussions held at the GC in Klaipėda two years ago, the fees for
“eastern” cities are to be raised 5% annually, so the discount for
eastern” cities will be 55% in 2006 and 50% in 2007. In 2005 the
discount is 60%. Decision: The Board decided to recommend the General Conference
the proposal for the membership fees in 2006-2007. 4.6 Venue of the GC in 2007. President Andersen reminded that already last year the
Board endorsed the Mayor of Pärnu proposal to hold the General Conference
in 2007 in 4.7
Mr Risto Veivo, Head of EnvCom Secretariat in 5. Maritime borders in
the President Andersen reminded that at the UBC initiative,
the major The aforementioned The EC replied -
in the letter from the Director in DG General Regional Policy Mr Ronald
Hall – that the Commission intends to introduce 150 km threshold for the
cross-border strand and that multilateral maritime cooperation would make
more sense under the transnational strand. Following the decision of the Board in Luleå
(March 2005) the President sent a letter with
the statement to the prime ministers of 10 The Board members informed they contacted respective
PM’s cabinets and ministries and urged them to take up this issue during
negotiations on new cohesion policy 2007-2013. Mr Maciej Lisicki added that during the April session
of the Committee of the Regions he spoke with the Commissioner on Regional
Policy Ms Danuta Hübner about the 150 km limit for maritime border. Mr
Lisicki informed the Board that Ms Hübner supported UBC statement and
promised to take up this issue in the European Commission. The Board concluded that the lobbying on this issue
must be continued, although it seems that the EC intends to introduce
mentioned above threshold. See also point 7 of the minutes which refers to
the transnational cooperation strand. 6. Letter from the
President on UBC further development – follow-up. The President reminded that at the last Executive Board
meeting in The WG concluded that at the General Conference it is
important to make the participants more active. Workshops can stimulate
the discussion and active participation. As the GCs are biannual, Mr
Lohikoski suggested that UBC could arrange the thematic conferences in the
years where there is no GC, if there is such interest among the cities. During the Executive Board meetings the host city could
arrange a mini-seminar on the issues being of particular interest for the
host city. The work of Presidium should be more systemised, so far
the Presidium meets irregularly. The working practices of the Commissions should be
developed. For example the Com. on Urban Planning has developed a good
working model where the commission members do practical work for the
seminar host city. This model could be introduced in other Commissions.
The present system of the Commissions should be evaluated and
restructuring might be done if necessary. The Commissions should submit their work plans to the
Executive Board for review before the UBC financial contributions are paid.
This also ensures that the Commissions work in the same direction as the
overall UBC policy. The WG suggests that UBC should appoint one of the
senior UBC officials as the policy officer. The person should be
monitoring the European policies important for the UBC and should work
under President in close cooperation with the secretariat. UBC should implement the cooperation agreement with
Eurocities. Further, we should define our role vis-a-vis Baltic Metropoles
and other regional structures in our region and in UBC might work out a system for exchange of
civil servants, their regular professional meetings etc and link it
to the work of the Commissions. UBC could develop some special forums or
initiatives, where local politicians from different cities are meeting and
exchange experiences. It is important to ensure a more effective presence in Information from the working group was followed by the
discussion. The President appreciated an offer from
Stockholm
to arrange the UBC representation in
Brussels. He said that UBC lobbying can be much stronger
if we have appointed representation in
Brussels. Mr Maciej Lisicki expressed his comments to Mr
Lohikoski’s statement. He expressed an opinion that it’s very
difficult to organise the annual mayors meetings, because all our mayors
and civil servants have hands full of work, and to add some new extra
meeting is always a problem, as there is so many regular conferences in
the BSR that it is impossible to find enough time for everything. Mr Lisicki proposed to organise thematic meetings on
certain topics once a year or maybe even more frequently if necessary. He
said for instance it may be very useful and interesting for many cities to
organise topic meeting on crisis situations. For example last year there
was a big ammunition explosion in
Kolding. It would be very profitable to come to As regards the structure of the commissions Mr Lisicki
said that the system is clear and logical but sometimes there is a lack of
capable human resources in the commissions. He stressed that if the
commission staff is clever then also the work is done in a good way. Mr Bjarne Ugland, Vice-President Arno Pöker expressed an opinion that
the Board should have more influence on the commissions work. He said the
new Board should be more interested in the work of the commissions and
should set priorities for the commissions. He stressed the commissions
must be independent but should follow the general policy of the
organisation. He reminded that UBC practical work is based on the
commissions activities. Mr Pöker also said that if UBC is to be needed in 15
years we must act more politically. He said that Stockholm EU office and
other city offices in Mr Gunars Ansins,
Liepāja, expressed an opinion that there is no much
coordination between the commissions. He said that regular commissions
reports to the Board seems not to be enough. He stressed that more
coordination between the UBC commissions is needed. Also the commissions
should be more active in UBC policy making, i.e. in the policy areas which
are of interest for UBC. President Andersen put an example of the Commission on
Environment which on one hand is carrying a number of practical activities
and on the other hand is also active in European policy making. Mr
Andersen said that it is now the time to put up some, normal standards for
Commissions to fulfil, and if they do not fulfil them than we must have
the discussion if we are going to pay the commissions not fulfilling that
political aim of the UBC cities. Mikko Lohikoski stressed that if we are not able to
develop the commissions we are actually not utilising the possibility
