Polluted Baltic Sea looking for a regeneration strategy

Summertime is here, and so are the blue-green algae blooms feeding off the heavily polluted Baltic Sea. Yet swimming might become a better prospect in the coming years. On 10 June the European Commission issued a long-awaited proposal for an EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea region. The paper for a first regional-level EU policy aims at generating fresh momentum for co-operation in an area that holds almost a fifth of the Union's population.

Since 2004 eight of the nine countries in the Baltic Sea region are EU members. This has given economic and environmental regeneration a new momentum.
 
Baltic rim countries to get their act together
 
The strategy is based around four main objectives:
 
The environment

The economy

Energy and transport

Safety and security

Baltic Sea – EU's polluted mare nostrum
 
The ecosystem of the Baltic Sea is highly vulnerable, as the sea itself is shallow - just 50 to 60 metres deep on average compared with the Mediterranean’s 1500 metres. The water changes slowly - only once every 30 years - and it is heavily polluted. The human burden for the sea is intensive as there are about 90 million people living in the catchment area and maritime transport is among the most intensive in the world.
 
For many of both freshwater and seawater species in the Baltic the conditions are reaching extreme levels considered close to the survival limit. The main environmental challenges for the Baltic Sea are eutrophication, persistent pollutants, e.g. dioxins, PCBs, organic tin compounds, illegal discharges and sewage from ships and the growing risk of oil accidents.
 
To make matters worse, shipwrecks, ammunition and chemical weapons from WWI and II-era litter the sea bed.
 
MEPs' call for a Baltic Sea Strategy
 
In November 2005, MEPs from around the Baltic Sea area handed over to EC President Barroso a paper for a future strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. This paper, prepared by a cross-party group of MEPs from around the Baltic rim provided the basis of a report adopted by the Parliament a year later.
 
The outgoing Vice-chair of the Environment Committee Satu Hassi (Greens/EFA), is one of the MEPs behind the EP's strategy paper. She welcomed the Commission's proposal for a Baltic Sea Strategy, but admits in the same breath her disappointment with the predominantly voluntary measures proposed. “The Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted seas in the world and almost an internal EU sea. I hope that the Swedish Presidency will put flesh around the bones of the strategy and make it more binding”.
 
The strategy will be one of the items on the MEPs' and the Swedish Presidency's autumn agenda. Swedish Presidency’s objective is to get the strategy adopted during its October summit. Implementation could then begin in 2010.