Sweden launches marine environment strategy

Environment Daily 1914, 05/07/05

Swedish environment minister Lena Sommestad has announced the introduction of a national strategy that she describes as "a new way of working with questions concerning the marine environment and making government coordination on the marine environment more effective".

Coordinating and advisory groups are to be set up under the environmental protection authority (EPA) charged with drawing up action plans.  These will cover issues including "the occurrence and dissemination of dioxins and PCBs from the sea to other ecosystems", medical residues in municipal waste water, and oxygen starvation in the Baltic sea, the government said on Friday.

Intensified regional collaboration within the EU was an important element in the strategy, particularly as "eight out of nine Baltic people are now involved in the Union", Ms Sommestad added.  The European Commission is due to propose an EU thematic strategy on the marine environment after the summer.

Follow-up: Swedish government http://www.regeringen.se/, and press release http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/5659/a/47254.