​On the occasion of the external COTER commission meeting held on 12 July in Dunkirk, Mr Stanisław Szwabski moderated the first session of the conference "The contribution of European ports to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy".

The session highlighted the role of European ports as generators of growth and employment and underlined their contribution to local and regional development, irrespective of their size, volume of traffic or method of governance. The discussion gathered representatives of the European Commission, Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Valencia Regional Government and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which presented its Port-Cities programme.

Mr Stanisław Szwabski is the Chair of the Gdynia City Council and an EA group member active in the work of CIVEX and COTER commissions. He is also co-chair of the CoR's Joint Consultative Committee with Montenegro and a member of the Interregional Group on the Baltic Sea Regions.