Opening statement at Council of the Baltic Sea States – 16th ministerial meeting in Oslo

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Norwegian Presidency I have the pleasure of wishing all delegations, guests and Secretariat members welcome to the 16th Ministerial Session of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the CBSS. You will know that we have established a tradition in the organisation that the Council meets every second year and our heads of government meet in the intermediary year. In line with this, our heads of government met in Vilnius in June 2010.  

It has also become a tradition that the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference is represented in our Council meetings. We appreciate that the Chairman of the Conference, Member of Parliament in Finland Christina Gestrin, is with us to-day; she will be given the floor in our meeting for greetings.

Norway has for its Presidency selected maritime policy as one of its operative priorities. The city of Oslo represents an important cluster of maritime activities and it was natural for us to choose Oslo as the venue for our meeting to-day. Also, we have deliberately chosen the Oslo City Hall situated close to the sea, in fact overlooking the Oslo harbour.

In our meeting to-day we will follow the traditional pattern of having short interventions and adopt a declaration. The meeting will also hand over the Presidency to Germany. I hope the interventions will trigger a useful discussion and dialogue, with focus on challenges in the region that we need to meet together. Among these challenges are the priority areas that Norway has selected for its Presidency. I mentioned maritime policy which is highly important for the economic development of the region; however, together we need to keep shipping competitive and at the same time make it “cleaner and greener” to meet more ambitious environmental standards. We have also had a strong focus on fight against trafficking in human beings. Unfortunately, trafficking is a challenge for all our members and we must work hard to eradicate this flaw from our region. The CBSS is an organisation to help us forward, and it has been important for the Norwegian Presidency to develop it, make it more efficient, more relevant and more visible.