Council of the Baltic Sea States

The Council of the Baltic Sea States is a political forum for cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, or BSR. Consisting of 11 members – the 10 Member States of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden, plus the European Union – the CBSS supports a global perspective on regional problems. These notably include translating, politically and practically, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement, the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, the Palermo Protocol and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, into regional actions on the ground in the BSR. The CBSS functions as a coordinator of a multitude of regional actors in the areas of its three long-term priorities: Regional Identity, Sustainable & Prosperous Region, Safe & Secure Region. Set up in 1992 to ease the transition of the BSR to a new geopolitical landscape, the organisation currently focuses on themes such as societal security, civil protection, sustainability, climate change, maritime economy, innovation, education, countering human trafficking, and the right of the child. A Permanent International Secretariat of the CBSS was established in 1998. It is located in Stockholm, Sweden.