Article In Asia Europe Journal October 2010

Regional cooperation in the Baltic SeaRegion?recommendations to foster a jointunderstanding and take action againstcommon risks and threatsAsia Europe JournalIntercultural Studies inthe Social Sciences andHumanitiesISSN 1610-2932Volume 8Number 3Asia Eur J (2010) 8:267-269DOI 10.1007/s10308-010-0267-61 23Your article is protected by copyright andall rights are held exclusively by Springer-Verlag. This e-offprint is for personal use onlyand shall not be self-archived in electronicrepositories. If you wish to self-archive yourwork, please use the accepted author’sversion for posting to your own website oryour institution’s repository. You may furtherdeposit the accepted author’s version on afunder’s repository at a funder’s request,provided it is not made publicly available until12 months after publication.1 23Author's personal copyAsiaEurJ(2010)8:267–269DOI10.1007/s10308-010-0267-6ESSAYRegional cooperation in the Baltic SeaRegion—recommendations to foster a jointunderstanding and take action against commonrisks and threatsChristina GestrinPublishedonline:21October2010#Springer-Verlag2010Itisinourcommoninteresttoprotectandpromotedemocracy,security,andtheruleof law in the Baltic Sea Region. These are among the fundamental conditions for afair and prosperous social and economic development. It is also in our commoninterest to repel the threats against our civil security.National and international security today is not just a question of an absence ofmilitary threats, but to a growing extent a transnational presence of stabledemocratic, political, economic, social, and infrastructural conditions.The threats against society are manifold: natural disasters, environmentaldegradation, political, social and infrastructural vulnerabilities, organized crime,corruption, poverty, welfare gaps, social marginalization, uneven living conditions,ideologicalfanaticism, etc. The threatofaconfrontation withmilitary means has allbut vanished, although it has not disappeared entirely.Take organized crime as an example: Organized crime is growing and eating itsway into society’s fabric. It is evident in the detestable trafficking in human beings,in the narcotics trade, in the recurrent corruption scandals, and in many other ways.Organized crime undermines the security and safety of the citizens. It corrodes thelegal and administrative foundation of society. It distorts the free function of themarket mechanisms. It corrupts politics. Organized crime is, therefore, a fundamen-tal threat against freedom and democracy.Civil security requires a comprehensive assessment of threats and risks, whichincludes everything from nonintentional to intentional threats. It is also a matter ofdeveloping and adapting new means of prevention and response, in which thecombined resources of society are prepared for various scenarios. Not least, civilsecurityisaquestionofsafeguardingtheprinciples,functions,andinstitutionsoftheopen and democratic society, while concurrently strengthening the security andC.Gestrin(*)BalticSeaParliamentaryConference(BSPC)attheNordicForumforSecurityPolicy2010,StPetersburg,Russiae-mail:Christina.Gestrin@eduskunta.fiAuthor's personal copy268 C.Gestrinintegrity of the citizens. The unconditional basic principle is the supremacy ofhuman rights and the rule of law.Nongovernmental organizations have an important role to play in and for civilsecurity. At the end of the day, it is always civil society and the citizen that suffersfrom the consequences of a threat. The citizen’s perspective represents a bottom-upapproach to civil security. Safety and security, rooted in civil society, isfundamentallyimportantforastabledemocratic,social,andeconomicdevelopment.Civil security is one of the current priorities of the Baltic Sea ParliamentaryConference(BSPC).AparliamentaryWorkingGrouponCivilSecurityhasrecentlybeen launched, focusing on trafficking. Recommendations and statements on civilsecurity were incorporated in the Conference Resolution from Nyborg 2009,representing the unanimous view of parliamentarians from the whole Baltic SeaRegion.BSPC has urged the governments in the Baltic Sea Region to enhancecooperation and coordination on civil security issues, in general, in order to fostera joint and comprehensive understanding of the risks and threats facing the BalticSea Region. Strategic and operational cooperation between law enforcementauthorities and other relevant actors must be stepped up in order to strengthen thejoint capacity to identify, monitor, and take forceful action against organized cross-border crime.Cooperation against trafficking in human beings must be intensified. Emphasisshould be placed on preventive measures, protection, and support, for instance, bymeansofsafehousesforvictimsandpeopleatrisk.Itisalsonecessarytoimplementstrategies and measures against the root causes of trafficking. Improved andcoordinated data collection concerning the scale of the problems of trafficking inhuman beings is important to provide a realistic basis for the development ofadequate measures to fight the problem.ThegovernmentsoftheRegionshould—ifthey havenotalreadydoneso—carryout the adoption, implementation, and coordination of proper legislation againsttraffickinginhumanbeings,inaccordancewithrelevantUnitedNationsandCouncilofEuropeprotocolsandconventionsofwhichtheyareparties.Thisshouldtargetallforms of exploitation and include measures to assist victims.Cooperation on crisis management and civil protection against natural, techno-logical, and man-made risks and emergencies needs to be strengthened. This couldbe done, for instance, by coordinating planning, prevention, and resources and bystreamlining existing arrangements within a comprehensive regionwide framework.Concerted action should be taken to reinforce information technology security byanalyzing, detecting, and managing cyber crimes and by launching defensive andprotective measures against the disruption of critical infrastructure systems.The issue of maritime safety and security was also raised at our NyborgConference. A number of political recommendations were agreed, for example, onthe preparedness and management’s capacity to tackle oil spills, on the implemen-tation of the Clean Baltic Shipping project, on maritime safety and ship trafficmonitoring, and on efforts to phase out substandard ships in the Baltic Sea.Governments were urged to join and support the project called SurveillanceCooperation Baltic Sea (SUCBAS). The purpose is to improve maritime situationalawareness across the entire Baltic Sea and its approaches in support of maritimeAuthor's personal copyRegionalcooperationintheBalticSeaRegion 269safety, maritime security, protection of the environment, and countering illegalactivities in the maritime environment. BSPC also strongly supports the HelsinkiCommission (HELCOM) Baltic Sea Action Plan.In conclusion, there are three brief remarks that ought to be paid attention to.Firstly,asalways,whenalargenumberofactorsareengagedinageographicareaor in a particular field of activity, the question of coordination naturally arises. Toensure efficiency and avoid wasteful duplication, it is important that actors try todefineanddeveloptheirrespectivecomparativeadvantagesandtheirspecificroleinthe total picture, preferably in dialogue with their fellow actors.Secondly, cooperation is an art of give and take and of rights and duties. Apartyto a cooperative structure certainly has the right to benefit from the combinedresources of the structure, for instance, if a country is hit by a disaster that outstripsitsownresponseresources.Butapartyalsohasanobligationtoprovideinformationto its partners, for instance, in the case of an accident with possible trans-borderdamages such as an airborne or waterborne discharge of hazardous agents.Finally,theBalticSeaRegionismadeupofbothEuropeanUnion(EU)andnon-EUstates.ItisessentialthatallcooperativeeffortstodealwiththechallengesoftheRegion include participation of—or at least offer the participation to—all the statesof the Region. No credible solution to any major challenge in the Region can befound if relevant stakeholders are excluded from cooperation. Cooperation in theBaltic Sea Region should be conducted “in the spirit of the Northern Dimension,”that is, as a cooperation between equal partners irrespective of their membership intheEU.Onecouldalsoconsiderthedesirabilityandmodalitiesforinvitingcountriesadjacent to the Baltic Sea Region to observe or take part in activities in the Region.