Stein speech at 29 BSPC

29 BSPCYEARSBaltic Sea Parliamentary ConferenceSECOND SESSIONVision 2030: Safeguarding our Environment,Seas and Oceans for Future GenerationsMr. Peter SteinBSPC Rapporteur on Sea-Dumped Munitions,Member of the German BundestagSpeech of Mr Peter Steinat the Digital 29th BSPC on 24 August 2020Peter Stein began by thanking the BSPC for having held the role of Rapporteur for sea-dumpedammunitions since November of the preceding year, as had also been decided in Oslo. He wenton to note that during his work on this topic, he had realized quite clearly that there was ratherlittle information available on the subject. Accordingly, he had decided to report on this topic atthe 29th BSPC.He offered his gratitude for the support he had received and the help from the nation states inputting this report together, in response to the resolution of the 28th BSPC. A statement had beenmade as a result. Mr Stein further thanked the Geomar Institute in Kiel, the Fraunhofer Instituteand the State Assembly of Schleswig-Holstein, Bodo Bahr and the HELCOM. They had made itpossible for the report to grow to such an estimable size. He noted that it was an interim report,adding that they could be proud of the fact that the resolution of the 28th BSPC had triggered adynamism in the issue. They could make use of this dynamic movement which had triggered anumber of developments.Mr Stein wished to address three of those. The first was the EU Interreg project DAIMON whichhad been concluded very successfully. The project had been extended into a sequel, DAIMON2, as well as the Soft Merge programme of HELCOM. Unfortunately, in the attempts to removeammunitions from the sea floor, 18 pilot whales had been killed in the Baltic Sea. That had ledto a severe media response. As such, the public was being confronted with this issue to a certainextent, although not as much as one might wish. At the moment, ammunitions on the sea floorwere very much an issue for experts and specialists, but it needed to find a broader basis in thepublic’s awareness. Happily, there was the situation that they still had time to look at the issues.In interviews, Mr Stein would say, “The work ahead of us will take 20 years to complete, but webetter assume it will take 100 years.” In terms of technology and trained staff, they had to becomemore efficient and faster.Mr Stein thanked Commissioner Sinkevičius for his speech, especially with regard to the updatedBaltic Sea Action Plan. He would appreciate it if the issue of sea-dumped ammunitions could beincluded in that plan along with aiming for an improvement of the entire environmental status ofthe Baltic Sea.The speaker suggested that they all work together through the good connections they had establishedand to move even closer together. One instance in which they should progress together was datastandardization. A standardized input of data into an expert group would be very helpful. He couldimagine an expert panel as an outlier of the DAIMON expert group. He mentioned very interestingapproaches using bio-indicators. Unfortunately, they were increasingly seeing toxins leaking fromthe ammunitions, particularly TNT. It had become detectable in fish and mussel stocks. On theother hand, mussels could serve as a bio-indicator and provide a monitoring function through theirintake of the toxins. Comprehensive monitoring, well beyond such bio-indicators, was required.Technological approaches were equally required, all feeding into a standardized contribution toexpert panels as he had suggested earlier. In addition, if so much understanding and researchhad been brought together in international cooperation, the question was whether to launch aconcerted approach to tackling this problem. One problem here was the historical responsibility,which was perceived differently in various nations; moreover, each country approached the issueindividually, dealing with the responsibilities in divergent manners as well as the legal status. Inother words, the nations sharing the Baltic Sea did not have a joint approach of how to deal withthe topic. In that regard, Mr Stein suggested a voluntary donation fund for the group of experts.For this fund, Mr Stein proposed 500 million euros as the target sum. While it could be under theauspices of the EU, in the speaker’s estimate, the HELCOM would be better suited.Moreover, Mr Stein proposed focusing far more on the capacities of the private and maritimeindustries. If they were to only use state organisations, he did not believe they could succeedin resolving the problem. He believed that potentials in terms of new technologies and theirdevelopment could be harnessed through cooperation with the private maritime industry. Theproposed fund along with the expert group could call for tenders regularly, allowing maritimecompanies established in the Baltic Sea to access this value chain. Mr Stein noted that the way theBSPC had been dealing with the issue had been truly exemplary. He imagined that, starting fromthe current resolution of the 29th BSPC, the Baltic Sea could become a pioneer and model for howto resolve the problem of sea-dumped ammunitions all over the world.He cautioned that this approach also meant having to deal with sunken ships and ghost netsin particular. Mr Stein noted that he had been quite shocked to hear that there were up to tenthousand ghost nets and sections of fishing nets simply floating around the sea, causing negativeimpacts on the fauna. That was an adjacent problem that had to be resolved along the dumpedammunitions.In summary, Mr Stein mentioned how pleased he was that they had made progress and joinedforces. Commissioner Sinkevičius had said that they were living a common dream – the dream ofa clean Baltic Sea. Mr Stein noted that this was also a shared duty.Finally, the speaker pointed out that he was a German who could live this dream and duty, 30 yearsafter the peaceful revolution in the former eastern part of his country. In that regard, he wishedtheir Belarusian friends that they should also have such a peaceful development, without outsideintervention, and that democracy should emerge from this process. When it came to preservingthe environment, Mr Stein went on, the Belarusian people were indeed part of the peoples aroundthe Baltic Sea.With that, Mr Stein concluded his contribution.