President Christel Liljeström spoke at the DG Regio work shop on the Baltic Sea Strategy: “the Roundtable on how to make the Baltic Sea Region an environmentally sustainable place” held in Gdansk, Poland on November 13th 2008.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends of the Baltic Sea,
It is with a great pleasure that I am here in Gdansk today. The Baltic Sea Strategy is at the core of the Baltic Sea Commissions as well as all the many Baltic Sea Organisations work agenda today. I find this very positive as it clearly shows the importance of the topic. There is a dynamic movement in this, bringing the organisations together to find important priorities for the Baltic Sea Strategy.
On behalf of the CPMR Baltic Sea Commission we are taking note of the very positive reception we met from the DG Regio after our meeting with Mr Dirk Ahner´s in February.
It did show us that the Commission is truly interested in the know-how from the regions.
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.
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 but focusing at different targets at different timeframes.
With this approach, the strategy could be well focused with a few but concrete actions.
We can´t at this stage, how ever how much we would like to, cover all the parts that are of importance, but should proceed steadily and forceful through a `focused´ approach.
Personally I like to lift to discussion a few concrete actions such as:
· No waste water should be allowed from ships 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.
· A demand on that all nations around the Baltic Sea have a coordinated `first aid´ plan in case of large accidents.
Through these concrete actions the Baltic Sea will regain her health with positive effects for all; the environment, tourism, economical development – the same top 3 issues that the public Gallup poll from Poland also picked up- and to that I would like to add the security (it is less expensive to avoid accidents than to clean up after them) and also, last but not least, to secure the stability in the area.
The goal should be a shared feeling of responsibility among all who are travelling on and living around the Baltic Sea.
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. 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.
I hope that at the end of this day we will have found a few concrete actions in how to make the Baltic Sea Region a environmentally sustainable place.
I wish us all a pleasant and interesting work during these work shops.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 25 March 2009 00:45
