Between 8-9th June 2016 the ERB stakeholders met on the island of Bornholm to discuss current and upcoming cooperation initiatives within the organisation in the area of water management, youth policy development and capacity building for local and regional actors.
Hosted by the Regional Municipality of Bornholm the ERB meetings included the general meeting of the Executive Board as well as two dedicated events – ERB Water Forum and Youth Board meeting.
The first day of meetings included the Water Forum which was co-organised by the Regional Council in Kalmar which is leading the ERB cooperation in the area of water management and chairs the ERB Water Core Group, a specialised working body gathering both politicians and experts in the field. The Forum focused on the identification of challenges and opportunities for the Baltic Sea and its environment and included an intervention from Mr Mikhail Durkin, Executive Secretary of Coalition Clean Baltic. It was followed by a presentations and discussions about the future activities of the ERB Water Core Group and potential ERB water project tackling the most important challenges identified by the stakeholders. The Forum was preceded by a study visit to the Rønne Wastewater Treatment Plant where participants learnt about modern solutions of cleaning waste water.
The ERB Youth Board met on the same day to discuss the participation of ERB in the upcoming project Capacity Building for Strategic Youth Policy and Transnational Cooperation (CASYPOT) as well as the organisation of a joint seminar on Baltic organisation on youth policy during the 7th Annual Forum of EUSBSR in Stockholm. Also practical issues connected to conducting daily coordination of ERB YB were discussed with ideas being put forward for EVS volunteers or Erasmus interns to be hosted by the organisation one of ERB member organisations.
The ERB Executive Board met on 9th June 2016 and was chaired by Ms Akko Karlsson, ERB Vice President. Among discussion points, apart from summarising the previous meetings the day before, were strategic aspects of cooperation with the Kaliningrad region presented by Mr Arne Grove, Honorary Consul of Denmark in Kaliningrad as well as involvement of ERB in development and implementation of new projects, especially the CASYPOT project. The Board was also informed about project initiatives developed by the Bornholm Museum.
More details can be found in the minutes of the meeting.
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