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On 2 June in Vilnius, Heads of Government of the Baltic Sea States, adopted the key document of the 8th Baltic Sea States Summit – the Vilnius Declaration “A Vision for the Baltic Sea Region by 2020”. The document states the conviction that using the strengths of the existing cooperation frameworks and the accumulated experience, the Baltic Sea Region has the potential to become one of the most prosperous, innovative and competitive regions in the world.

Leaders of the region’s countries and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso made a strong political commitment to turn into reality the Vision that is set out in the declaration.

The declaration covers economic, ecological and social aspects of the region’s sustainable development. In the document, commitments are assumed to restore good ecological health of the Baltic Sea, to foster investment-friendly economies and innovation driven production, built on active application of information technologies, to create integrated energy markets and well-interconnected transport networks, effectively reducing unemployment, social exclusion and inequality in the labour market, to ensure region’s social well-being and public security, to form a common regional identity and promote extended people-to-people contacts.

The 8th Baltic Sea States Summit that took place on 1-2 June in Vilnius was the most important and final event of a year-long Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS).

The Summit was attended by President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister of Estonia Andrus Ansip, Prime Minister of Finland Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister of Latvia Valdis Dombrovskis, Prime Minister of Lithuania Andrius Kubilius, Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Zubkov, Deputy Prime Minister of Denmark Lene Espersen, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden Maud Olofsson, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski, Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office Werner Hoyer, and the guest of the Summit - Chair of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference Christina Gestrin.

At an informal dinner on 1 June, heads of the delegations focused on a co-ordinated response to the economic challenges in the region. Heads of the delegations stressed exclusive significance of such informal meetings.

On 2 June, the formal session of the 8th Baltic Sea States Summit was held at the National Gallery of Art. President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė welcomed the participants of the Summit. Representative of Finland, Chair of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference Ch.Gestrin also welcomed the participants of the Summit on behalf of the Baltic parliamentarians.

The first part of the session was dedicated to strengthening the role of regional cooperation frameworks (the CBSS, European Union’s Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and Northern Dimension). The participants of the Summit stressed that the Baltic Sea region had a particularly well-developed network of regional organizations. Now it is the right time to review activities of these frameworks: to define clear priorities for regional cooperation, to aim for better co-ordination, to focus on the specific projects, and to strike the geographical balance in cooperation.

Issues of regional competitiveness, sustainable economic development and energy cooperation were discussed at the second part of the session. The participants of the Summit discussed ways to overcome the consequences of the economic crisis, strengthening the region’s global competitiveness, creating the region’s internal market, the promotion of internal and external investments and creation of new workplaces. The participants of the Summit underlined that an important factor in solving all these problems was further region’s integration.

The Summit extended a mandate for the special Task Force on Organised Crime in the Baltic Sea Region that was established by the region’s Heads of Government. The regional strategy of this task force until 2014 was also approved.

Norway takes over the Presidency of the CBSS from Lithuania on 1 July.

The Baltic Sea States Summit is traditionally held every two years.