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Baltic Sea Commission Vice President Poul Müller will took part in the 2nd Stakeholder Conference on the Baltic Sea Strategy in Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany, Feb. 5-6th, 2009. Mr Müller will made an intervention on the topic: ” The Baltic Sea Region and the Integrated EU Maritime Policy “. 

Read the intervention, below:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear friends of the Baltic Sea,

It is with a great pleasure that I am here in Rostock today. The Baltic Sea Strategy is the priority of the Baltic Sea Commissions work as well as of most Baltic Sea Organisations. There is a dynamic movement in this, bringing the organisations together to find important priorities for the Baltic Sea Region.

 

The Baltic Sea Region and the Integrated Maritime Policy, has been, and still is, at the very core of CPMR and the Baltic Sea Commission. That the two of them should be closely linked is I would dare to say, mandatory.

The Baltic Sea Commission, like many others, answered the green paper of the Maritime Policy and has taking active part in the consultation period of the Baltic Sea Strategy.

Today, I would just like to highlight a few statements from our last reply:

• In the Maritime Policy the CPMR Baltic Sea Commission discussed the importance of acknowledge the differences between the EU maritime basins. With the Baltic Sea Strategy we hope that this idea of `tailor made´ solutions for each marine regions should start. The Baltic Sea is special in many ways i.e. a low salinity, relatively cold water, it’s a sea, but it has in a way some similarities to a very big lake. and at times hard winters with ice conditions. The Baltic Sea deserves a tailor made solution. And we, representatives from Baltic Sea Area are standing prepared to create actions and to implement them.

• The Baltic Sea Region has got a unique transport-geographic position: It has direct access to the world market via deep-sea and shortsea shipping, it covers large arctic regions, and two neighbours to EU (Norway and Russia) play a quite important role for the regional transport system.

Transport volumes in this region are escalating especially as regards shipping, road and air transport. This is mainly driven by the integration of former “Eastern Europe” into EU, by economic growth, at least until now, in Russia and by further integration of the Baltic Sea Region into global economy 

CPMR-Baltic Sea Commission would like to highlight the following fields as the most urgent to address in the Baltic Sea Strategy: 

1. Concerning the selection of infrastructure investment there is a need for an objective method of setting priorities, as it is highly probable that a pure cost-benefit approach might conflict with cohesion principles. Transparent criteria’s, which take into account the special need of peripheral regions for better transport connections, will have to be an integrated part of the decision process.
2. The integrated transport system has to take the maritime dimension into account. A coherent system of roads, railways, freight terminals and ports, more frequent and “greener” ferry and RoRo services also including air connections has to be part of the future TEN-T. Particular attention will have to be paid to rail and sea transport, to the efficiency of intermodal hubs and to the clients’ perspective: Taking a ferry must be as easy as to use a bridge. 
3. The “Motorways of the Sea” and similar programmes are highly welcome. Their implementation will have to be accelerated by less bureaucratic procedures. 
4. Speaking of bureaucracy: There is a need to put specific attention to the administrative bottlenecks between EU/Russia. Approximately 40% of the sea transport in the Baltic has Russia as origin or destination. Unnecessary delays or costs in freight transport are not caused by inadequate infrastructure, but by an organisational mismatch (“administrative bottleneck”). This issue is too important to be displaced to specialists’ fora – it should get a central place in future EU Transport Policy.

• Maritime transport most often has a global dimension. Transport policies for the Baltic Sea Region have to take into account the gateway function of the region for deep-sea container trade and for long-distance land transports from Asia via Tran Siberian Railway and other corridors.
  
• In order to facilitate achievement of the goal of environment-friendly transportation of cargo to Central Europe. Rail or rail/waterway transport are the preferable options and should there for receive special attention.
  
• Regarding maritime safety the Baltic Sea Commissions prime demands are:

·  No waste water should be allowed from ships – or for that matter in general - to the sea

·  Only officers with experience of navigating under ice conditions should be allowed to navigate in the Baltic Sea during the winter season.

·  All nations around the Baltic Sea should have a coordinated `first aid´ plan in case of large accidents.

 

The CPMRs has undertaken a fact-finding mission on trans-national cooperation and maritime safety that brought some proposals for projects. I will just mention a few that are of a nature applicable to all Baltic Sea Strategy projects:

·      Cooperation projects must address prevention and focus on emergency response operations to accidental or chronic pollution – and here an important tool is cross boarder communication also with none EU countries. 

·      Priority must be given to operational projects rather than projects consisting of studies or observations.  

·      Cooperation projects must back up and be complementary to existing policies, and a clear distinction must be made between the “political” level and a more “technical” level, which is the field of cooperation projects.  

·      In this respect, cooperation must be used as a means of testing and introducing innovative new solutions.

• There are a number of suggestions regarding fishing, fishing fleet and the conflict of interest between fishermen, environmentalists, tourism etc.
  

 

Here the Baltic Sea Strategy should strive to resolve conflicts with a broad participation of stakeholders. Measures should be based on sound scientific advice.

The peculiarities of the Baltic Sea region, such as climatic differences over the geographic area, the dramatic salinity gradient from the north to the south and the consequences for fauna, flora and ecology leads to the necessity for adapted management plans for different areas.

• The CPMR Baltic Sea Commission believe that the Baltic Sea Strategy should be a living document, regularly revisit and updated actions as others have been implemented. A long-term approach that set the focus on different targets as time move on. With this approach, the strategy could be well focused with a few but concrete actions.

• The Commission approach of bringing forward the Baltic Sea Strategy together with stakeholders/organisations in the Baltic Sea region is, I believe, a very constructive approach. This way the process will be paving the way for a smoother will to also implement the strategy.

Thank you!

 

 

Last Updated on Friday, 13 February 2009 20:47