New impulse for the CCB work in 2018-2019
CCB • April 25, 2018
The CCB Board Meeting (19-20/04), the Annual Conference (20-21/04) and the General Meeting (22/04) were held in Zelenogradsk (Kaliningrad region), Russia.
The theme of the 2018 Annual Conference was #IamtheBaltic , with focus on personal responsibility and inputs to the protection of the Baltic Sea. Agenda of the event consisted of:
- Group discussions on the plans of CCB working areas:
- water protection in agriculture;
- river basin and wastewater management;
- fisheries and aquaculture;
- biodiversity and nature protection;
- hazardous substances and marine litter;
- harmful installations and maritime transport, including ‘Nuclear Baltic’ and ‘ STOP E40 ’ campaigns;
- sustainable development in coastal and marine areas.
- Joint clean-up activity at the Curonian National Park , and
- an interactive workshop led by David Kronlid, Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development (SWEDESD) of Uppsala University, and Nils Höglund, CCB Secretariat. Following the question: “How do we move the anchor and not only the buoy?”, the aim was to discuss our values and own views of nature in order to better communicate and work on our topics and reach a real sustainable future.
Also the preparations were presented on:
- Nature Accessible Certificate (NaaC Certificate) for coastal and nature conservation by Latvian Green Movement;
- ” Our Common Baltic ” summer course.
The General Meeting addressed several important issues, including:
- approval of the 2017 CCB Annual Report,
- adoption and the Biennial Plan of Action for 2018-2019,
- election of the new CCB Board,
- adoption of the amendments to the CCB Constitution ,
- acceptance of new member organizations:
- APB Birdlife (Belarus),
- Nerush (Belarus),
- Western Pomeranian Nature Society (Poland),
- LCPO ”Ecoterra” (Ukraine).
CCB expresses a warm welcome to the new organisations and board members and wishes a strong and successful collaboration for the upcoming years.
These meetings represented once again an important moment for all of us to meet up, share experiences and strengthen our relations. In this regard, CCB is open to accept proposals for the theme of the next Annual Conference, which potentially will be held in Latvia.
Last but not least, a special thanks to all the participants and sincere gratitude to Dmitry Filippenko and his colleagues from “ Green Planet ” for the excellent organisation of the CCB´s events.
Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.