10.02.2010

Helsinki

Speech by Mr. Igor Maydanov, Chairman of HELCOM

at the Baltic Sea Action Summit Working Lunch

10 February 2010, Finlandia Hall, Helsinki

Your Majesty,

Your Excellencies, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In my capacity, as Chairman of HELCOM, I want to express my deep gratitude to President Tarja Halonen, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and the Baltic Sea Action Group for hosting this Summit. It has immense value for the success of HELCOM’s work to re-create a healthy marine environment. The Summit aims to obtain concrete and meaningful commitments from the public and the private sector for the recovery of the Baltic Sea which will support the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. Only by joining forces with all the stakeholders can we achieve the objectives of this strategic HELCOM action plan to drastically reduce pollution to the sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021.

The implementation of the overarching HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan is considered an initiative of the highest political importance for the Baltic Sea region as the long term economic and social well-being of the 85 million people living in the catchment area of the Baltic Sea highly depends on the state of the marine environment. The HELCOM action plan focuses on the region’s most urgent environmental problem – the continuing eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, caused by the excessive nutrient loads of nitrogen and phosphorus that are entering the sea mainly in run-off from farmland and inadequately treated sewage. Among other major challenges is pollution by hazardous substances, habitat destruction and the decline of biodiversity, as well as reaching a sufficient level of maritime safety in the region. According to the latest available data, currently an overall reduction in nutrient pollution load has been observed for the whole Baltic Sea. Certain countries have made significant progress towards their provisional nutrient pollution reduction targets. But the overall situation is still unacceptable. Excessive pollution loads of nitrogen and phosphorus from land continue to drive overgrowth of algae and extension of lifeless bottoms in most of the Baltic Sea sub-basins. We need to react fast and use those measures to reduce pollution which are indicated in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to reduce pollution. Failure to act now would undermine both the prospects for the future recovery of the sea, and a vital resource for the future economic prosperity of the whole region. If we don’t act now, we will have to do tenfold later, if it won’t be all too late.

I see the Baltic Sea Action Summit as an excellent preparation for the May 2010 HELCOM Ministerial Meeting in Moscow, which will be a stocktaking of the current status of implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. This HELCOM Ministerial Meeting will be a landmark event that will catalyze national commitments and launch full-scale actions towards the restoration of the Baltic marine environment. In Moscow, the HELCOM Member States will present their National Implementation Programmes on how they are to implement actions to curb eutrophication and halt the inputs of hazardous substances. These programmes should include concrete measures to reach the provisional country-wise nutrient pollution reduction targets as set in the Baltic Sea Action Plan. I can state that it is – maybe to a greater extent than expected - a challenging task, and many compromises have to be made. I very much hope that this Summit will give the much needed impulse and high-level political support to the preparatory work being done in every coastal country. With the National Implementation Programmes in place, the work to further decrease pollution loads to the sea will pick up pace considerably.

The upcoming HELCOM Moscow Ministerial Meeting will also offer a good opportunity to view the status report on the implementation of the actions within the fields of nature protection and maritime safety and response to accidents at sea. The maritime-related actions focus on further enforcement of shipping regulations, improving safety of navigation and reducing pollution from ships. Let me mention here commitments to speed-up hydrographic re-surveys of all marine areas important for safety of navigation, designate the Baltic Sea as a NOx emission control area within the framework of the International Maritime Organization whereby stricter international regulations for ships emissions would apply, and to enhance port reception facilities for sewage in major passenger ports as a follow-up of the joint proposal by the HELCOM countries to the same International Maritime Organization to ban discharges of untreated sewage from passenger ships operating in the Baltic Sea.

Additionally, a major holistic assessment of the status of the Baltic marine environment will be released at the Ministerial Meeting. This assessment is being prepared to support the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. All National Implementation Programmes will be measured against this assessment.

Concluding I would like to say that the success of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan will largely depend on how all the coastal countries and involved stakeholders, including international financial institutions, can co-operate to achieve the goal of a healthy Baltic Sea environment. The overall state of the Baltic Sea can only be further improved through our combined efforts and integrated actions. And HELCOM has a very important role in ensuring that all combined efforts are effective. And that is why it is a pleasure to acknowledge that this event brings together leaders of the coastal countries, representatives of business communities, and various organizations from all around the Baltic Sea – all with the same aim: timely and successfully achieving a healthy Baltic Sea. 

Thank you for your attention.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to 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:

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)46 8509196

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 645

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi