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Barents Youth Cooperation Office

Meeting 9-10 June 2006 in Reykjavik

Meeting of The Baltic Sea Working Group on Youth Affairs - WGYA
in Iceland, Friday June 9, 2006

Friday 9 June 09:30 Þjóðmenningarhús, the Culture House, Hverfisgötu 15., Reykjavík.

Participants:
Laura Bacinskiene, State Council of Youth Affairs in Lithuania; Sergey Barkanov, Ministry of Education and Science of Russia; Uwe Finke-Timpe, Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth of Germany (BMFSFJ); Michael Haglund, Ministry of Education, Research and Culture of Sweden; Björn Jaaberg Hansen, Ministry of Children and Equality of Norway; Elina Juntunen, Finish Ministry of Education, substitute for Seija Astala; Erlendur Kristjansson, Ministry of Education and Research of Iceland; Ardo Rohtla, Estonian Ministry of Education and Research; Astrid Utterström, Ministry of Education, Research and Culture of Sweden; Helge Hellberg Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youth Affairs (BSSYA); Thies Grothe, Regional Youth Council Schleswig-Holstein; Jens-Peter Jensen, Regional Youth Council Schleswig-Holstein; Jens-Kristian Lütken, Baltic Youth Forum (BYF) and Danish Youth Council (DUF); Nathalie Stockwell EU-Commission

Agenda
1. Opening of the meeting
2. Adoption of the agenda
3. Adoption minutes from the Stockholm meeting 18. to 19. of October 2005
4. Report from the meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials in Stockholm 29. of March 2006
5. Report from the Secretariat
6. Report of the Baltic Youth Forum
7. Budget 2005 and budget 2006 - discussion.
8. Executive Group for the next period from July 2006 to end of June 2007
9. Realization of the working programme - discussion
10. Baltic Sea Region – Barents Region – Northern Dimension co-operation
11. Collaboration in the Youth field in “Youth Work and Work 4 Youth (BYF, WGYA)”
12. Different History – Common Future, Project Proposal of UBC Commission on Youth in Co-operation with the Working Group on Youth Affairs
13. The Council of Europe campaign -All different – All equal, information. Other interesting topics in CDEJ
14. The new EU Youth in Action programme. Other information from EU on the Youth field
15. National issues of important matters
16. Other business
17. Date and place of the next WGYA meeting

1.Opening of the meeting

Chairman Erlendur Kristjansson opens the meeting at 9:30 a.m. and expresses a welcome to all members of the WGYA and to Nathalie Stockwell of the EU-Commission, to representatives of the Regional Youth Council Schleswig-Holstein and to Jens-Kristian Lütken representing the Baltic Youth Forum. A short introduction of all the participants follows.

2.Adoption of the agenda

The agenda for the meeting is adopted with some minor changes

3.Adoption of the minutes from the meeting of the Working Group on Youth Affairs in Stockholm 18th to 19th of October 2005

Some remarks by Björn Jaaberg Hansen from Norway stating that the reporting of the Working Group has been improved since the last meeting in Stockholm. The financial contribution item was mentioned by Björn Jaaberg Hansen with some remarks: Only some of the financial statements were reflected in the minutes from Stockholm, the contribution of the countries should take their size and possibility of contribution into consideration, the location of the secretariat further includes some psychological elements. Norway points out that it is important to have contributions of a majority of the partners and that a goal should be to have contributions from all countries around the Baltic Sea to the annual budgets.

The minutes from the meeting of the Working Group on Youth Affairs in Stockholm 18. to 19. October 2006 are adopted and it is agreed that the Norwegian annotations mentioned above would be added to the minutes of this meeting.
Erlendur Kristjansson as chair reports about several attempts of the Executive Group to get in contact with the countries not present, meaning Latvia, Poland and Denmark.

4.Report from the meeting of the Council of Baltic Sea States - Committee of Senior Officials in Stockholm 29th of March 2006

Michael Haglund from Sweden reports about the Conference of the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) of the Council of Baltic Sea States: The Working Group represented by Sweden (Kristina Cunningham, Michael Haglund) and the Secretariat (Helge Hellberg) gave a presentation of the ongoing collaboration in 2006-2008 and about the improvements in proceeding with the Working Plan 2006-2008. The difficulties in getting in contact with some of the countries were mentioned at the CSO. By getting in contact with the representatives at the CSO, Sweden and the Secretariat tried to renew contacts to Latvia, Russia and Denmark. In general the presentation of WGYA was met with great interest among the CSO and warmly welcomed. Björn Jaaberg Hansen suggests that in addition to the channels used before Sweden, as coming chair, could try to get in contact with Latvia. Concerning Russia’s participation Björn Jaaberg Hansen points out, that in the field of Barents Sea Co-operation the Russian Federal Agency bares the responsibility. Erlendur Kristjansson then suggests that Sweden as coming chair should get in contact with the countries not having answered yet.

