The participants, elected representatives from the Baltic Sea
StatesParliaments of Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, Federal Republic of Germany, Greenland, Free and
Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Latvia, Leningrad, Lithuania, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Norway, Poland, Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of
the Russian Federation, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the
Russian Federation, City of St. Petersburg, Schleswig-Holstein,
Sweden, Åland Islands, Baltic Assembly, European Parliament, Nordic
Council., assembling in Mariehamn, Åland Islands, 29 - 31
August 2010,
discussing Co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region, Climate Change
and Biodiversity, Integrated Maritime Policy, Peace and Security
in the Baltic Sea Region, and Trafficking in Human Beings,
A. emphasizing the important
role parliamentarians can play for a sustainable development of
the Baltic Sea Region, by raising awareness, building opinion, driving
issues, exerting political pressure on governments, and initiating
and adopting legislation;
B. reaffirming the close, constructive and mutually beneficial
exchange between BSPC and CBSS, as evidenced in e g the interaction
between BSPC and CBSS working bodies on trafficking in human beings
and on integrated maritime policy, and recognizing the usefulness
of this interaction as a joint resource in following and addressing the
economic, social and political challenges of the Baltic Sea Region;
C. maintaining its strong support to the HELCOM Baltic Sea
Action Plan as one of the main tools for the restoration of good
ecological status of the Baltic Sea by 2021, regretting that not
all HELCOM member states had managed – as they had agreed – to present
national implementation plans at the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting
in Moscow 20 May, and expecting that those countries that did not
deliver national implementation plans will do so at the high-level
meeting of HELCOM in early 2011 at the latest;
D. noting with satisfaction the adoption of the declaration
“A Vision for the Baltic Sea Region by 2020« at the 8th Summit if
the Baltic Sea States in Vilnius in June 2010, and considering the
implementation of its provisions as a key factor for further development
olf the Baltic Sea Region;
E. taking note of the adoption of the EU Strategy for the
Baltic Sea Region in October 2009, underlining that since the EU
strategy is an internal EU endeavor, it should be adequately harmonized with
the Northern Dimension policy, which brings together EU- and non-EU-
members as equal cooperating partners;
F. supporting the Baltic Sea Action Summit as a platform
for practical commitments aiming at saving the Baltic Sea, and reaffirming
the BSPC commitment to the Summit to continue to take political
initiatives, to follow the actions taken by the states in the region,
and to exercise parliamentary pressure on the national governments
of the Baltic Sea Region, urging them to fulfill their obligations
in the Baltic Sea Action Plan,
call on the governments in the Baltic Sea Region, the CBSS and
the EU,
1. consider ways to further strengthen
cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region between the CBSS and the BSPC
in order to ensure cohesion and to avoid divisions in the Baltic
Sea Region, while supporting CBSS in implementing the aims of its
reform process and achieving concrete results within the framework
of its long-time priorities;
2. fulfil their already agreed obligations under the HELCOM
Baltic Sea Action Plan, in particular – for those who have not already
done so – by producing concrete National Implementation Plans by
early 2011 at the latest;
3. fulfil their commitments to the Baltic Sea Action Summit,
for instance by allocating sufficient resources for the actual implementation
of commitments;
4. coordinate as far as possible the EU Baltic Sea Strategy
with the Northern Dimension policy, as well as with the Council
of the Baltic Sea States - being a core regional cooperation body
- and other Northern and Baltic cooperation bodies;
5. provide contributions to the BSAP Trust Fund managed
by the Nordic Investment Bank and the Nordic Environment Finance
Corporation, thereby strengthening the resources for the development
of bankable projects, meaning coherent, realistic and viable projects
to implement environmental and other projects for the benefit of
the Baltic Sea Region;
6. work to gradually dismantle barriers encountered by workers,
companies and tourists, such as visa requirements and requirements
to register place of residence, continue to work towards dismantling
obstacles to mobility for workers in the border regions and ensure
the availability of a range of high-quality information centres
ensuring social security for cross-border workers;
7. promote the further development of civil society in the
region, including assisting NGOs both in accessing Baltic Sea support
programmes and in placing applications in order to boost their involvement
in implementing the programmes;
8. apply an ecosystem approach to the
environmental work in the Baltic Sea Region, including investments,
research and development to protect ecosystem services and to integrate
their values in economic systems, national budgets and strategies
for sustainable development, as appropriate;
9. support measures to protect and restore biodiversity,
such as reinstating migratory waterways, restoring physical environments,
oxygenization and restocking;
10. enhance work with the aim of preventing the continued
introduction of alien invasive species of flora and fauna in the
Baltic Sea by ships, for instance by developing technologies for
ballast water treatment and by a possible ban against ballast water
exchange in certain areas;
11. take active measures to protect threatened species,
minimize by-catches and phase out discard in fishing, and to ensure
that commercial fishing respects catch quotas and fishing areas;
12. take strong and focused measures to eliminate illegal,
unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, by reinforcing inspection
resources and by strengthening landing control;
13. promote new measures in view of reduction
of harmful emissions:
render more active support than heretofore
to short sea shipping as an eco-friendly alternative to inland transport;
investigate to what extent the reduction of the sulphur
content of ship fuels may result in competitive disadvantages to
the economy in the Baltic Sea Region and elaborate proposals on
how to avoid such disadvantages while maintaining high environmental
standards in the maritime sector;
actively support the projects approved for funding under
the Baltic region Programme, especially such projects with the objective
to reduce harmful emissions from ships and develop reception facilities
for waste water from ships in the ports of the Baltic Sea;
14. support the implementation of improved security and
fire prevention measures regarding vessels, terminals, ports, sea
and shore-line constructions as well as the use of environmentally
friendly substances to alleviate damages caused by accidents;
15. extend the obligatory use of pilots in risk areas of the
Baltic Sea and strictly implement the ban on transporting oil in
single-hulled tankers;
16. initiate measures which 1) pave the way for and promote
the use of a single language in international transport operations
at sea and on land, and 2) standardize and facilitate the implementation of
joint customs and taxation procedures;
17. continue to ensure improvements to the transport infrastructure
in the Baltic Sea Region and, while focussing in particular on developing
land and sea routes, to promote a transport policy that is in principle
governed by the idea that transport operations should be carried
out in an eco-friendly way, supported by an interconnected infrastructure;
18, make sure that the EU TEN-T core network must be made
up of nodes (capitals, other cities or agglomerations of supra-regional
importance, gateway ports, intercontinental hub ports and airports,
the most important inland ports and freight terminals) and connections
of the highest strategic and economic importance linked with key
infrastructure in third countries (including Russia).
