Press release
Preparation of HELCOM’s Baltic recovery plan enters final stage
Helsinki, 30 March (HELCOM Information Service) – The Helsinki Commission’s international ad hoc Task Force on the development of the Baltic Sea Action Plan will convene its Fifth Meeting on 2-3 April in Helsinki to further elaborate the set of measures for the ambitious new strategy to reduce pollution to the Baltic Sea and restore its good ecological status. This Meeting will open a final series of consultations and drafting sessions before the adoption of the Baltic Sea Action Plan at the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting, scheduled for 15 November in Krakow, Poland.
“Following the 2nd Stakeholder Conference in March, where we unveiled the blue print for action in the Baltic, and the 28th annual HELCOM Meeting, which provided strategic guidelines to its further development, this Task Force Meeting begins the final countdown towards the launch of the holistic new strategy to rescue the Baltic Sea,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “Time is very short, and the task is still quite huge. During this last and most crucial development phase, we will need not only to complete all outstanding details of the action plan, but also design a set of effective and wide-ranging actions which will in reality help us solve major problems troubling the Baltic. The most critical ingredient for success in this mission is strong political commitment from all HELCOM Member States,” says Brusendorff.
The Meeting of the HELCOM Task Force will focus on agreeing on the individual actions which already have been outlined in the initial draft of the action plan, as well as those contained in documents to be submitted by the Lead Countries. Currently, 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 identification of concrete actions for the plan’s segment on combating eutrophication is expected to top the agenda of the Meeting. Particularly, representatives of the coastal countries will look into cost-effective solutions to reduce inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus to the sea.
The Task Force will also discuss the overall structure of the plan. Currently, the preliminary document consists of four major parts. The first is a preamble, explaining the purpose of the plan and describing its core policy, which is based on the application of the innovative ecosystem approach to environmental management. This is detailed by a set of strategic goals and ecological objectives defined by HELCOM for achieving a commonly acceptable good status of the marine environment, as well as a number of environmental indicators and target levels for each objective to measure progress towards achieving good ecological status of the sea.
The second part of the document is the action part, describing measures for eutrophication, hazardous substances, biodiversity and maritime activities. Each of the four segments contains 1) a short description of the problem area; 2) a listing of the ecological objectives and indicators with target levels used to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the plan; 3) a set of actions needed to achieve the desired state of the marine environment; and 4) an evaluation mechanism to measure the implementation status of the actions and a review mechanism for the plan itself.
Two additional parts included in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan are on the financing of the actions and on public awareness rising.
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:
Mr. Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary
HELCOM
Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639
E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi