BALTHAZAR Project focusing on pollution inputs from Russia into the Baltic holds inaugural meeting

Helsinki, 9 June (HELCOM Information Service) – The Steering Group of a new HELCOM Project  - BALTHAZAR, dealing with pollution inputs from Russia into the Baltic, convened its inaugural meeting today in Helsinki to discuss planned activities, data collection, as well as collaboration with other projects in this field. The two-year BALTHAZAR Project with a EUR 2,5 million budget which is part-financed by the European Parliament pilot project facility mainly focuses on the issue of hazardous waste and nutrient run-off from large industrial agricultural installations from St. Petersburg, the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions in Russia.

The Meeting participants included high-level representatives of the federal and regional Russian authorities, officials from the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, the European Commission, the Ministry of Environment of Sweden, representatives of IFIs, private foundations, as well as experts and consultants from Russia, Finland and Sweden. 

“The implementation of the Project will facilitate the achievement of the environmental objectives of the hazardous substances and eutrophication segments of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to restore the health of the marine environment by 2021 through assisting the development of national implementation programmes and prioritising necessary measures,” said Igor Maydanov, Chairman of HELCOM. ”The Project will build upon existing knowledge, experience and expertise on the problem of hazardous and agricultural wastes in North West Russia, being obtained both from already accomplished projects and information on activities in this field available from the relevant Russian authorities.”

The inaugural Meeting was held jointly with the RUSNIP Project, which is being implemented by Sweden and Russia and focuses on eutrophication and mitigation of nutrient losses in the most cost-efficient way, addressing primarily municipal, industrial and rural wastewaters in Russia, and aims to strengthen the capacity of Russian authorities to meet the requirements of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. The BALTHAZAR and RUSNIP projects have agreed to join the steering functions under this joint Steering Group to enhance coordination between the two projects, especially as both projects feature a strong authority and stakeholder dimension to anchor the project results in the work for the national implementation programmes to achieve the objectives of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan.

“It is important to ensure the availability of data and necessary information to carry out the planned activities within the EU-financed pilot project BALTHAZAR and RUSNIP, said Igor Maydanov, HELCOM’s Chairman in his opening remarks. “Good data in the first phase of the projects will enable a good inventory of the most important pollution sources and will help targeting the actions in the most cost effective way. Based on the inventories and prioritisation of pollution sites, we foresee that the Second Meeting of the steering group, planned for the end of this year, will decide which pilot projects should be chosen for further elaboration and concrete investments to reduce pollution.”

The Meeting considered the first results of the “field-work” from the BALTHAZAR Project’s assigned consultants. Based on their first interim reports, the consultants reflected on initial experiences in data acquisition with regard to components 1) hazardous waste, and 2) agricultural waste. Participants also discussed the results of the start-up of the RUSNIP Project, and the Finnish-Russian PRIMER Project which aims to identify priority measures to reduce eutrophication in the Gulf of Finland.

“Based on these presentations the Meeting considered the interaction of the BALTHAZAR, RUSNIP and the PRIMER Projects and decided on how to best facilitate the resources and aims of these projects and to eventually use the results to reach the common goal – less eutrophication and hazardous waste pollution in the Baltic Sea,” says Kaj Forsius, BALTHAZAR Project Manager. “All of the projects that were presented at our meeting today have a common aim: to support the development of the Russian national implementation programmes (NIP) to reach the goals of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan.” HELCOM Member States are expected to present their NIPs at the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting which will be arranged in May 2010 in Moscow under the Russian HELCOM Chairmanship.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. 

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary

HELCOM
Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi