HELCOM RECOMMENDATION 12/1

Adopted 21 February 1991, having regard to Article 13, Paragraph b) of the Helsinki Convention

PROCEDURES FOR GRANTING PERMITS FOR MONITORING AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN THE TERRITORIAL WATERS AND EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONES, FISHING ZONES OR CONTINENTAL SHELVES

THE COMMISSION,

RECALLING the provisions of Articles 4 and 16 of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, 1974, (Helsinki Convention), concerning the application of the Convention and scientific and technological cooperation,

RECALLING ALSO HELCOM Recommendation 9/7 concerning Guidelines for the Baltic Monitoring Programme,

RECALLING FURTHER Paragraph 13 in the Baltic Sea Declaration in which the Heads of Governments and Ministers of the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention, inter alia, declare their firm determination to extend and strengthen the programme of monitoring in order to improve the assessment of the present and future state of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea Area,

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT that proposals on forthcoming multinational experiments vital for the scientific understanding of the Baltic Sea ecosystem and its contaminant load as e.g. in the sediment baseline study scheduled for 1993 and programmes on fluxes of contaminants through the coastal zone would need work in the territorial waters and/or in surface sediments of the exclusive economic zones, fishing zones or continental shelves,

REALIZING the necessity of instant and joint investigations at sudden extreme events as for example the inflow of high salinity water masses into the Baltic Sea or the Chrysochromulina polylepis bloom in Kattegat-Skagerrak 1988,

CONVINCED that a prerequisite for a successful implementation of joint monitoring programmes carried out by the Baltic Sea States is the application of smooth national administrative procedures for granting timely cruise permits for exclusive economic zones, fishing zones, continental shelves or territorial waters,

REGRETTING that no real improvements of the national administrative procedures have been experienced during recent years,

REGRETTING ALSO that the present national administrative practices frequently create major problems for the implementation of joint monitoring programmes,

URGES the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention to grant one year permits for planned research activities in the exclusive economic zones, fishing zones or continental shelves, in the framework of the BMP, during which period the coastal state is only to be notified in advance for each individual cruise,

URGES ALSO the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention to facilitate and without unnecessary delay grant the permits in connection with the BMP and for research vessels for all Baltic Sea States to carry out joint scientific studies of common interest, and to submit to the Environment Committee information about their efforts made in this respect.