HELCOM set to approve an initial outline of the Baltic Sea Action Plan

Helsinki, 12 December (HELCOM Information Service) – The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (Helsinki Commission) will convene its 20th Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the Member States on 14-15 December in Helsinki, Finland, to discuss working programmes, intersessional work, and ongoing projects.

The ongoing development of the strategic HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to restore the marine environment of the Baltic Sea will be the focus of the two-day Meeting. Representatives of the coastal countries will consider the proposed outline of actions that the Baltic Sea countries must put in place to further reduce pollution in the Baltic Sea and repair the damage done to the marine environment.

“The development of the action plan is proceeding quite well, and all countries are participating in this process. This clearly manifests the coastal countries’ commitment to put into effect a set of effective concrete measures to achieve a shared goal of a healthy Baltic Sea with diverse biological components functioning in balance and supporting a wide range of sustainable economic and social activities,” said Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary.

Currently, all HELCOM Member States are involved in the work to identify actions for the four segments of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Acting as Lead Countries, Finland and Latvia are drafting possible activities needed to curb eutrophication, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden - to prevent pollution involving hazardous substances, Denmark and Russia - to improve maritime safety and oil pollution response capacity, and Estonia and Poland - to halt habitat destruction and the decline in biodiversity.

The Meeting will also discuss the preparation of the Second Stakeholder Conference on the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan which will be held in March 2007. The aim of the Conference is to introduce the first draft of the action plan, inform on the purpose and foreseen actions within the strategy to restore the Baltic marine environment, and to get input and commitments to its implementation at the local, national, and regional levels as well as from the private sector. The finalised action plan will be adopted at a HELCOM Ministerial Meeting scheduled to take place on 15 November 2007 in Krakow, Poland.

Other than the Baltic Sea Action Plan, issues under discussion throughout the Meeting will include ongoing projects, including the GEF/World Bank funded Baltic Sea Regional Project, as well as the activities of the HELCOM subsidiary Working Groups.

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. This will be the first Meeting of the Heads of Delegation under the current Polish Chairmanship of HELCOM, and for this occasion the Minister of the Environment of Poland, Prof. Jan Szyszko will also attend the Meeting.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, more usually known as 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," known as the Helsinki Convention.

In 2005, the Helsinki Commission resolved to create a Baltic Sea Action Plan, which would set out a new strategy to reduce pollution and reverse the marine environment degradation. The concept of this ambitious plan of actions, which has already been widely heralded as a pilot project for the European seas under the newly drafted EU Marine Strategy, will provide a unique opportunity to take wide-ranging and purposeful actions to achieve the ultimate target of having a healthy marine environment with balanced eco-systems for the benefit of present and future generations.

The consultation process on the development of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan was officially launched at the kick-off Stakeholder Conference held on 7 March 2006 in Helsinki, Finland. After a series of meetings and a final Stakeholder Conference in March 2007, which will look into and review a first draft of a single Baltic Sea Action Plan, the finalised environmental strategy will be adopted at a Ministerial HELCOM meeting, which will take place on 15 November 2007 in Krakow, Poland. 

The international ad hoc Task Force for the development of the Baltic Sea Action Plan was established at the annual HELCOM meeting in March 2006. This meeting also approved the first core elements of the action plan - a common vision of a healthy Baltic Sea and a set of strategic goals and ecological objectives for achieving a commonly acceptable good status of the marine environment.

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