Baltic "should lead EU drive for cleaner seas"

1990, 25/11/05

An informal meeting of Nordic environment ministers has called for the Baltic Sea to be made a "pilot project" under the newly drafted EU marine environment strategy (ED 24/10/05 http://www.environmentdaily.com/19682).

Swedish environment minister Lena Sommestad, who chaired the meeting in Stockholm on Wednesday, said the strategy was potentially "an effective and powerful instrument" through which the Baltic might become "a test area where ambitious measures show the rest of the EU the way forward with an aggressive environmental policy".

The Helsinki commission (Helcom) and the EU decided earlier this year to draw up an action plan for the Baltic Sea by 2007. In her concluding remarks, Ms Sommestad suggested that "early delivery of joint and national strategies" could help "bridge the gap to neighbouring countries, who are not member states of the EU".

Major problems in the Baltic identified at the meeting included eutrophication, hazardous substances, environmental impacts of shipping and threats to fish stocks, all exacerbated by low salinity and slow water renewal in the unusually shallow sea.

Follow-up: Helsinki Commission http://www.helcom.fi/, tel: +358 9 62 20 22 35,

and press releases one http://www.helcom.fi/press_office/news_helcom/en_GB/HELCOMinputToStockholmMin/,

two http://www.helcom.fi/press_office/news_helcom/en_GB/MONAS8meeting101006/

and three http://www.helcom.fi/press_office/news_baltic/en_GB/StocholmMinisterial361526/.

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