Några ord för framtiden

Det är enkelt att sitta på läktaren och veta hur det ska gå till nere på plan. Men bara den som själv ger sig in i spelet kan på riktigt påverka. Resten förblir publik.

Som alltid är det spännande att tala inför unga vuxna. Det är nämligen betydligt mer regel än undantag att de är både smartare och mer kreativa än vi andra. Detta har jag för övrigt lyft även tidigare.

Mot den bakgrunden är det inspirerande att se Simon Holmström, Hanna Salmén och alla andra som sett till att ReGeneration 2030 blivit verklighet och samlat över 100 deltagare från länder kring östersjön till Mariehamn. Senaste måndag höll deltagarna en avslutande session i Ålands lagting för att formulera ett manifest som ska föras till BSPC:s stora konferens på måndag. Jag hade glädjen att invigningstala och sade ungefär så här:

Ålands lagting blev platsen där ReGenerations allra första manifest blev verklighet senaste måndag.
Welcome to Åland,

Welcome to Ålands Lagting, our recently renovated parliament! It is here we make laws and discuss policies for the Åland Island.

This building and the paintings you see in this building tell something about the history of the Åland Islands on their way to an autonomous, neutral and demilitarised region to the Islands of Peace, as we are called today.

I appreciate very much that you all are here and that you give me the opportunity to address your ReGeneration 2030 summit Youth Conference here in Mariehamn. But I warn you, I will not come with any advices to you. You are here to express YOUR visions, not mine and not the rest of the so called grown up world. I will tell you why later but it is a matter of perspective where I as representative for the decisions makers of today perhaps could tell where to look but not what you will see. The difference is huge.

It is however an ideal situation that your conference takes place exactly one week before the 27th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference here in Mariehamn and that the Finnish President of State will address the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference from this microphone in one week's time.

It is also a fact that the results of your conference will be introduced directly by your representatives Simon and Hanna to the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference. I look forward to that! Simon will also moderate a discussion with the Finnish Minister of Environment, (who is currently also the chairing Minister of HELCOM, the environmental organisation of the Baltic Sea states), the Deputy Prime Minister of the Åland Islands, representatives of the WWF and other environmental experts. You will through Simon have the opportunity to address the questions of your interest to the current generation of political decision-makers.

During the last two days, you have already intensively discussed, for example, how the UN Sustainable Development Goals can be implemented as soon as possible and as far-reaching as imaginable. I'm looking forward to your results, your visions and your recommendations.

The BSPC will also address the UN Agenda 2030 and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in its resolution this year and will probably continue to focus intensively on this topic next year. Your results will, therefore, be considered in our further work. That’s how think-tanks like ReGeneration 2030 work, you launch ideas which turns into action and hopefully become legislation which changes the world to the better.

Developing society takes courage, a pioneering spirit, thirst for knowledge, inventiveness, empathy, creativity as well as intercultural insight and understanding. Moreover, it is mainly young people who possess these characteristics. Why, you might wonder? Because, I tell you, reality transform you and what is possible for youngsters means problems and challenges for many of us who are older.

That is the reason why the whole Baltic Sea Region needs the involvement of young people in political decision-making to be fit for the future and why youths should be involved in the work of these institutions.

The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference was founded in 1991 with the primary goal to create a platform for open parliamentary dialogue to overcome the cold war and to establish the Baltic Sea as a sea of freedom and cooperation. The Parliamentarians from around the Baltic Sea are convinced that cooperation and dialogue are indispensable to preventing conflict and promoting joint progress.

Dear friends,

your conference this weekend and your activities and resolution, perfectly suit this year’s BSPC. We want to create a clean Baltic Sea and renewable energies. We want you and us to believe in a strong future for the region.

When it comes to the 2030 development goals of the United Nations and their concrete implementation in the various countries and regions, especially you will be touched by the concrete measures, because you will then be in charge and responsible for the living conditions and the overall development in your countries and regions at that time.

Or when it comes to climate change: You will have to deal with the increasing future problems, if the current generation of responsible politicians will not do enough to reduce the negative impacts of the climate change as much as possible.

It’s worth getting involved, it’s worth creating ideas, it’s worth developing proposals and calls for action to the governments as well as for the legislation and decisions in parliaments.

So, I can only encourage you to develop ideas and proposals, to present the voice of the young generation. The 27th August 2018 BSPC offers you a unique possibility to raise your voice and to make the young generation visible in the frame of our annual conference and to catch the attention of politicians, representatives of governments and stakeholders, all of whom are engaged in the further development of the Baltic Sea Strategy.

I wish you great ideas and much success but that is all the advices I am prepared to give to you. Because and this is a fact since the very start of the human race. If the youngsters in the stoneage would have listened to their parents and followed their best practices – we would still be stoneage… And we don’t want that, do we?

Thank you for your attention and enjoy your day in the Islands of Peace.

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