HELCOM to hold its first meeting under the Swedish Chairmanship

Helsinki, 12 August (HELCOM Information Service) - The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) will convene its 33rd Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the Member States on 23-24 August in Stockholm to review the activities of all HELCOM Subsidiary Groups, and to discuss working programmes, intersessional work and ongoing projects. 

The facilitation of joint activities to re-create a healthy Baltic marine environment will be a key part of the agenda of this first HELCOM meeting under the two-year Swedish Chairmanship, which began on 1 July 2010. “Stockholm has already indicated that the implementation of the strategic HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to radically reduce pollution to the sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021 will be a top priority during the Swedish Chairmanship,” says HELCOM’s Chairlady, Ms. Gabriella Lindholm. “And we would like to see strong commitment of the coastal countries to and continued support from the highest political level in the region for the urgent and efficient measures to reverse the continued degradation of the marine environment.”

The Meeting is expected to decide on how to conduct the assessment of the National Implementation Programmes (NIPs) to achieve the objectives of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. “The representatives of the coastal countries and the EU will particularly consider the draft Terms of Reference for the assessment of the efficiency of the identified national priority measures,” says HELCOM’s Executive Secretary, Ms. Anne Christine Brusendorff. These programmes to combat eutrophication and pollution by hazardous substances were presented by the HELCOM countries at the Moscow Ministerial Meeting on 20 May 2010. “As the NIPs were delivered only to the Ministerial Meeting it was not possible to make an assessment against the requirements in the action plan, and for this reason it was decided that such an assessment should be made later, in co-operation with the International Financial Institutions and other stakeholders, taking into account available funding programmes, and with the aim to identify, facilitate and speed up the preparation of bankable projects,” explains Ms. Brusendorff. “The assessment should be presented at the high-level segment during the annual HELCOM Meeting in March 2011.”

The Meeting of the HELCOM Heads of Delegation will also consider the development of core set indicators with quantitative targets for eutrophication, biodiversity and hazardous substances segments of the Baltic Sea Action Plan under the HELCOM CORESET and HELCOM TARGREV projects, and the joint Advisory Board for the two projects. The HELCOM countries have agreed that a review of the Baltic Sea Action Plan environmental targets for eutrophication, the maximum allowable nutrient inputs and the reduction targets, as well as the country-wise reduction targets including updated information on the atmospheric nitrogen deposition should be carried out by 2012. The parties have also agreed that a full indicator-based follow-up system for the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan will be developed and placed on the HELCOM website by 2013.

Among other major issues, the Meeting in Stockholm will discuss an updated joint proposal to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to designate the Baltic Sea a “special area” for the prevention of pollution from sewage from passenger ships. The proposal includes amendments to Annex IV of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention) to ban the discharge of sewage from passenger ships and ferries in the Baltic Sea unless it has been sufficiently treated to remove nutrients or delivered to port reception facilities. Excessive inputs of nutrients are the cause behind the biggest environmental problem of the Baltic Sea, which is eutrophication. The nutrient pollution loads originating from wastewater discharges from ships, even though rather small in terms of quantities, are not negligible due to being released directly to the open sea environment prone to algal blooms. IMO has requested some supplementary information to be provided by the Baltic Sea countries for discussing the issue further at the 61st session of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee. The new proposed regulations include a provision that a “special area” status will become effective for the Baltic Sea only when HELCOM countries notify IMO on availability of adequate port reception facilities for sewage in their ports.

The representatives of the coastal countries are expected to consider the status of the ambitious on-going work to produce threat status assessments on species and habitats, work that is being carried out in the HELCOM Red List Project, and advise how to fulfil the tasks of the project. Additionally, the Meeting will discuss the launch of two new working bodies of HELCOM, namely the Agriculture/Environment Forum and the Joint HELCOM/VASAB Working Group on maritime spatial planning, that were agreed upon at the Ministerial Meeting in Moscow. They will facilitate further joint efforts to curb nutrient runoff to the Baltic and to secure long-term sustainable management and planning for the whole Baltic Sea, respectively. Both expert bodies are expected to start their work in autumn 2010.

The Meeting of the Heads of Delegation will be chaired by Ms. Lindholm.

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)46 850 9196
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 645

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi