EU mulls sustainable Baltic Sea strategy

The European Commission yesterday (3 November) launched a public consultation on a future EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The strategy will address environmental pollution, increased maritime transport and protection of critical infrastructures.

EU leaders asked the Commission to prepare the strategy in December 2007. According to the EU executive, the plan aims to foster environmental sustainability, economic prosperity, geographical accessibility and attractiveness of the BSR to make the area safe and secure for citizens.

Following the 2004 enlargement of the EU, “the Baltic has practically become an internal EU sea. We want to develop the Baltic area into a key region in Europe and worldwide, making it clean and liveable, attractive and safe,” said Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner.

The consultation invites stakeholders to submit views on how the main environmental challenges of the region, such as pollution, oxygen deficiency and over-fishing, can be addressed. Stakeholders are also invited to propose ideas on how to develop better integrated and more efficient transport, as well as energy and other communication networks. The Commission hopes to develop solutions to winter time transport bottlenecks, energy isolation and problems related to security of supply.

The consultation will also focus on ensuring the sustained competitiveness of the region and evaluate whether current cooperation structures can respond effectively to future safety and security concerns, including organised crime and protection of critical infrastructure. 

The public consultation is open until 31 December. Non-EU members such as Russia, Iceland and Norway are invited to participate. 

The EU strategy and action plan for the Baltic Sea Region is expected to be finalised by June 2009. 

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