HELCOM facilitates the implementation of the Baltic recovery programme

Helsinki, 8 December (HELCOM Information Service) - The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) will convene its 34th Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the Member States on 8-9 December in Helsinki to review the activities of all HELCOM Subsidiary Groups, and to discuss working programmes, intersessional work and ongoing projects.

The facilitation of activities to re-create a healthy Baltic marine environment by 2021 within the framework of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan will be the topmost issue on the agenda. “The Delegations will discuss the implementation status of the HELCOM action plan and how to accelerate this through the identification of good examples of implementation projects for replication in other countries. Also areas in need of further action, as well as potential projects, will be identified,” says Ms. Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “These success stories will pave the way for the development of a list of future projects to support the implementation of the plan that will be presented at the high-level segment of the annual HELCOM Meeting, which will be held in March 2011.” National Implementation 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.

The Meeting will also consider the outcomes of most recent activities of major HELCOM bodies, including HELCOM MONAS, MARITIME and RESPONSE, as well as various expert and working groups and fora, including the newly established groups to review the situation with dumped chemical munitions in the Baltic Sea (HELCOM MUNI), HELCOM Baltic Agriculture and Environment Forum, and the Joint HELCOM/VASAB Working Group on maritime spatial planning. The latter two 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. The Meeting will review the work of ongoing HELCOM projects, including CORESET, TARGREV, FISH, MORS-PRO, SALAR taking into account their inputs to the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan and the regional co-operation on the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive in the Baltic Sea Region.

Particularly, the Meeting of the HELCOM Heads of Delegation will 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. Activities of these projects and of the Joint Advisory Board are carried out also in order to fulfil the decision that HELCOM will function as the regional coordination platform for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive for those Contracting Parties that are EU member states. 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.

Additionally, 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.

The Meeting will establish a Cooperation Platform on Port Reception Facilities in the Baltic Sea with the aim to promote a dialogue and exchange good practices among national administrations, ports, shipping industry and municipal authorities regarding planning, implementing and operating reception facilities for sewage in passenger ports. Upgrading of port reception facilities is needed in order to enforce the new IMO regulations establishing the Baltic Sea as a special area for discharges of sewage from passenger ships under Annex IV of the MARPOL Convention. The Meeting is also expected to adopt the joint submission of the HELCOM countries to the 55th session of the IMO’s Design and Equipment Sub-Committee with the aim to facilitate the updating of the IMO guidelines on effluent standards for onboard sewage treatment plants in connection with the above mentioned new IMO regulations. 

The HELCOM Member States are also requested to approve a new guidance requesting vessels operating between the North-East Atlantic or the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to conduct on a voluntary basis ballast water exchange in suitable areas in the North-East Atlantic. The Guidance has been proposed by the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea, following similar guidance earlier adopted jointly by HELCOM and OSPAR.

The Meeting will consider how to create the best interaction between various organizations working to achieve good environmental status in the Baltic and the European Seas, and in this way ensure utmost synergy in the implementation of various legal frameworks, global, European and Baltic regional as well as across sectors, such as the environmental and fisheries sectors. Sweden has already come up with a proposal to arrange a joint workshop of OSPAR, HELCOM and ICES for the definition and implementation of good environmental status in the Baltic and North East Atlantic Seas.

The Meeting of the Heads of Delegation will be conducted by the Chairlady of HELCOM, Ms. Gabriella Lindholm.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organization 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