Es gilt das gesprochene Wort!

President of Iceland Mr Jóhannesson

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland Ms Alfreðsdóttir

Ministers for Foreign Affairs

of Lithuania Mr. Linkevičius

of Latvia Mr. Rinkēvičs and

of Estonia Mr. Ligi,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

it is a great honour for me as the new president of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference to speak to you here in Reykjavik. In 1991, our friends in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence, and they have since evolved into strong and trusted partners – democratically, economically and strategically.

We can all compliment you on this very positive development! The Baltic States underwent enormous changes, both domestically as well as with regard to foreign policy.

Externally they identified EU and NATO membership as key pillars of their future development. But they also concluded that together they are stronger, and this lead to the foundation of the Baltic Assembly.

At the executive level they became active members of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, at the parliamentary level they fully engage in the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference.

Ladies and gentlemen,

very often, governments are in the public focus when we talk about cooperation. But we should not forget the - let’s call it - parliamentarian way of cooperation, which  includes an intensive dialogue with the executive level and also with civil society.

Since the foundation of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in 1991 with the primary goal to create a platform for open parliamentary dialogue to overcome the cold war and to establish the Baltic Sea as a sea of freedom and cooperation, a lot has happened  – much of which nobody could have foreseen.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

the intensity of the work of the BSPC increased every year, also driven by our Baltic friends, for whom innovation, economy, labor market and education have traditionally played an important role. This could most recently be witnessed at this year’s annual conference in Riga:

Under the Latvian Chairmanship we dealt with the issues of education, most importantly vocational training; we focused on creativity and entrepreneurship in education. We discussed the benefits of labor mobility in Europe while also acknowledging its downsides, and we discussed the revision of the social security coordination rules. Concrete projects were our issues as well as research infrastructures in the Baltic Sea Region.

Now; in contrast to former conferences recently we have concentrated on two or three important policy fields. It is our aim to initiate cooperation and to achieve progress in the whole region. Therefore our member parliaments ask their governments to report on the implementation of our recommendations for action. And the reactions become more and more comprehensive every year.

During the current Hamburg Presidency the priority issues are Democracy and Participation: our dialogue with focus on inalienable rights will be one of the ongoing priorities in my BSPC chairmanship.

We will focus on it in connection with youth exchange as well as on Science and Research as “hard” topics. Additionally, we run a two-year-working group on Sustainable Tourism that will end up reporting in next year’s conference.

Cooperation and dialogue based on mutual understanding and trust between parliaments, governments and civil society is of crucial importance to ensure continued peace and well-being in the North.

In 2014 the CBSS ministerial meetings were cancelled by the other member states in response to Russian activities in the Ukraine. We as parliamentarians regretted this decision and appealed to all Baltic Sea States to continue the dialogue and to continue to be a region of intensive cooperation and good, peaceful neighbourliness. To this end, we called on the governments for a resumption of the Ministerial meetings of the Council of Baltic Sea States.

Therefore we appreciate very much that – as a first step – council-level talks between all science ministers and between the Deputy Foreign Ministers were resumed during the recent Polish CBSS Presidency. And we dearly hope that regular meetings of the CBSS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Chiefs of Governments can also recommence!

We will continue to invite you, the Foreign Ministers of the Baltic Sea Region, to discuss the current situation with us, the elected representatives of our citizens and to offer a common platform for dialogue of the whole Northern- Baltic-Region especially in tenser climates. Therefore, I highly appreciate, that the Icelandic CBSS presidency also has invited the BSPC to this event as a fundamental step for dialogue.

Ladies and Gentleman,

for more than 20 years the Baltic Sea region fortunately had been a non-priority-area on the maps of the NATO, it had been a region of peace and Northern Europe had been far away from cold war or armed conflicts. I am sure we all would like to return to this. And that we share the common awareness of the necessity to never stop talking.

Talking about our main values, agreement is not always easy – e.g. not all of our BSPC members regard the separation of powers as a main pillar of our democracy. There are huge differences just regarding the refugee-question which was on the agenda of every single meeting the last one-and-a-half years and is regarded completely different among our conference member-states. But nevertheless we are also able to find compromises and a common platform for constructive discussion.

Ladies and gentlemen,

on this path we have professionalized our work for the BSPC mission to maintain the Baltic Sea as a sea of peace and to provide a platform for cooperation, commitment and competence in political dialogue; we have also solidified our interfaces with external parliamentary, governmental, sub-regional and other organizations.

The BSPC and its executive counterpart, the Council of the Baltic Sea States, also come together on a biannual basis, which has allowed the BSPC to coordinate activities with the CBSS and to be informed about the priorities of the respective CBSS Presidency.

Furthermore, the cooperation formats of the Nordic Council and the Baltic Assembly have had a tremendous impact on our development. They have helped guide the BSPC’s activities, contributing to the BSPC’s success as a very visible actor in Baltic Sea affairs, initiating and guiding political activities. So a lot has happened in our joint cooperation since 1991, when our conference was established, it could not be foreseen that it would take such a successful path.

Ladies and gentlemen,

let’s go on – parliaments, governments and societies – working on a peaceful and prosperous common region, let’s continue our successful and committed Nordic- Baltic-Cooperation in the whole Baltic-Nordic-Region. This event here and today is a cornerstone on this way.

Thank you for your attention.

Zeit: 26. September 2016, 14 Uhr 

Ort: Nordic House, Reykjavik/Island