HELCOM to consider new activities in support of the Baltic recovery programme

Helsinki, 14 June (HELCOM Information Service) - The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) will convene here today its Meeting of the Heads of Delegation of the Member States to review the activities of all HELCOM Subsidiary Groups, and to discuss working programmes, intersessional work and new and ongoing projects.

Implementation of the overarching HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to re-create a healthy Baltic marine environment by 2021 will top on the Agenda of the two-day meeting. “The Meeting will consider the progress in the development of core indicators for the follow-up of the state of the Baltic Sea,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “HELCOM is creating this set of indicators to enable provisioning of up-to-date information on the HELCOM website on the state of Baltic Sea biodiversity and contamination by hazardous substances, as well as eutrophication.”

In connection to this, the Heads of Delegation will also consider the progress in the review of environmental targets for eutrophication. HELCOM has started this activity to complete the review of the nutrient load reduction targets of the Baltic Sea Action Plan by the end of 2012. This task was put forward already by the 2007 Baltic Sea Action Plan to ensure the use of most recent data and methods in the calculation of maximum allowable loads to the Baltic Sea and the allocation of reduction needs among the HELCOM countries.

According to the Agenda, the Meeting will consider a proposal for a new project on the review of Baltic Sea monitoring programmes of HELCOM by 2013. The purpose of the project is to ensure good coordination of monitoring activities between the coastal countries and in this way also support cost-efficient monitoring practices, and most importantly, the project aims to make sure that the monitoring programmes deliver the data needed for the Baltic-wide core indicators and assessments.

The Heads of Delegation are expected to discuss the project proposal on ”Managing Fisheries in Baltic Marine Protected Areas (BALTFIMPA)” as well as the draft HELCOM Recommendation on conservation of Baltic salmon and sea trout populations by the restoration of their river habitats and management of river fisheries.

The BALTFIMPA Project aims to assist Member States, on a regional level, to comply with their obligations to fulfill conservation objectives of marine protected areas in the Baltic Sea by managing fisheries in a sustainable way and will therefore contribute to the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. The project will produce a toolbox for decision making that will describe and classify the effects of different types of fishing modalities and gear on different types of habitats and protected species within the marine protected areas network in the area of the Helsinki Convention. The project will also include pilot marine protected area cases and focus on stakeholder cooperation, especially with the fisheries sector. The Meeting is expected to launch the inception phase to set up the project and as a self-standing activity, start up the work on the development of the matrix on the impacts of different fisheries activities/gears on Baltic fauna and flora.

The Meeting will  assess the progress in  designating the Baltic Sea as a NOx Emission Control Area (NECA) and agree on how to deal with some specific technical questions in order to have a successful NECA submission to the International Maritime Organization according to the timetable agreed by the HELCOM Member States in March 2011.

The Heads of Delegation will consider the first outcomes of the comprehensive risk assessment of shipping accidents and pollution in the Baltic Sea, conducted within the international BRISK and BRISK-RU projects. The aim of these projects is to enhance preparedness and capabilities of the coastal countries to respond to major accidental spills.

The continuing recovery of major pollution hot spots in the Baltic Sea coastal countries will be also an important issue on the Agenda. The Meeting will review progress in the reduction of pollution from several municipal and industrial hot spots in Lithuania, and consider their deletion from the Baltic Sea's major polluters list. They include wastewater treatment plants in Kaunas, Kedainiai, Palanga, and also the former Mazeikiai oil refinery - Orlen Lietuva.

The Hot Spots List of the most significant point sources of pollution around the Baltic Sea was first drawn up under the HELCOM Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme (JCP) in 1992. Currently, a total of 72 hot spots and sub-hot spots remain on the list of the Baltic Sea's most significant pollution sources, following the deletion of 90 of the earlier identified 162 hot spots/sub-hot spots. Assessment of the JCP progress will be also discussed at the Meeting.

Additionally, the Heads of Delegation will discuss the Criteria for the HELCOM Green Baltic Spots including possible nomination of relevant sites to the List. The 2010 HELCOM Moscow Ministerial Meeting agreed to promote the best national examples through the establishment of the List of Green Baltic Spots in contrary to the famous Baltic Sea “hot spots” representing major pollution sources in the area.

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