BSPC Committment to BSAS 2010

Baltic Sea Action Summit – February 10th 2010, HelsinkiCommitment by the Baltic Sea parliamentary Conference (BSPC)A Baltic Sea Summit is convening in Helsinki February the 10th on initiative of Ms Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland and Mr Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland together with Mr Ilkka Herlin, Co-founder of the Baltic Sea Action Group which is a part of the Foundation for Living Baltic Sea. The Summit is devoted to support the rescuing of the Baltic Sea by providing a platform and arena for concrete and practical commitments aiming at the saving of the Sea. All Summit invitees, leaders representing the business community, governments and NGOs are requested and expected to present their own commitments to action. Commitments can be financial or nonfinancial in nature as long as they contribute to the recovery of the Baltic Sea.In order to be able to present a commitment also from the side of the parliamentarians in the region represented at the Summit by the chair of BSPC, Ms Christina Gestrin, the Enlarged Standing Committee of BSPC is, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure 2.1. and the resolution from the 18th BSPC in Nyborg section Maritime Safety e.g. points 13-15 asked to accept the following text as a base for a commitment:---------------------------------------------------Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC), representing parliamentarians from all parliaments in the Baltic Sea Area, will continue the political actions aiming at the recovery of the Baltic Sea by implementation of Helcoms Baltic Sea Action Plan. In order to support the implementation process BSPC will continue to take political initiatives expressed e.g. in the resolutions from the yearly conferences , to follow the actions taken by the states in the region and to exercise parliamentary pressure on the governments urging them to fulfil the obligations already accepted by approving of the BSAP. BSPC will in this connection during the next year emphasize the segment of Safety of navigation and the importance of enhancing the operation of ship reporting systems (SRS) and vessel traffic services (VTS) by harmonizing and elaborating the existing systems in the Baltic Sea. In order to achieve results in this field BSPC urges the governments to create a common agreement aiming at the creation of a ship reporting system for the whole Baltic Sea. BSPC will follow the implementation of this commitment through the coming year and ask the governments to give a status report on the issue to the parliamentarians convening at the 19th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in the end of next August in Mariehamn, Åland Islands.BSPC's Standing Committee will take this question to the agenda of its standing committee and enlarged standing committee meetings through the year and in its discussions with the presidency of the Council of Baltic Sea States and with representatives for the EU commission. Safety of navigation and the support for development of vessel traffic information, traffic monitoring system interoperability and other means of maritime safety in the Baltic Sea area are also going to be discussed at the forthcoming BSPC-conference next summer.