EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea

Speech at the Haaga-Helia, University of Applied Sciences 12.4.2010

We all have heard it at least thousand times: the state of the Baltic Sea is horrific. But still this picture stops me every time. And it is not just the picture, it is the reality. The reality hits extremely hard when I spend my summers at our little summer cottage in the Finnish archipelago, in Velkua. Also coming from the coastal city of Turku, questions of the Baltic Sea have always been especially important to me.

This seminar is a fine example of how the process of protecting the Baltic Sea progresses. It is great to see that a lot has already been done, but there’s still a long way to go. I would like thank you for inviting me here today on this important occasion.

Since the EU enlargement of 2004, challenges facing the Baltic Region have increased. For example, escalating environmental threats and gaps in economic development are issues which need to be tackled urgently. Many of these problems can only be addressed through better coordination and joint action. The EU is well-placed to facilitate this.

The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea aims at promoting cooperation between international, regional and local players affected by the degradation of the Baltic Sea. The goal is to promote a more balanced development of the Region.

The strategy has four cornerstones. The first one is to make this part of Europe more environmentally sustainable for example by reducing industrial emissions polluting the Baltic Sea. The second cornerstone is to make the region prosperous. This is planned to be done by for example promoting innovation in small and medium enterprises. The third goal is to make the area more accessible and attractive. The fourth cornerstone is to make Baltic Sea Region safe and secure. The fourth goal includes the aim to improve our response capacity in event of major maritime emergencies.

There are lot of essential goals and suggestions for actions that must be carried out. Although there is more to the plan than solely the environmental issues, I believe that the focus should always be on the environment. It would be quite embarrassing to talk about the Baltic Sea Strategy if the main character had died in the beginning of the story.

As we all have learned due to the discussions regarding the Baltic Sea and the gas pipe, the Baltic Sea is central and necessary for the European Union for various reasons. However, as any resource, the Baltic Sea cannot be properly maintained without a proper budget and strategy. Finally, following a few years of attempt to gain a budget reserved solely for the maintenance of the Baltic Sea, after my initiative, the European Parliament accepted the budget for the Strategy. To me this represented a significant milestone in the process. This year, there are 20 million euros in the budget reserved for the Baltic Sea Strategy.

After this success, a serious setback was close last month, as the Commission tried to relocate 10 million Euros from the Baltic Sea funds to support the banana farmers of the Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific areas. As amazing as it sounds, this was true. Fortunately we were able to fight for the money, and now the 10 million is secured for its original use, working for a better and sustainable state of the Baltic Sea. A lesson was learnt; all the MEP’s interested in the Baltic Sea must now really keep their eyes on the money in order they will be spent as planned. For comparison, the Mediterranean Region receives annually about 200 million Euros from the European Union, so surely also the Baltic Sea deserves the 20 million, at least.

In the past few years the security and pollution problems have made a change for the better, which proves that improvement is possible. There already is a remarkable amount of individuals, private companies, and foundations that willingly put in their efforts in order to help to save the Baltic Sea, which still is one of the most polluted seas in the world. One of the main problems still are the industrial vessels dumping their bilge water into the Baltic Sea, since as these are amongst the most difficult to control. Just as another example, the chicken production houses in St Petersburg alone dump an incredible amount of phosphor pollution into the Baltic Sea.

Even though individual charities have done their part in reducing pollution levels and making the Baltic Sea more economically sound, the projects and charities have lacked a common denominator. After the implementation of the Strategy, we are able to have new tools available for our work on Baltic Sea Issues. This is the real added value of an EU Strategy. I believe that now it will be easier to deal with the EU-bureaucracies and also channel the funds more effectively towards a common goal. The important thing is to concentrate on finding now a clear focus so that the money can be channelled as effectively as possible.

The main goal is promoting the co-operation with the coastal states, all of them. We must also cooperate with the EU’s neighbors. Even though Russia is still at the moment one of the main contributors of the pollution in the Baltic Sea, we cannot forget areas such as Ukraine and Belarus that indirectly affect the Baltic Sea pollution levels as well.

My opinion is that a good opportunity was lost during the gas pipe discussions. Russia should have been persuaded into making a deal. A deal, in which they would have on their side promised to control the pollution going into the sea in exchange for letting them build the gas pipe under the Baltic Sea. I believe that the Finnish government could have had an excellent chance to direct Russian Baltic Sea politics to more environmentally sustainable path, but they didn't seize the opportunity.

Although the gas pipe discussions were not a success story, there are good and tangible examples from the past years of things already being done for the Baltic Sea. An excellent example is the HELCOM's Baltic Sea Action Plan. HELCOM has an important role for the implementation of the European Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. As I have understood the HELCOM will be more closely viewed in this seminar by the organization's representative. It's good to have different organisations and groups here together to exchange views and learn from each other. We can together now actually make things happen. Each and every one of us is in part responsible for the state of the Baltic Sea, as it is so essential to so many of the European states, now we just need to get everyone to pull their own weight.