Speech Intervent Tiilikainen

Speech by Mr. Kimmo Tiilikainen, MP (Finland) at the 18. BSPC ConferenceAs a consequence of a plenary session debate concerning the Baltic Sea policy in the Finnish Parliament a couple of years ago, the Government of Finland submitted a report to the parliament in June 2009. The Report is focusing mainly on the improvement of the quality of environment, improvement of maritime safety, including preparedness to tackle with oil catastrophes, and aspects of improving welfare around the Baltic Sea. The Report contains proposals for about 70 actions. A follow-up report is due by the end of the current legislative period in the spring 2011. The Report fully supports the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan.Strengthening of co-operation between BSR ministers of transport and logistics is among the suggestions contained in the Report. In view of the new Northern Dimension partnership on transport and logistics, closer co-ordination in this sector is, indeed, called for. It may be mentioned in this context that 75 per cent of Finnish foreign trade, and about 30 per cent of that of Russia goes through the Baltic Sea.In order to enhance maritime safety, Finland strongly recommends closer co-operation between national authorities in the BSR for a complete awareness of the situation on the sea. The so called GOFREP (obligatory reporting system) in the Gulf of Finland, operated jointly by Finnish, Estonian and Russian authorities, functions very smoothly. Since its introduction about five years ago, no major accident have taken place in the area covered by this arrangement. It has clearly been a step forward, and this practice should be extended to cover the whole Baltic Sea.No matter how well prepared we are, the risk of accidents is still there. Therefore all Baltic Sea countries should be encouraged to increase their capacity to cope with major oil spills.In order to collect means for the improvement of the still insufficient capacity to handle oil spills, Finland is introducing a fee on imported oil.Finally, I would like to remind that we cannot accept any delays as regards improvements in the quality of the environment and maritime safety under the pretext of the current economic crises. On the contrary, environmental investments should be seen as part of solution to the economic crises.