HELCOM to update pollution reduction requirements of the Baltic recovery plan

Helsinki, 2 June (HELCOM Information Service) - The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) will convene its 26th Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the Member States on 4-5 June in Helsinki, Finland, to discuss working programmes and intersessional work.

The implementation of the overarching HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to drastically reduce pollution in the Baltic Sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021, which was adopted last year, will be the topmost issue on the Agenda of the Meeting. The Heads of Delegation will consider the status of the work on updating the nutrient reduction requirements of the action plan. The HELCOM countries have agreed that the current environmental and nutrient reduction targets in the plan are provisional and that all the figures related to targets and maximum allowable nutrient inputs should be periodically reviewed and revised using a harmonised approach based on updated information and starting in 2008. “The Meeting will consider different alternatives for better inclusion of airborne nitrogen deposition in the calculations,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “Discussions are expected to focus on airborne pollution load data submitted by the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP), and the possibility of getting source-oriented results necessary for the further work on the implementation of the plan’s eutrophication segment.”

Representatives of the coastal countries will review the work of the Baltic Sea Action Plan Implementation Group (BSAP IG), which will also hold a meeting on 4 June. Currently, the major focus of BSAP IG is on the eutrophication segment of the plan. The Group is elaborating a comprehensive list of municipal waste water treatment plants (MWWTPs). This is considered as one of the priority projects for the successful implementation of the action plan. MWWTPs are one of the major causes of eutrophication, contributing one third of the total nutrient load to the Baltic Sea. Mitigation of their excessive nutrient load is recognised as one of the priority actions due to its relative cost efficiency and easiness to monitor the progress. The Implementation Group has agreed a step-wise approach in order to elaborate a comprehensive list of MWWTPs, in which plants discharging directly to the Baltic Sea and the ones located within a 50 km coastal strip and not yet fulfilling relevant HELCOM requirements are addressed as the first step in project prioritisation.

BSAP IG is also compiling a list of the agricultural pollution hot spots not fulfilling the HELCOM requirements. Agriculture remains a major source of nutrient inputs to the Baltic Sea and is mainly considered a diffuse source of pollution as the nutrients affecting the Baltic Sea enter indirectly via runoff in the watershed area. The impacts of agriculture can be reduced by means of broad application of Good Agricultural Practices at farmlands within the catchment of the Baltic Sea. Nevertheless, intensified development of industrial production of cattle, pigs and poultry within the Baltic Sea area has led to the creation of a new type of [m1] pollution point sources, contributing significantly to the amount of nutrient loads. Establishment of the list of agricultural priority hot spots to be remediated first will help to focus actions and measures on most cost-efficient sites.

The Heads of Delegation of the HELCOM Member States will also review the activities of all HELCOM Subsidiary Groups, as well as working programmes and ongoing projects, including the implementation of the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme (JCP).

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 and to ensure safety of navigation. 

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