HELCOM to adopt the Baltic Sea Action Plan at a Ministerial Meeting in Krakow

Helsinki, 19 December (HELCOM Information Service) – The Helsinki Commission will convene a special Meeting of the Environmental Ministers of the Member States to adopt the Baltic Sea Action Plan on 14-15 November 2007 in Krakow, Poland. This was officially announced today by the Executive Secretary of HELCOM Anne Christine Brusendorff, following the decisions of the 20^th Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the HELCOM Member States, held on 14-15 December.

The Meeting of the Heads of Delegation approved in general the outline of the new environmental strategy to restore the Baltic marine environment, now being developed by HELCOM. Representatives of the coastal countries also decided to speed up the work on some of the remaining issues, such as specific actions to curb eutrophication and pollution by hazardous substances, as well as the cost-benefit analysis of the actions, which is of crucial importance for the successful finalization of the plan.

“The adoption of the ambitious but realistic Action Plan will be a critical milestone in our combined efforts to rescue the troubled Baltic Sea,” said Anne Christine Brusendorff.  “There is still a lot to do to finalise the plan by the Ministerial Meeting in Krakow, but we are very committed and confident that in the end HELCOM will succeed in designing a realistic environmental policy and an effective set of measures that will ultimately make the Baltic Sea a more environmentally sound and healthier place.”

By the end of this year, Poland, which is currently chairing HELCOM, will send an official invitation to the Ministers of the Environment of all the nine Baltic Sea countries, EU Environment Commissioner, as well as several countries in the Baltic Sea catchment area to participate in the Krakow Ministerial Meeting, said Brusendorff.

The Helsinki Commission today also announced  that it will hold a Second Stakeholder Conference on the development of the Baltic Sea Action Plan on 6 March 2007 in Helsinki, Finland, prior to the annual Commission’s Meeting, to inform on the progress in the elaboration of the new environmental strategy. “The recent Meeting of the Heads of Delegation agreed that the outline of actions to be included in the new HELCOM strategy should be already presented at the Second Stakeholder Conference in March,” said Brusendorff.   

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 14-15 November 2007 in Krakow, Poland. 

The annual HELCOM meeting in March 2006 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