5.Report from the Secretariat

Monthly reports have been sent out to all members of WGYA from the Secretariat. Astrid Utterström from Sweden appreciates the reports and expresses Sweden’s willingness to continue active work in the WGYA.

6.Report of the Baltic Youth Forum

Jens-Kristian Lütken as representative of the Baltic Youth Forum gives a report from the last meeting of the Baltic Youth Forum (BYF) in Tallinn in March 2006: The Baltic Youth Forum concentrated in Tallinn on the adoption of a new strategy paper as an improved way to be comprehensive. BYF will connect its work with the “All Different – All Equal” campaign. Mobility is a central point of interest of BYF including improved connections with the new EU-neighbourhood countries Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine. Jens-Kristian Lütken reports further about the interests in a common meeting between BYF and WGYA under a possible topic of integration of minorities in the regions. BYF makes the suggestion to have a joint meeting with the WGYA in Russia as the new legislation in Russia concerning the work of NGO’s brought up questions.

Björn Jaaberg Hansen asks BYF for a copy of the new strategy paper. He can imagine a meeting with BYF parallel to a WGYA meeting and sees questions of minorities as very interesting for a discussion. In preparation the distinction between national minorities and indigenous people should be kept in mind. Astrid Utterström sees meeting of BYF and WGYA in Sweden as a possibility. In her view the integration of minorities could be a central question. Elina Juntunen from Finland points out that the agenda for a joint meeting should be considered carefully. In addition she suggests that maybe the meeting could be organised between the Executive Group of the WGYA and BYF.

7.Budget 2005 and budget 2006 - discussion

Jens-Peter Jensen from the Regional Youth Council of Schleswig-Holstein introduces the budget and audit report of 2005. He points out that a surplus in the budget of 2005 arose due to the fact that the Danish contribution came in very late in December 2005. That made it difficult to spend the budget 2005 in time. Due to the changes in the position of the former project manager at the Secretariat with Sandra Weidemann leaving for a new position in Brussels in December, it was impossible to realize any project to spend the surplus in 2005. Uwe Finke-Timpe from Germany explains that because of German law a certain percentage of the surplus of 2005 –in relation to the contribution of Germany to the WGYA- has to be retransferred to Germany. After consultation with the financial unit in the German Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth it has to be said that the German law allows no other possibilities. As the German Ministry sees the difficulties with money retransferred, it decided to support the Baltic Youth Media Camp with an extra funding of 8000 € in 2006. Participants at the Baltic Youth Media Camp will come from all Baltic Sea Countries. The Media Camp will be organized in Schleswig-Holstein in July 2006. The German contribution will make it possible to provide free participation for all young people from the Baltic Sea Region to attend the Media Camp. Astrid Utterström points out, that it would be good to have a breakdown in the calculation on how much of the surplus is retransferred to Germany, as the budget doesn’t show how the money is used. Thies Grothe from the Regional Youth Council Schleswig-Holstein suggests taking the amount of money to be retransferred to Germany in relation to the percentage of the German contributions to the annual budget. Further he suggests that there should be a point added in the budget 2006 showing as “Dissolution of benefits not spent” the exact percentage retransferred to Germany. Björn Jaaberg Hansen points out, that the Secretariat has to take care about contributions coming in so late. That is a serious problem in his view. He therefore suggests storing surpluses as a liquidity fund or as a reserve fund. He expresses his reservations on counting a certain percentage of money coming from a certain country in the annual budgets.
Uwe Finke-Timpe explains that because of German law it is not possible to transfer the surplus into a reserve fund. He strictly recommends avoiding surpluses. Björn Jaaberg Hansen understands the German difficulties, but points out that the Norwegian contribution is coming from a separate budget-line in the budget of the Norwegian Ministry. In his view it is not possible to decide if a certain amount of the budget of WGYA is Danish, Finish or Norwegian. He suggests counting the contribution of Denmark as belonging to 2006.
Uwe Finke-Timpe says that in his view it is difficult to judge over the Danish contribution without Denmark being present. He promises to try to fix an own budget line in the German Ministry for the WGYA if possible.

The group then agrees to add a footnote in the budget report of 2006 explaining why the surplus 2005 is smaller in relation to the budget of 2006.

Elina Juntunen from Finland makes the suggestion that some costs could be broken down into more detailed specifications in order to make the budget more informative and transparent.

If any surpluses occur due to a late transfer of contributions the WGYA sees it as task of the Executive Group to decide where the money is used in order to avoid surpluses.

8.Executive Group for the next period from July 2006 to end of June 2007

Erlendur Kristjansson as chair suggests Estonia, Sweden and Germany as new members of the Executive Group. Ardo Rohtla from Estonia points out that Estonia is not able to bare this responsibility at the moment, but that Estonia would like to join the Executive Group in 2007. The chair then asks for the possibility of Lithuania to become a member of the Executive Group and makes the proposal of Lithuania as new member of the Executive Group. Björn Jaaberg Hansen points out that following the rule it should be Latvia joining the Executive Group, but as Latvia is not present this is not possible. In addition he suggests an own reporting system for the Executive Group. Laura Bacinskiene from Lithuania accepts the suggestion of Lithuania joining the Executive Group with reservations until details can be clarified in Lithuania.

9.Realization of the working programme - discussion

The Secretariat gives a report on its comments to the Working Plan of the WGYA sent out before the meeting. The comments are positively met among the WGYA.
For cooperation with other structures in the Baltic Sea Region Björn Jaaberg Hansen suggests concentrating on the secretariat’s work as a stimulus for youth co-operations with low bureaucratic attitude, meaning to convince the structures to do youth work. For cooperation between the regions and to revitalize the Sigtuna-Process a contact between the three secretariats in Copenhagen, Murmansk and Kiel should be established in his view. Elina Juntunen notes that the chairs of these structures have been invited to the joint meeting, taking place in August 2006 in Rovaniemi, in connection with the Barents Euro-Arctic seminar. She promises to see if there is a possibility to invite the secretariats of the different structures as well.

10.Baltic Sea Region – Barents Region – Northern Dimension co-operation

The Working Group sees it as responsibility of the Nordic Youth Committee / Nordic Children and Youth Committee (NORBUK) to fulfil the Sigtuna-process with some new power. Björn Jaaberg Hansen supports an active role of the WGYA in the field of Northern cooperation, taking the possibility into account that the EU is preparing a new “Northern Dimension Policy”.

11.Collaboration in the Youth field in “Youth Work and Work 4 Youth (BYF, WGYA)”

The Secretariat introduces the project “Youth Work and Work 4 Youth” as a joint project of BYF and WGYA. The competition has been sent out through different channels in the Baltic Sea Region. Youth initiatives, youth groups and youth councils in all Baltic Sea States have got the information. Until the meeting in Reykjavik 10 applications have reached the Baltic Sea Secretariat and BYF. The projects will be invited to the Baltic Sea Youth Conference in Mözen (Schleswig-Holstein) in September. The funding for the prices awarded to the best projects and for the documentation is coming from the annual budget of the WGYA.

12.Different History – Common Future, Project Proposal of UBC Commission on Youth in Co-operation with the Working Group on Youth Affairs

The Secretariat introduces the idea of collaboration with the large-scale project proposal “Different History - Common Future. Youth as a resource in the Baltic Sea Region” of the UBC (Union of Baltic Cities) - Commission on Youth. Björn Jaaberg Hansen sees some problems in such an intensive co-operation with the UBC. He sees the impact in the WGYA wanting to establish structures to do youth work, but it “doesn’t want to do the work for the structures.”. Further the fact that the project group consists only of five cities is a challenge as this group is really small. Therefore it is uncertain if they really can fulfil the tasks of their project plan successfully. For Astrid Utterström the difficulty lays in the fact that the project is running for a three-year period and the member states’ budget processes run only for a year at a time. Jens-Peter Jensen proposes that the Regional Youth Council can take over the financial costs of the annual parts in case that the secretariat wouldn’t exist any longer or in case that the WGYA sees too much obstacles in proceeding with the project realization. Thies Grothe points out that if the secretariat is functioning already as a partner in guiding the project application, it is needed as a real partner in the project. If the WGYA sees too many obstacles in joining the project as a partner the general question left over would be how to realize the goals of the working plan. If no security of planning in working time, strategy and budget exists this is an important question as many of the points of the Working Plan fit really well to the project. Nathalie Stockwell from the EU-Commission points out that a local action would be good to realize inside the project. She sees that perspective given by the commitment of the Regional Youth Council Schleswig-Holstein.
Although the WGYA sees the possibilities a collaboration together with the UBC-project would give and appreciates the idea of a large scale project for youth work in the Baltic Sea Region, the group decides not to participate in the project proposal as a full partner. In addition the WGYA sees difficulties in the small number of cities represented in the project group. Further the financial contributions needed in the period 2006-2009 cannot be given by the WGYA. For that reasons the WGYA cannot become a full partner in the project.

13.The Council of Europe campaign -All different – All equal, information. Other interesting topics in CDEJ

Norway gives an input about the development and the recent state of the "Council of Europe Youth Campaign on Diversity, Human Rights and Participation, All Different - All Equal": On 29. June the launching of the campaign “All Different – All Equal” will take place. The Ministry of Education Research and Culture of Sweden will be present at this occasion. One part of the plan of action of the Council of Europe is a campaign on diversity, human rights and participation under the headline “All Different – All Equal”. The campaign is based on the former “All Different – All Equal“ campaign in 1995 which was quite successful. The new campaign should concentrate more on national activities. The activities at the moment are very much focused on establishing national campaign offices. Some are already established in the campaign countries. One meeting of the national representatives of the national campaign offices already was organized with most of the representatives attending. They mainly came from the steering committees of youth in the member countries of the Council of Europe. The Danish Youth Council for example represented Denmark. A second meeting of national campaign offices will be held in Strasbourg on June 28. -30. The steering group of the campaign consists of Armenia, Greece, Belgium and Norway four NGO representatives from the Advisory Council and in addition one representative of the EU-Commission and one representative from the European Youth Forum. A big problem is still the budget as the Council of Europe faces a complicated financial situation. This can be explained for example with the number of cases to the European Court raising, but not sufficient funding for the European Court out of the budget of the Council of Europe possible to find. Project support comes from the EU, from the Flemish Community in Belgium and from the European Youth Foundation. Yet it is not clear how the money in 2007 for closing the campaign is provided, as the campaign is going to end in September 2007. The campaign will follow a structure: Opening event, then 14 months duration with three symposiums of youth (one on diversity, one on human rights, and one on participation, of which the last two will be held in 2007) and closing. The three BE-NE-LUX countries will organize the last symposium in Schengen. Ideas are developed about having a number of training courses for young people involved in national trainings. A large youth project is planned in St. Petersburg from 21. -24. September. All together more than 400 participants including more than 100 international participants are thought to attend. A second preparatory meeting for this large-scale youth project in St. Petersburg will take place in June. It is supposed that the national campaign offices should choose the participants to the three projects, as the role of the national campaign offices is mainly to activate people. Here Björn Jaaberg Hansen sees good possibilities of the Baltic Youth Forum to get active in the campaign.

A short summary of the state of the campaign in some countries follows:

NORWAY – The national campaign office is set up out of a variety of NGO’s together with ministries and others. The membership is open for those interested in participating; a certain budget frame will be the working base for the Norwegian national campaign office. Norway criticises the development in Poland where the name of the campaign was changed in some way it shouldn’t. Therefore the campaign office in Poland will probably be established only with NGO’s like in Denmark where the Danish Youth Council runs the campaign office. The Nordic Child and Youth Committee has funded 400.000 Danish Krones for cooperation with the campaign. Ideas of Nordic-Baltic initiatives for the campaign would be welcomed. A draft proposal for a common initiative between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Nordic States already exists. It is the idea of the Danish Youth Council to use role-play for this planned regional project that. Role-play could be of meaning in the campaign itself. Preparation for a regional strategy is done with representatives of the eight countries. It is in considered to invite the other Baltic Sea Partners (Germany, Russia, Poland).

