Minutes of the 15th Meeting of the Baltic Division of United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)

Rīga, March 27–29, 2012

  1. The 15th meeting of the Baltic Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) took place on March 27–29, 2012 in Rīga, Latvia upon the invitation of the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency (LGIA).
  2. Experts from the following member countries of the Baltic Division took part in the meeting: Estonia (Aule Kikas – Chair of the Baltic Division, Malle Hunt, Kadri Kuuse, Annika Palu, Peeter Päll, Olev Veskimäe), Latvia (Andris Zelmanis – Director of the Department of Geodesy and Cartography, LGIA, Zane Cekula, Dace Kavace, Vita Strautniece, etc.), Lithuania (Jūratė Palionytė, Aistė Pangonytė, Evaldas Rožanskas, Valdas Urbanavičius), Russian Federation (Vladimir Boginskiy – Vice-Chair of the Baltic Division, Rinat Abdrakhmanov, Natalya Kozlova, Marina Morozova, Leonard Yablonskiy); experts from the observing countries: Belarus (Maryia Shcharbakova), Poland (Katarzyna Przyszewska, Jerzy Ziuzia) and Ukraine (Iryna Rudenko). There were also about 40 participants from different state institutions and enterprises of Latvia. Full list of participants is in Annex 1.
  3. Participants of the meeting discussed and adopted the agenda of the 15th meeting of Baltic Division (Annex 2).
  4. Participants of the meeting exchanged information about the status of legal, methodical and organizational base of national standardization of geographical names, about the status and development perspectives of national toponymic databases (cadastres, registers etc.); the use of geographical names in maps etc. There was also a discussion on the preservation of geographical names as part of a cultural and historical heritage. Altogether 25 papers were read. There was an exhibition of specific cartographic production, toponymic glossaries and dictionaries that have been published in participating countries.
  5. Participants of the meeting discussed preparations for the Tenth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) and the 27th session of UNGEGN in July–August 2012.
  6. Regarding the Chairmanship of the Baltic Division, it was decided that Russia will coordinate the activities of the Baltic Division during the period 2012–2017, and Latvia will propose the Vice-Chair for the same time. On the proposal of the Russian delegation Ms. Marina Morozova was elected Chair of the Baltic Division for the period between the Tenth UNCSGN and the Eleventh UNCSGN. Latvia will inform of the candidate for Vice-Chair before the Tenth UNCSGN in New York.
  7. Participants of the meeting discussed the next meeting of the Baltic Division after 2012. The next meeting according to rotation principle is anticipated in Estonia in autumn 2013.
  8. It was recommended to publish the materials and other documents of the 15th meeting of the Baltic Division on the website of the Baltic Division (http://eki.ee/knn/ungegn/index.htm; http://eki.ee/knn/ungegn/bd_ru.htm). Information on the meeting and the documents will also be published on the website of LGIA (www.lgia.gov.lv).
  9. Representatives of participating countries expressed desire for further cooperation and contacts.
  10. Participants of the meeting noted excellent arrangements for the meeting and expressed sincerest thanks to the organizers of the meeting – the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency.

Aule Kikas
Chair of the meeting

Malle Hunt
Secretary of the meeting