German Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States 2011/2012

On 1 July 2011the Federal Republic of Germany took over the rotating CBSS Presidency from Norway. Since then, numerous events have taken place under the German CBSS Presidency.

Baltic Sea Days in Berlin

The Baltic Sea Days, one of the highlights of the German CBSS Presidency 2011/2012, took place in Berlin from 23 to 27 April. Celebrations, exhibitions, readings and conferences made tangible the manifold and intensive ties between Germany and its CBSS partners.

President Gauck
© photothek / Trutschel

President Gauck speaking at the ceremony marking the Baltic Sea Days at the Federal Foreign Office

President Gauck

On 24 April, the Baltic Sea Days were formally celebrated at the Federal Foreign Office, where the keynote speaker was Federal President Joachim Gauck. The President outlined his own special link to the Baltic Sea: he said that until 1990 it had been a “closely-guarded sea” for GDR citizens and that the coastal inhabitants of the Baltic Sea countries “sometimes felt like prisoners”.

In her address, Minister of State Pieper stated that Europewas created at the Baltic Sea; after all, she went on to say, the historic Hanseatic League was the precursor of modern European integration. Even if the focus had been on trade and the economy in those days, the Hanseatic League had linked peoples and built bridges between cultures.

The Baltic Sea Crime Fiction Festival at the Foreign Office showed that the High North can be a source of great suspense. Well-known crime novelists from Scandinavia read from their books. The event was rounded off with the première showing of a crime story in Germany.

Conferences on numerous issues such as combating climate change, research cooperation projects and a joint virtual history book were held. The programme also included conferences with international experts, a dialogue among parliamentarians from Baltic Sea countries, the Baltic Sea NGO Forum and a youth forum.

Baltic Sea tourism conference

Cornelia Pieper Erwin Sellering in Rostock-Warnemünde
© AA

Cornelia Pieper Erwin Sellering in Rostock-Warnemünde

On 3 May 2012, Erwin Sellering, Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Minister of State Cornelia Pieper jointly opened an international Baltic Sea tourism conference in Warnemünde, which was attended by tourism experts from all countries in the Baltic Sea Region.

Within the framework of Germany’s CBSS Presidency, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Federal Foreign Office are working hand in hand to develop a joint Baltic Sea tourism region. Priority is being given to modernizing the south-eastern Baltic region and promoting this region’s potential as a tourist destination.

Summit in Stralsund

Only a month after the Baltic Sea Days, Chancellor Angela Merkel is to host a summit in Stralsund, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, to which the Heads of Government of the countries in the Baltic Sea Region and the President of the European Commission have been invited to discuss current challenges in the region at the highest level. Subsequently, the Chancellor will symbolically hand over the Presidency to the Russian Prime Minister.

Foreign Ministers’ meeting at Schloss Plön

Meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States
© AA

Meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States

The first political highlight of Germany’s CBSS Presidency was the extraordinary meeting of CBSS Foreign Ministers held at Schloss Plön in Schleswig-Holstein on 5 February. On that occasion, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle commended the contribution which the CBSS has made towards integration in the Baltic Sea Region during the last 20 years.

The Foreign Ministers’ meeting focused on energy security and the modernization of the south-east Baltic Sea Region, an area covering Poland, Kaliningrad and Lithuania. Regional goals include better connecting Kaliningrad with its neighbours through projects such as concrete cooperation on tourism and preserving our shared cultural heritage. To this end, a project coordinator based in Kaliningrad will draw up concrete proposals.

The CBSS Foreign Ministers adopted a joint declaration on energy security in the Baltic Sea Region.

Declaration on Energy Security, 5 February 2012

Westerwelle welcomed not only representatives of the European Union and the countries bordering the Baltic, but also the two founding fathers of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, former Foreign Ministers Hans‑Dietrich Genscher of Germany and Uffe Ellemann‑Jensen of Denmark. The CBSS was founded in Copenhagen on 5/6 March 1992 at their initiative.

Exhibition “20 years of the Council of the Baltic Sea States”

Exhibition ‘20 years of the Council of the Baltic Sea States’

The exhibition “20 years of the Council of the Baltic Sea States” in the atrium of the Federal Foreign Office presents the broad spectrum of Baltic Sea cooperation projects in the 20 years since the organization was founded in 1992. It illustrates how important the CBSS has been, and indeed still is, for bringing the region closer together.

Last updated 04.05.2012

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