which are there for outside funding. He said he is fully convinced that
the Environment commission which has collected 10 million Eur, is not the
only field where the money is available, there are other fields like
social etc but it requires certain skills, certain capacity within the
Commission to apply for this money. With the 7.500 Eur which commissions
get from UBC they can not do very much, but there is a potential in the
outside world, the world is richer than ever. Perhaps other commissions
need some expert advice from the Urban Planning commission and
Environmental commission how to apply for external funding. But before
that the commissions must define their work plan, because without the
proper work plan, nobody is going to give funds. President Andersen agreed that it would be a good idea
to arrange a mini workshop with EnvCom and UrbanCom to share the know-how
with other commissions. The Board thanked the working group for the work done
so far and authorised the WG to continue its important tasks. 7. Working meeting of
Baltic Sea organisations, Malmö, Mr Maciej Lisicki informed that meeting was attended by
major Baltic organisations namely CPMR, BSSSC, UBC, B7, BDF. The meeting
discussed issues of common interest inter alia the future EU Cohesion
Policy. Mr Lisicki informed the meeting in Malmö about the EC response to
the joint statement of four Baltic organisations adding that UBC proposes
to prepare a joint reaction to the EC reply. BSSSC informed that they
prepared its own position on the Cohesion Policy and proposed the others
to support this position. After discussion the Board concluded that the best
solution would be if one joint paper would be produced instead of two
similar papers drafted separately by BSSSC and UBC. In the document it
should be stressed that proposed areas for cooperation within the
transnational strand have very little to do with the tasks of the local
authorities. The proposed topics lie within the competence of state and
regional authorities. It is necessary to complement these areas otherwise
the cities will not be able to cooperate in the fields they are
responsible for and interested in. The Board authorised the Secretary General to pass this
proposal to BSSSC. 8. Latest conferences
attended by UBC representatives. President Andersen informed that below UBC
representatives represented UBC at the following international conferences: - Congress of Local & Regional Authorities of the
Council of - Committee of the Regions Plenary Session, 13-14 April
2005 (Per Bødker Andersen, UBC President / Maciej Lisicki, UBC Board
Member) - Baltic 21 SOG meeting, Sopot, 9-10 May 2005 (Paweł
Żaboklicki, UBC Secretary General) - Baltic NGO Forum in
Gdynia, 12-13 May 2005 (Paweł Żaboklicki, UBC
Secretary General) - European - 10th General Assembly of CPMR Baltic Sea Commission,
Naantali, 27-28 May 2005 (Mikko Lohikoski, Turku, Adviser to 1st
Vice-President) - Congress of Local & Regional Authorities of the
Council of - VIII General Conference of Baltic Ports Organisation,
- 13th Ministerial Session of Council of the Baltic Sea
States, The Board took note of the information. Mr Arno Pöker
added that the day before the CBSS Session he participated in the opening
of Metropolis exhibition co-organised by the UBC Commission on Culture. Mr
Pöker was one of the persons who officially opened the exhibition. 9. Information about
latest & forthcoming meetings of the Commissions & Networks. The Board took note of the listed below meetings of the
UBC Commissions and Networks. - Meeting of the Board of the UBC Commission on Culture,
14-16 April, - 10th Jubilee Annual Meeting of the Commission on
Sport, "Healthy Lifestyle through Sport", 14-16 April, Klaipėda
- Meeting of the UBC Commission on Urban Planning in
the framework of the ABC project, 20-24 April,
Gdynia
- Meeting of the UBC Commission on Business Cooperation,
15-17 May, - UBC Women's Network Seminar on "Women and Men
sharing decision-making in Municipalities", 26 August, Narva - Meeting of the UBC Commission on Environment, 20-22
June, Sopot - Meeting of the UBC Commission on Tourism, 9-11
September, Jurmala - Session of the UBC Commission on Culture, October, - Meeting of the UBC Commission on Education, 9
September, Norrtälje - - Meeting of the UBC Commission on Urban Planning in
the framework of the ABC project; 6-9 October,
Malmö
- Meeting of the UBC Commission on Transportation,
20-21 October,
Gdynia 10. Baltic Cities Bulletin on
Logistic Corridors in the BSR. Secretary General Paweł Żaboklicki informed that an
opening story to the BCB on Logistic Corridors in the BSR was written by
Mr Christian Ramberg, Director of Port of Turku, chair of UBC logistics
task force. Transport and logistic issues will be one of the key items of
the forthcoming UBC General Conference to be held in 11. Any other business. President Andersen informed that 4 German cities asked
for voting cards during the General Conference. President reminded that a
year ago the Board supported this solution on the request of German cities
so there is no need to raise it once again. The German cities also
suggested that absent cities should be allowed to have a postal vote. The
Board concluded that all member cities should take part in the General
Conference which is the highest UBC authority and stressed that postal
vote is not a good solution. Mr Innar Maesalu, Võru, informed that Voru would like
to host the Board meeting in summer 2006. Mr Paweł Żaboklicki informed
that Mr Mikko Lohikoski informed that the EU is now drafting
a policy paper on the European Maritime Policy which combines the sea
transport, infrastructure, environment, tourism, fishery, ship building
etc. The EC plans to publish the Green Book on that issue in the beginning
of next year. Mr Lohikoski stressed that UBC should formulate its own
position concerning the European Maritime Policy as this issue is of
crucial importance to all of us. He informed that the process has been
initiated by the Commission President Mr Barroso and that Mr Joe Borg,
Malta Fisheries Commissioner is very active in preparation of this policy
so there is a very strong The Board agreed that UBC must follow closely the
process of preparation of the European Maritime Policy. The Board
authorised Mr Lohikoski and the Task Force on Logistics to draft UBC
priorities concerning the maritime policy. 12. Next meeting of the Executive
Board. President Andersen informed that the next meeting of
the Executive Board will be held in 13. Closing of the Meeting. President Per Bødker Andersen expressed his thanks to
all participants for the fruitful meeting and to the City of Chairman
Secretary
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