SWEDEN – At the moment highlights are on the question of what is happening in the steering committee and what is done concerning the budget. A White Paper about youth policy is in development in the Council of Europe. An improved communication between all actors should be possible in Strasbourg on 5. -7. July, where the development of the White Paper will be discussed. Its goal is to prepare a framework convention in the Council of Europe. For the work of the Secretariat Sweden suggests giving the mission to look into the process. The European portfolio for youth workers and youth is developed and is soon going to be published. In 2009 Sweden is having both the presidency in the EU and in the Council of Europe. Hence, Sweden and Slovenia are trying to change place for the presidency in the Council of Europe. If that happens, Sweden will have the presidency in the Council of Europe in 2008. Based on the evaluation of the last campaign “All Different – All Equal” Sweden sees the duration as too short. Because of this Sweden will work to have the campaign continue for two whole years. Two other points are important: 1. Possible synergy effects with the implementation of the Action Plan on Human Rights, which is running for four years and concentrating on human rights; 2. 2007 is the EU-Year of Equal opportunities. Sweden plans, to get it “all together in a good package”. The Swedish Youth Council (Landsrådet för Sveriges Ungdomsorganisationer –LSU) is actively represented in the Swedish board of the campaign and Sweden will provide 200.000 € for activities within the campaign.

ICELAND: The national agency of the campaign consists mainly of representatives of different national youth organizations.

FINLAND: The national campaign committee has been established, including representatives from various organisations, ministries, interest groups and minority groups. The campaign office is built up under the responsibility of Allianssi, the National Youth Council of Finland. One full time employee at Allianssi has the responsibility for coordinating the campaign. In addition to the national campaign committee, there is also an operational working committee that monitors and supports the work of the coordinator. The Campaign was launched in the World Village Festival in Helsinki 27-28 May. The Finnish President, Ms. Tarja Halonen, acts as the patron of the campaign.

DENMARK: The national campaign committee, in which youth and minority groups are represented, is the responsibility of the Danish Youth Council (DUF). DUF will host a meeting for Youth from the Nordic Countries as a part of the campaign.

LITHUANIA: The Lithuanian State Council of Youth is running the campaign office. At present the activities stopped because the campaign is under establishment. In the second part of this year spreading of information of the campaign will take place. The launching is planned to happen in November with ideas to realize a “youth street”. Lithuania wants the youth to be active in the campaign and wants the campaign to be fun for the youngsters. The planned budget is 100.000 Litas, around 25.000 Euros. There will be focus on the involvement of youth organizations in the campaign.

ESTONIA: The Estonian Youth Work Centre (Eesti Noorsotöö Keskus, ENTK) is responsible for the Campaign. Katre Merimäe is the head of campaign, at the moment Estonia is in the process of finding the best solutions for an opening of the campaign.

GERMANY: The German National Committee For International Youth Work (DNK) is responsible for the Campaign in Germany. Its first meeting took place in Berlin 23 rd of May. The committee is composed by representatives of the Federal Youth Ministry and NGO´s.

14.The new EU Youth in Action programme. Other information from EU on the Youth field

Nathalie Stockwell from the EU-Commission gives information about the coming EU-Youth in Action programme, starting with expressing her happiness to participate in the meeting, as her first participation on a meeting of the WGYA in 2003 was her first “international mission”.

The new programme strengthens the synergies between the different parts of the Youth programme: It consists of five actions: “Youth for Europe” supporting the participation of young people in youth projects and youth democracy projects. This part mirrors the participation measure in the old “Action 1 – Youth for Europe”. “Action 2” continues the support for the European Voluntary Service, “Youth in the World” will make interaction with partner countries more easy in this segment. “Action 3” covers projects in cooperation with countries in the rest of the world and “Action 4” is meant to give funding for youth support systems. A legal basis and support measures will be integral part of the new “Action 5“ which provides support for European cooperation in the youth field. In “Action 5” any action to strengthen the dialogue between researches, policy, youth etc. can find support. The programme possibly will be adopted this year. The Commission will develop a common position possibly already this summer. The second reading by the parliament will then be possible in the autumn. Hopes are good that the Youth programme will be adopted during the Finish EU-Presidency. The Commission adopts a new strategy of communication about youth in July. This communication goes for mainstreaming youth in the different policy sectors. The European Youth pact was initiated by Sweden, Germany, France and Spain and integrated into the Lisbon Strategy. Health and anti-discrimination (realized for example through sport events) are horizontal issues connecting different projects. Nathalie Stockwell underlines that youth participation has to be realized at local level. It needs a period of reflection. Policy making with youth participation can even vitalize “plan D” (the discussion about a common European constitution). With European youth events anticipated on local level, the debate about a European constitution will be brought to the national level.

