Statement

1.03.2005

Helsinki, Finland

Statement by the Executive Secretary of HELCOM, Ms Anne Christine Brusendorff at the opening of the 26th annual Meeting of the Helsinki Commission

Last year was a year of tremendous political change in the Baltic region due to the EU enlargement. This also had a profound impact to the environmental priorities of the Contracting Parties and thus the focus of HELCOM’s work.

Last year was also the year when the political position of HELCOM was further strengthened. This is especially true regarding the development of the EU Marine Strategy where HELCOM activities were presented. HELCOM also put a lot of emphasis on co-operation with the Russian Federation. I met with the Russian Deputy Minister of Environment to discuss HELCOM’s future role. On a more practical level I should mention the arrangements for the Baltic Sea Day in St. Petersburg later this month. Amongst the topics to be discussed in St.Petersburg are the European Marine Strategy and the implementation of the principles of the EU Water Framework Directive in the Russia Federation. Likewise, efforts have been directed to other non-EU partners - the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Belarus, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. I met with the Belarusian Minister of the Environment to further anchor the cooperation between Belarus and HELCOM. And, I will shortly be meeting the Czech Minister of the Environment. HELCOM also manifested its role in the world-wide picture; our experiences were shared with other UNEP regional seas action programmes.

But, in my statement today, I would like to focus on three more specific issues:

• firstly, on HELCOM’s role as the “mouthpiece” of the Baltic, pursuing joint Baltic- specific actions within EU;
• secondly - and closely related to the former - how HELCOM is about to find her feet within a chain of interlinking activities; and
• thirdly, the increased focus within HELCOM on time-specific intersessional activities with concrete outputs.

Let me begin with the role of HELCOM as “mouthpiece” of the Baltic. Three concrete activities have taken place during 2004:

• we elaborated an outline for the Second Stakeholder Conference on the European Marine Strategy in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in November;
• we agreed on input for the elaboration of the EU strategy on mercury, stressing the Baltic specific needs; and last
• we coordinated input to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) on the specific requirements for an additional “EMSA response ship” to be located in the Baltic.

During this meeting we will be considering how HELCOM, as such, on top of the information provided by each Contracting Party, can provide input of additional value in relation to hazardous substances. I would like you to consider the role of HELCOM as a provider of information jointly from all states in the catchment area - thus including also non-EU States - and in this way ensure that all pressures on the Baltic Sea are being considered.

As to the second issue - the chain of interlinking activities - I would like to point to the ongoing work in the field of biodiversity and eutrophication. A red list of threatened and endangered species is being compiled. The final aim of this list is to serve as an input to the revision of the EU Birds and Habitat Directives. This is also strongly linked to the ongoing work under the HELCOM BSPA Project, whose aims is to ensure that we have a coherent ecological network of marine protected areas in the Baltic Sea - one component in this assessment being that we actually through this network protect the species on our evolving red list. The BSPA Project will also give us a toolbox for evaluating whether the management measures taken in these areas are serving the purpose of their establishment, and in this way serve as an example of the implementation of the ecosystem approach on a small scale. And, hopefully, this will also lay the ground for further work in the field of biodiversity, such as a more comprehensive assessment of the ecosystem and processes in the Baltic, not merely based on the status of species easy visible to the eye or commercially exploitable.

Our HELCOM EUTRO Project will provide us with an initial thematic eutrophication assessment report, testing in practise the Ecological Objectives and associated indicators on eutrophication. Through this work we will develop sub-regional background values for the open seas of the Baltic. We will ensure a tight link to the ongoing work under the Water Framework Directive for coastal waters through close cooperation with their “Baltic Group on Ecological Quality Assessment”. In addition, we will provide Baltic specific input to the European Marine Strategy Working Group on Monitoring and Assessment for which joint assessment criteria are to be used when producing a regional specific assessment on eutrophication.

This leads me to my third issue: Many of the above-mentioned activities are being carried out in projects established for a certain purpose with a limited life-time. In the Secretariat we have experienced this as a major inflow of “saline water” - having young, eager and very qualified scientists in our team. For HELCOM as such, this has boosted the inter-sessional activities and the inputs to and deliberations in our permanent working structure. Looking ahead and bearing in mind that we - during the up-coming HOD meeting in June this year - will discuss how to bring down the surplus in the Working Capital Fund (previously known as Special Fund), I hope that this will be one way of - not only financially getting HELCOM on the right track - but also substantively increasing the output of HELCOM’s work and adding to the credibility of HELCOM as a heavyweight actress in the region.

Through our work we should ensure that HELCOM is seen as THE organization working for the protection, conservation and sustainable use of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea Area - and in this way also gain the confidence of those relying on it either for pleasure or for work.

To this end I vest a lot of importance to the current development of Ecological Objectives by which we try to operationalise our vision of a healthy Baltic Sea - integrating all activities that have an influence on our common sea. I see this as a big task, not only for us present at this meeting but also in the sense that in order to be truly comprehensive we need to involve all stakeholders into this process - linking actors from the governments, the industry, the finance and the civil sectors. Only when we manage to do this can we claim that we have established a common Baltic Sea regional identity which cares for the well-being of our sea and guides the development of a coordinated initiative where equal love is given to our three children; the economic, environmental and social child.

I wish for us to have an open and fruitful discussion during this meeting - thus establishing an even more solid basis for our further deliberations of obtaining a healthy Baltic Sea.

For more information contact:

Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

Helsinki Commission

Katajanokanlaituri 6 B

FI-00160 Helsinki, Finland

Tel. (dir.): + 358 9 6220 2235

Fax: +358 9 6220 2239

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi