Helcom : New project to improve HELCOM countries’ readiness to respond to an environmental disaster at sea

09.01.2009

Press release

New project to improve HELCOM countries’ readiness to respond to an environmental disaster at sea

Helsinki, 9 January (HELCOM Information Service) – HELCOM is launching a strategic project aiming at considerably improving its Member States’ readiness to respond to major spills of oil and hazardous substances from shipping in the Baltic.

The Baltic Sea coastal countries already have substantial resources to effectively respond to pollution at sea in the region. Operational procedures for joint, international response operations have been put in place within the framework of the Helsinki Commission. “But the project for Sub-regional risk of spill of oil and hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea (BRISK) will advance this co-operation to an even higher level,” says Commander Peter Søberg Poulsen of the Admiral Danish Fleet HQ, who will serve as the project manager. “BRISK is considered as part of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to drastically reduce pollution to the sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021, and particularly HELCOM Recommendation 28E/12 on “Strengthening of sub-regional co-operation in response field.”

A comprehensive Baltic-wide analysis will be done within BRISK to check whether the existing emergency and response capacities in each sub-region of the Baltic are sufficient to tackle medium-size and large spills. Based on the risk assessments, the Project will identify missing resources and will help prepare a concrete investment plan on how the Baltic Sea countries should jointly fill in the identified gaps.

“The sub-regional approach when building the response capacities is the most cost-efficient as countries can “share” their resources to build a common pool of response vessels and equipment sufficient for a given sub-region,” says Monika Stankiewicz, Professional Secretary for maritime and response issues at HELCOM. “Through these activities the Project will substantially and in a concrete way contribute to the development of an appropriate level of preparedness in the whole Baltic Sea area.”

Institutions and organizations from all the Baltic Sea countries will participate in BRISK. The project area will cover all transnational maritime areas in the Baltic, divided into 6 sub-regions.

The Kick-off Meeting to launch BRISK will be held on 13-14 January 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Project partners will discuss in detail their responsibilities and tasks within the Project and will set out a work plan for its implementation. A Finance Officer from the Joint Technical Secretariat of the INTERREG Programme will participate as well to clarify budgetary issues. The Meeting will be hosted by the Lead Partner of the Project, the Admiral Danish Fleet.

BRISK is co-financed by the European Union. The Project has been approved for financing by the Baltic Sea Region Programme (BSRP) 2007-2013 and its total budget amounts to around EUR 3.5 million, with approximately EUR 2.7 million to be allocated from the European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument. BRISK has been chosen as one of the strategic projects within the Baltic Sea Region Programme due to its importance for the sustainable development of the Baltic Sea Region.

Note to Editors:

The Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation between the countries bordering the sea - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and also the European Community.

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

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