HELCOM countries to review progress on the development of the Baltic recovery strategy

Helsinki, 18 June (HELCOM Information Service) - The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (Helsinki Commission) will convene its 21^st Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the Member States on 20-21 June in Helsinki, Finland, to discuss working programmes, intersessional work, and ongoing projects.

The development of the overarching HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to drastically reduce pollution in the Baltic Sea and restore its good ecological status will top the agenda of the two-day Meeting. Representatives of the coastal countries will  review the progress on the drafting of concrete measures for the strategy, make suggestions for revisions and further elaboration, and provide guidance to the work of the ad hoc Task Force for the action plan.

“The coastal countries have already done an impressive amount of work creating this ambitious strategy which would lead to the recovery of the Baltic marine environment by 2021. We have devised a joint policy with a vision of a healthy sea at its core, as well as an outline of actions to solve the main problems affecting the sea,” said Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “However, overall progress has been uneven and slower than envisaged because of the many details which need to be agreed by the coastal countries. We very much hope that this meeting will provide a decisive impulse to accelerate the work on the development of the plan, which is scheduled to be adopted in November”, said Brusendorff.

The Heads of Delegation of the HELCOM Member States will also discuss the activities of HELCOM subsidiary Groups, as well as working programmes and ongoing projects including the GEF/World Bank funded Baltic Sea Regional Project (BSRP), and the implementation of the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme (JCP).

The recovery of major pollution hot spots in the Baltic Sea coastal countries will be one of the key issues. It is expected that the Meeting will make a final decision on the deletion of the Waste Water Treatment Plant in Tychy Urbanowice in Poland from the list of the Baltic Sea most significant pollution source hot spots. This plant has made major investments in waste water treatment techniques resulting in significant reduction of pollution and now fulfils the HELCOM requirements for municipal waste waters. Currently, a total of 81 hot spots and sub-hot spots remain on the list, following the deletion of 81 of the earlier identified 162 hot spots/sub-hot spots.

The Meeting is expected to endorse two new HELCOM Recommendations. The first one deals with reduction of emissions from crematoria, setting emission limits for mercury and other harmful substances to the air. Crematoria’s are considered as a significant point source for mercury emissions in many of the Baltic Sea countries. The second Recommendation is on harmonization of methods of sampling and reporting the amount and type of marine litter on the beach within the Baltic Sea region as part of a global initiative to assess the impact of marine litter. If approved, both Recommendations will be submitted for adoption at the annual Helsinki Commission Meeting in March 2008.

Representatives of the coastal countries will consider a project proposal for further development of the STW/AIS system for identifying ships suspected of illegally discharging oil into the sea. This integrated system is based on the Seatrack Web (STW) oil drift forecasting system and the information provided by the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for monitoring maritime traffic in the Baltic Sea. By combining data on ships’ routes from the AIS with reversed calculations of the pathways of oil slicks based on the Seatrack Web system, it is possible to identify illegal dischargers with high probability, thus providing better evidence for the courts. In order to serve its purpose to the fullest possible extent and to improve the likelihood of identification of polluters, further development of STW/AIS and integration with other information systems is needed. Experts hope that by improving the AIS functionality in the system and integrating satellite imagery information this system will provide additional tools for identifying ships that illegally discharge oil into the Baltic Sea.

In addition, representatives of the Baltic Sea countries are expected to consider possible HELCOM’s contribution to the EU Maritime Green Paper, which constitutes a first step towards the establishment of an all-embracing EU Maritime Policy. The European Commission has encouraged all European stakeholders to respond to the consultation on the Green Paper by 30 June 2007. The aim of HELCOM’s contribution is to make its views known to the European Commission on what a maritime policy should include.   

The Meeting of the Heads of Delegation will take place at the premises of the HELCOM Secretariat in Helsinki. It will be opened by the Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Prof. Mieczyslaw S. Ostojski.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, more usually known 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:

Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel.: + 358 (0)207 412 635

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi