STATEMENT BY LATVIA
conveyed by Mr. Martins Jirgens,
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Latvia
HELCOM Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting
for adoption of the Baltic Sea Action Plan
November 15, 2007, Kraków, Poland
Mr. Chairman, Excellences,
Dear HELCOM family members,
First of all, thanks to all of you for this extraordinary well done job.
Let me express my great satisfaction and to extend greetings to all of you on the occasion of this historical HELCOM Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting in Krakow.
I strongly believe that our Ministerial Meeting is a milestone in global, EU and regional environmental policy as there are no many other so challenging examples at all levels of protection of the marine environment currently. I do hope that our experience will be useful for other regional seas conventions and their Parties and will provide them good and well tested instruments for cooperation with the third countries in implementation of the EU Water policy. I feel that this is a good momentum for new policy adoption as many scientists and active and progressive people already support our agreed goal – healthy and productive Baltic Sea in visible time. But we, politicians, should propose the right steps tailored in the adequate time rather than adding one more declaration to the hundreds made around the world. Good policy should be simple, democratically agreed and measurable.
Dear Colleagues,
Latvia strongly supports the Baltic Sea Action Plan and its strategic goals and targets. Nevertheless, let me point some remarks concerning particular strategic issues.
Negotiation process has not been easy both at the national and at HELCOM levels. Elaboration process of the Action Plan reflected significant challenges and weak points, first of all, in data quality and evaluation methods. To overcome these shortages it is evident, that monitoring, assessment and reporting should be improved both nationally and at HELCOM level. We can not promise real reductions from the sources evaluated only theoretically.
On one hand, we can be proud planning the EU policy coordination at the regional level and proposing new approaches how to better implement this policy, as the regional component is perhaps rarely used in this aspect. Probably, it can be an added value in future, but we can not jump over already legally binding implementation plans and ignore the transitional periods. We would like to look more handsome as we are and appreciate some proposals from additional financial instruments, but we can not plan our policies ignoring such principles as affordability of the municipal services and avoid the step by step approach in implementation of many of projects in the water sector.
Mr. Chairman, Dear HELCOM family members,
Recognising that eutrophhication is a major problem in the Baltic Sea, we meanwhile stress that needed reductions of antropogenic loads should be fairly shared by all the Baltic Sea countries. As a compromise, Latvia can support provisional needed nutrient reduction requirements based on calculations by the MARE NEST model. However, preliminary assessment made by the Latvian experts indicates that a significant fraction of e.g. nutrients entering the Baltic Proper from Latvia originates as trans-boundary pollution. Also there are a lot of uncertainties regarding the natural background loading and natural retention of nutrients in the drainage basins, making the current nutrient reduction commitments highly sensitive to coincidence of unmanageable natural circumstances.
Actions in agriculture sector to reduce eutrophication should take account of local climate, hydrological, soil and other aspects, and not least important – an actual agricultural weight with regard to environmental pollution. Therefore, we strongly object to designation of the whole catchment area as nitrate vulnerable zone. We do not see any political added value from designating all our forests and bogs as nitrates vulnerable zone or designating only 50% of them.
Taking into account timetables for implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, it could be stated that national actions to great extent are and will be based on implementation of this particular directive, including appropriate measures into River Basin, inter alia, transboundary, Management Plans. Therefore we clearly see the necessity to coordinate the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive at the Baltic Sea regional level permanently inviting third countries to join the process actively. “Taking on board” Belarus and Ukraine and cooperation with HELCOM observer countries are key-words to success.
To prevent pollution by hazardous substances Latvia supports targets and actions being to great extent in line with targets and actions set by EU chemicals policy and regulatory framework REACH, as well as international conventions and SAICM process.
Dear Colleagues,
Enhanced maritime safety and sustainability of sea transport have always been principal priorities for Latvia. Therefore we support the joint submission by the HELCOM Contracting States to IMO to address environmental problems such as air pollution and sewage from ships solution of which goes beyond regional and national limits. The same can be said about ratification of international conventions and agreements just keeping in mind that efficiency of these actions will be as high as efficiency of methods of their implementation and technologies chosen. The set target dates even we agree on challenging ones should be balanced also with economical development and aspects of competitiveness of the region.
Marine biodiversity and designation of marine protected areas is priority of nature protection in Latvia. Nevertheless, we strongly believe that designation of new protected areas should be not only scientifically justified, but should also be based on wide participation of public and relevant stakeholders. The application of participatory principle is especially important to jointly develop common cross-sectoral marine spatial planning principles by HELCOM in close cooperation with relevant international bodies.
Monitoring and evaluation of the status of implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan is an important aspect taking account the political significance of the Plan. But we are living in time when better regulation and synergies are the key-words and in many positive cases the comprehensive approach to simplify governance. Therefore, we hope that Implementation Group will manage its tasks according to these basic principles.
Finally, I would like to thank our host Minister for inviting us and organising this significant meeting and the city of Krakow for so warm welcome.