At its meeting in November 1998, the CBSS Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) asked the CBSS Secretariat to prepare a planning and information document on inter-governmental co-operation among the Baltic Sea States. Drafts of the document were presented to the CSO in March and September 1999. At the October 1999 CSO meeting it was decided to develop the document in two steps: first, preparation and possible publication of an Information document with factual information; and later, its development into a planning document.

The present document seeks to meet the first objective, presenting information dealing with the major fields of inter-governmental co-operation in the Baltic Sea region in the past few years. It notes the major events and actors in the respective fields of activity. The emphasis is placed on the future objectives of, and plans for, co-operation and the follow-up activities undertaken, while the description of the origin and structure of the various fora has been kept to a minimum. When possible, reference is made to Internet sites where further information may be accessed. The source of the description of plans and objectives is in most cases the communiqués issued after the meetings held in each field.

Parts of the text have been written by the secretariats established in the various fields of co-operation, and Member States have contributed a number of suggestions. However, the CBSS Secretariat is solely responsible for the content and presentation of the information.

It should be underlined that the text deals only with inter-governmental co-operation. The large and very active field of multilateral non-governmental co-operation is not covered in this document.

One important purpose of the document is to set CBSS activities in the context of the whole range of inter-governmental co-operation in order to provide a basis for better co-ordination. The description of CBSS co-operation may be found on the Internet at http://www.cbss.st