15.National issues of important matters

SWEDEN: Astrid Utterström describes the progress for youth policy in Sweden where in the Spring Budget 2006, 600 million Euros were allocated for youth in all policy areas. All ministers in Sweden have the responsibility for youth in their portfolios. The Swedish Government is proposing, among other things, that a total of 100 million Swedish kronor be provided in 2006 to support municipalities offering summer jobs for upper secondary students. In the field of education, funding is proposed for the recruitment of the equivalent of 1000 special resource staffs at schools that are underachieving. These special resource staffs are intended to provide teaching support, thus helping students to leave school with a complete set of grades. Regarding housing, the Government is proposing a national grant of 100 million Swedish kronor per year for municipalities that want to use rent guarantees to make it easier for young people and others to establish themselves in the housing market. The Swedish Government also wants to promote the development of stimulating leisure activities for young people. A three-year initiative, starting in 2007 and with funding of 80 million Swedish kronor per year, is therefore proposed to develop activities and meeting-places based on the specific needs of young people.

GERMANY: During the last two years Germany has established a system of certification for exchange actions, this system is based on three parts: first a certification of participation, second a certification of engagement and third a certification of international competency. While the idea to launch a certificate for international youth work is not totally new, it is new that Germany has created a certificate with a common layout all over Germany, which even could have influence on the labour market when handed in with job applications. Manfred von Hebel from the EU-Commission was present when the certification model was introduced in Berlin by the state secretary of the Federal Youth Ministry. The certification will let employers see not only “a black hole” in a CV but instead show them the effects of in-formal learning in international youth work, an English version is to be developed as proposal soon.

LIT: In autumn 2005 a big event of youth representatives and others took place in Lithuania, there the question of organization of Lithuanian State Youth Council (LIJOT) was discussed. A possible future development could be that LIJOT will be incorporated into the department of Youth Affairs under the Ministry of Education and Labour of Lithuania.

DUF: For the Danish Youth Council the questions of the new Russian legislation on NGO’s are of big importance as co-operation with Russian NGO’s is of central interest for DUF.

RUSSIA: Invites either 56 young persons from eight countries during the summit of G8 to come to Russia, or to a separate meeting in St. Petersburg where 125 persons from 27 countries will attend. Russia confirms its contribution to the annual budget of € 7500 € in kind. It further suggests that in St. Petersburg a section of WGYA could participate in the youth event. For Russia’s participation in the Working Group it is suggested that either in St. Petersburg or in Kaliningrad some activities in co-operation with the Working Group on Youth Affairs could maybe be organized in December. Next year “100 years of scouting” and “100 years of children camps” will be celebrated in Russia, so there will be a good possibility of organizing some youth events camps in 2007.

FIN: The Minister of Culture Ms Tanja Karpela has changed her last name to Saarela in consequence of getting married (thus known from now on as Ms Tanja Saarela). The visual image of the Finnish EU-Presidency has been published. A Young Active Citizenships - EU Meeting will take place in Hyvinkää 1-4 July and the Youth Directors Meeting will be held in Lapland, Saariselkä in October. More information about Finland's EU Presidency can be found at www.eu2006.fi. In the autumn, the Ministry of Education will start preparing a development programme based on the new Youth Act. It will provide youth policy objectives for the coming years as well as guidelines for the regional and local authorities. The government adopts a programme every four years i.e. for the parliamentary term.

EST: Professional standards of Youth Work have recently been accepted by the parliament: three standards have been developed to value professions in youth work. One of the first steps was to improve the quality of the youth work system in general. A national strategy of youth work and youth policy will be in discussion in government in mid-June, a new law about hobby schools has recently been accepted in the parliament.

16.Other business

No comments

17.Date and place of the next WGYA meeting

Astrid Utterström announces that Sweden is looking forward to taking over the Chairmanship from July 1. Björn Jaaberg Hansen makes the proposal that a report of the work of the Executive Group could be sent out in preparation for the Working Group Meetings. Astrid Utterström informs about first plannings to have a WGYA meeting in Sweden during autumn, as no actual date has been determined already it could be end of October or end of November. As soon as Sweden has found a preliminary date, question of convenience with this date will be sent out. Sweden will concentrate on some parts of the Working Plan - namely voluntary activities and youth employment. Sweden plans the next meeting to be one and a half days as most of the WGYA members anyhow have to come for a first day and have to stay until a second day. Sweden will use all connections and possibilities to make the WGYA cooperate even more active in the future and expresses on behalf of the whole Working Group the deepest gratitude for all the Icelandic hospitality and the perfect organization.

The Chairman, Mr. Erlendur Kristjansson, closes the Meeting of the Baltic Sea Working Group on Youth Affairs at 4 p.m.