20 Years of Parliamentary Commitment

The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) gathers parliamentarians from 11 national parliaments, 11 regional parliaments and 5 parliamentary organizations around the Baltic Sea. The BSPC thus constitutes a unique parliamentary bridge between all the EU- and non-EU countries of the Baltic Sea Region. BSPC is a forum for political dialogue between parliamentarians from the Baltic Sea Region. BSPC aims at raising awareness and opinion on issues of current political interest and relevance for the Baltic Sea Region. It promotes and drives various initiatives and efforts to support a sustainable environmental, social and economic development of the Baltic Sea Region. It strives at enhancing the visibility of the Baltic Sea Region and its issues in a wider European context. The first BSPC was convened in Helsinki in 1991. This year´s conference thus marks the 20th Anniversary of BSPC. For that reason, a small booklet has been published, containing resumes of the first 19 conferences. It also includes an introduction by Christina Gestrin, MP, Finland, Chairman of the BSPC 2008-2011, and a reflective essay on Baltic Sea cooperation by Pertti Joenniemi from the Danish Institute for International Studies.