MINUTES
of the 21st Meeting of the Baltic Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)

Tallinn, virtually, 23rd–24th September 2021

Русская версия

  1. The 21st Meeting of the Baltic Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) was held virtually on 23rd–24th September, 2021, at the invitation of Estonian Ministry of Finance, Land Board and and the Institute of the Estonian Language.
  2. Experts from all the member states of the Baltic Division of UNGEGN took part in the meeting: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russian Federation. Experts from observer countries Belarus, Slovakia and Ukraine took part. Full list of participants (42 persons) is given in the Annex.
  3. The participants of the meeting exchanged information and experience on the status of work on national standardization of geographical names carried out in their countries including issues concerning national authorities on the standardization of geographical names and legislation in the field of naming of geographical objects; the status and development perspectives of national toponymic databases, cadastres, registers etc.; the naming of urban objects, natural features; place names collecting; minority and dialectal toponymy; linguistic aspects related to geographical names standardization etc.
  4. 12 reports were presented and discussed.
  5. A cultural programme was presented by the hosts from Estonia – introducing Estonian place names in Estonian music and video programs to Estonian National Parks.
  6. The participants of the meeting discussed the draft rules of the Baltic Division proposed by Russia at previous meeting and elaborated by Baltic Division members. Participants approved the necessity to create the rules in general and agreed to finalize the wording in a working group.
  7. The election of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Baltic Division for the next period – 4 years (2021–2025) – was held. The participants of the meeting unanimously elected Mr Maciej Zych (Poland) as Chairperson of the Baltic Division and Ms Rita Viliuvienė (Lithuania) as Vice-Chairperson of the Baltic Division.
  8. The participants of the Meeting discussed the issue of holding the next meeting of the Baltic Division. It was decided to hold the 22nd meeting of the Baltic Division in 2022 in Poland.
  9. Participants decided to publish presentations and other documents of the 21st meeting of the Baltic Division of UNGEGN on the website of the Division (http://eki.ee/knn/ungegn/index.htm) until October 31st, 2021.
  10. Representatives of participating countries expressed desire for further cooperation and contacts.
  11. Representatives of participating countries expressed gratitude to the organizers of the 21st meeting of the Baltic Division of UNGEGN.

    12. Maciej Zych
    Chairperson of the Baltic Division of UNGEGN