The organisation was founded 1993 in Stavanger, Norway, based on the Stavanger Declaration. Its participants are regional authorities (level directly below the national level authorities) of the 9 Baltic Sea littoral states: Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

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The BSSSC is a political network, its main organisational bodies are:

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• the Chairperson, elected by the Board on a rotational basis for a two-year period

• the Board consisting of two representatives of each of the BSR countries

• the Secretariat, that follows the Chairperson and ad hoc working groups

 

The main BSSSC event is the annual conference held each year in early autumn (September - October).

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The BSSSC co-operates closely with other key Baltic Sea Region and European organisations and institutions. The BSSSC has renewed its Declaration of Common Interest with the Committee of the Regions in 2012 and opens its network for other BSR organisations on local and regional level to become participants (B7, UBC).