Report by Sinikka Bohlin

25.8.2008 Draft 0.2Report by Sinikka Bohlin, Chairman of the BSPC Standing Committee,At the 17th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference,Visby, 1 – 2 September 2008Honourable guests,Dear fellow parliamentarians,It gives me great pleasure too see that so many of you have travelled to Visby to take part in the 17thBaltic Sea Parliamentary Conference. As experts, policymakers, practitioners and committedcitizens, together you are bearers of the knowledge, experience and power of initiative that can –hopefully – move the Baltic Sea issues in the right direction.First of all, I would like to extend our warm gratitude to the Swedish hosts for inviting BSPC toSweden and the lovely island of Gotland: the Swedish Parliament and its Speaker Per Westerberg,and the County Governor of Gotland, Marianne Samuelsson. Walking the winding streets of Visby,enjoying a cityscape that is living proof of centuries of exchange between the peoples of the region,really gives you a tangible sensation of being in the hub of the Baltic Sea Region.But beware. There are snakes in paradise. Here is a recent example.In August, the journal Science published an extensive survey of the occurrence of dead sea bottoms.The dismal fact is that the Baltic Sea has the largest dead sea bottom areas of all the seas in theworld. The main culprit behind this is the discharge of nutrients from agriculture, transport andhousehold sewage. The Baltic Sea is a shallow inland sea with very little inflow of fresh oxygen-rich water. When the sea runs out of oxygen, all life expires.The only way to reverse this process is to reduce the emissions of nitrogen and phosphorous. Thisrequires political courage, commercial responsibility and entrepreneurial initiative. The situation isgrave, but the condition is not – yet – irreversible.Dear friends,Despite those ominous signs, perhaps we should first keep in mind that the Baltic Sea region is agood place to live in. We have – generally speaking – high living standards, a beautiful andaccessible nature, environmental awareness, social welfare and economic prosperity. These assetshold a potential for turning the Region into a model region and forerunner in various fields.But we are also, like I have already indicated, faced with a number of serious challenges. Continuedenvironmental degradation of the Baltic Sea. Eutrophication. Imbalanced economic growth. Pocketsof recession and unemployment. Cracks in the welfare system. Crime. These, and other, challengesare for real and must be combated.Let me briefly reiterate some of the priority areas in our work.The 16th BSPC Resolution called on the governments to take concrete steps to develop the BalticSea Region into Europe’s model maritime region, that is, into the cleanest and safest sea of Europe.All Baltic Sea States should ratify the existing international conventions on marine environmentalprotection.As for maritime transport, the governments are expected to take concrete and effective steps toensure a high level of maritime safety and security.Fishery is a question of sustainable harvesting of a declining resource.Research and development on energy must be strengthened. Energy efficiency, renewable energysources, and energy conservation are examples of research fields that should be given moreattention.The economy of the Baltic Sea Region is growing, but there are pockets of economic recession,obsolete industrial structures and unemployment. When it comes to labour market issues, strongefforts are needed to promote and facilitate integrated, cross-border labour markets in the Baltic SeaRegion.Let me stress that BSPC is of the conviction that NGO ́s like the WWF, Greenpeace, Bellona andmany others, are committed, experienced and skilful. They play an invaluable role both as opinion-makers and independent experts. Consequently, we should take their views and warnings veryseriously.The BSPC recommendations are conveyed to the governments of the region, the CBSS, and the EU.I would say that, in general, they are favourably received. There are both bigger and smallerexamples of measures taken by governments and stakeholders that are in line with our resolution:Much has been done, but much more needs to be done. I do not think that we – politicians, expertsand the general public alike – should quit nagging about those threats until forceful measures havebeen made to repel them. We will certainly come back to those issues in this year’s resolution.However, I would like to recall what Franz Thönnes mentioned in his report last year, namely, thatwe should always aim at formulating our positions clearly in the resolution, stating politicalobjectives that can be implemented in practice. The clearer the recommendations, the higher theprobability that the governments will respect and implement them properly.Dear friends,The consolidation of the working methods within the BSPC continues. We should aim ataugmenting our capacity to be politically operational and to target our forces on current andpractical issues. We should strengthen the political relevance and result-orientation of our work.Even more emphasis should, in my mind, be placed on the follow-up of our resolutions. Therefore,we have established two new Working Groups and appointed a Rapporteur on Eutrophication.The BSPC Joint Financing Mechanism that was unanimously adopted at the Berlin conference hasgradually come into operation. Most parliaments have regularly paid their contributions. Someparliaments have not yet been able to pay their shares due to administrative reasons. I believe thatwe will soon have a fully functional joint budget for the BSPC, that will provide the secretariat andchairmanship with resources for the running costs of the BSPC. An audit was made of the BSPCjoint accounts in spring 2008, and they passed without remarks.Dear Friends,In a globalized world, regional cooperation becomes important. The parliamentary andgovernmental cooperation that has evolved in the Baltic Sea Region can serve as something of arole model for promoting democracy, good governance, environmental awareness and sustainabledevelopment.We should not define our objectives in a vacuum. There are, as you are fully aware of, quite anumber of organizations and actors in the Baltic Sea Region. I believe it is important for us tofurther expand the network and exchange with them. That way, we can both obtain and disseminateinformation, and we will be able to fine-tune our objectives and activities in relation to what othersare doing. The net gain should be reduced duplication and enhanced synergies.I am very glad to put on record that our interaction with CBSS is evolving into a regular, close anddiversified relationship. The Chairmanships of CBSS have made commendable efforts to establishpractical cooperation and information exchange between relevant BSPC and CBSS workingstructures. The fact that we were invited to the 7th Baltic Sea States Summit in Riga this June was,in our opinion, a strong recognition of the bonds between our organizations. This mode ofcooperation will certainly contribute to capacity-building and strengthen the influence of Baltic SeaRegion issues in a wider European perspective.CBSS has embarked on a review and reform process with the aim of making the organization betterequipped to focus its resources on priority issues. We fully support the process and itsimplementation. We believe that a dialogue between the parliamentary and the governmental side isvaluable in the process, and we are of course willing to bring whatever contributions we can to it.We look forward with great anticipation to a continued fruitful cooperation with the CBSS. Perhapswe could consider a further bolstering of our relations by arranging a brief annual working meetingbetween our chairmanships?We also have very close and valuable contacts with HELCOM. The ground-breaking HELCOMBaltic Sea Action Plan was launched in November 2007, followed by the establishment of anImplementation Group for the plan. The BSPC observers in HELCOM and the BSPC Rapporteuron Eutrophication take regular part in HELCOM meetings. Thus we are able to exchangeinformation with HELCOM and to follow the implementation of the Action Plan.Work has begun on a Baltic Sea Strategy for the EU, aiming at its adoption during 2009. This is awelcome initiative, strongly rooted in a resolution from the European Parliament. It is, however,necessary to point out that the Strategy must be closely coordinated with the new NorthernDimension. The Northern Dimension contains modalities for mutual and equal cooperation betweenEU, Russia, Iceland and Norway on Northern Dimension which are, of course, also relevant for aBaltic Sea Strategy.In connection with the BSPC Extended Standing Committee meeting in Brussels in January 2008,we had the opportunity to meet with the EU Committee of the Regions for a fruitful and mutuallyrewarding discussion on their recently established Interregional Group on Baltic Sea Region. Thosecontacts will proceed.Following a commendable initiative by the BSSSC (Baltic Sea States Sub-regional Cooperation)and the BDF (Baltic Development Forum), the so-called Joint Platform on Energy and ClimateChange was formed in fall 2007. The purpose of the Platform is to facilitate information exchange,promote regional coordination and cooperation, and to develop joint positions on issues of commoninterest. BSPC fully supports this initiative, and intends to take an active role in its development.Let me also mention the project called Baltic Sea Labour Network (BSLN). It aims at building anetwork of trade unions and employer’s organizations in the Baltic Sea region, with the overallpurpose of promoting dialogue and cooperation on labour market issues. The BSPC StandingCommittee has, like e.g. the CBSS, agreed to register BSPC as partner to the BSLN project.We have also had valuable contacts with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe(PACE), and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC). It isimportant to acknowledge that there is no contradiction between the East and the West, or the Northand the South. On the contrary, all parties can win by sharing best practices and gettingencouragement from each other’s achievements.Dear friends,I have a profound belief in the value of meeting and exchanging views, and gradually forging jointpositions and opinions on issues of common interest. When such a process includesparliamentarians from all parliaments and parliamentary organization around the Baltic Sea, wehave a powerful instrument at our disposal to raise opinion and exert political pressure on issues ofimportance for our citizens. So, in that sense, we can contribute to a transparent, democratic andhopefully rewarding political process that involves all the countries of the Baltic Sea Region on anequal footing. It is also my conviction that dialogue and negotiations are a far better means ofresolving conflicts that arrogance and confrontation.Allow me to conclude by making two reflections.First, let me return to the issue of regional cooperation. Within this Region, we have a multitude ofgovernmental, parliamentary, private and voluntary actors. The good news is that this provides abroad resource base and a variety of competencies. It is also clear testimony to a widespreadcommitment to the development and well-being of the Region. However, we should also be carefulto avoid the risks of duplication and waste of resources. I believe it is possible to achieve a closer,should we call it, synchronization of the actors of the Region. A regular dialogue between actorswould probably be instrumental in sorting out their comparative advantages and their respectiveroles in dealing with the challenges of the Region. This would strengthen both our individual andcombined impact. Everyone must not do everything. Wouldn’t we strengthen both our combinedand individual impact by better coordinating our efforts and activities? Perhaps we could even dareconsidering a merger of certain activities for the sake of synergies and efficiency?Second, let us turn to ourselves. The situation in the Baltic Sea Region has changed considerablysince 1991. Some of the basic challenges remain, some have gradually disappeared, and some haveemerged. Consequently, the instruments for dealing with the challenges need to be adapted. TheCBSS has, as I have mentioned, embarked on a reform process to streamline its organization andresources. In the BSPC, we have introduced a number of new working methods in order to deliverstronger political impact. We are reviewing our strategic objectives annually, within the frameworkof the Extended Standing Committee. Is it perhaps time for us too to consider a review of ourorganization, given these changes?With that, dear friends, I would like to wish us all a lively debate, a successful outcome and apleasant stay in Visby.Thank you for your attention.