19. attach particular importance to the strategic development
of the seaports with associated logistics centres and rail terminals
in order to create national, regional and European networks. In
this context, gaps in the priority TEN projects should be filled,
and the projects should be linked and consolidated into a core network;
20. support initiatives for improving safety of navigation
and environmental risk reduction in the Baltic Sea and addressing
the human factor including support of initiatives that can lead
to less administrative burdens by harmonizing and elaborating the
existing ship reporting systems (SRS) and vessel traffic services
(VTS) in the Baltic Sea;
21. strengthen the joint regional as well as national preparedness
and capacity to tackle major spills of oil and hazardous substances,
for instance by sub-regional preparations, co-ordination and exercises,
as pursued in the HELCOM BRISK project, and by procuring sufficient
supplies of oil spill and hazardous substances recovery equipment;
22. encourage and foster the development
of a joint perception of the threats against public safety and civil
security in the region, covering natural as well as technological
and other man-made threats and risks;
23. promote the development of joint strategies, action
programmes and concrete resources to prevent and manage the threats
against civil security in the region;
24. extract and exchange experiences from recent threats,
such as the bird flu in 2007, the cyber attacks in Estonia in 2007,
and the swine flu in 2009, in order to gain knowledge and enhance
the joint awareness and preparedness for such threats;
25. promote the dissemination of the experiences from the
Baltic Sea Region regarding peace, security and development of democracy
in political and diplomatic contacts in order to support democracy;
26. exchange available information on the location and state
of sea-dumped chemical weapons, to inform the public about the threats
caused by these weapons, to prepare guidelines for behaviour if unexpectedly
encountered with sea-dumped chemical weapons, and to organize seminars
and conferences on this issue.
27. sign, ratify and accede, for those
countries that have not already done so, to all relevant international
conventions, protocols and decisions, such as the Trafficking in
Persons Protocol («The Palermo Protocol»), the Council of Europe
Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, and other
international agreements; consequently, national legislation and
administration of justice should, where necessary, be reviewed and
amended in order to ensure conformity with international conventions
and protocols and to enable legislation that criminalizes all chains
of trafficking in human beings;
28. recognize that trafficking in human beings is an international
cross-border crime that requires international cooperation and concerted
action across borders, but also that the actual exploitation of
victims is perpetrated locally and therefore should be fought by
enhanced local plans and resources, including efforts to curb the
demand for sexual services from victims of trafficking;
29. allocate sufficient, permanent and dedicated funds and
resources to, for instance, public authorities, specialized agencies,
NGOs, and inter-governmental organizations and projects, such as the
CBSS Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings, in order to maintain
the pursuit of persistent and sustained efforts against trafficking
in human beings, for example by measures such as the Nordic Council
internal instruction on using only those hotels that can issue a
guarantee that they do not engage in any facilitation of selling
or buying sexual services;
30. promote the development of an interoperable, coordinated
and transparent system for the collection, analysis, exchange and
dissemination of information on trafficking in human beings, in
order to enhance the understanding of the problem, develop adequate
measures against it, improve the capacity to identify victims of
trafficking, support investigation and prosecution of trafficking
cases, and provide best possible assistance to victims of trafficking;
31. ensure that a victim-centered approach is adopted in
all measures and actions against trafficking in human beings, meaning
that trafficking is exploitation irrespective of where it takes
place or what form it takes, that the human rights of trafficked persons
should be at the centre of all efforts against trafficking, that
victims should be protected, assisted and empowered, and that victims and
relatives of victims should receive unconditional assistance regardless
of their status, their willingness to participate in criminal proceedings against
traffickers or the kind of exploitation experienced;
32. promote and support the development of the operational
capacity to fight trafficking in the field; efficient cooperation
models should be developed both between relevant state actors -
such as the police, prosecutors, social welfare authorities and
migration authorities - and with NGOs, in order to strengthen the
chain of assistance and protection of witnesses, victims and relatives
of victims and to increase the number of convictions of the perpetrators;
33. asks the Standing Committee to perform
an evaluation of the functioning of the BSPC Joint Financing Mechanism,
including a consideration of a possible revision of the procedures
for financing the Secretariat function;
34. adopts the amended Rules of Procedure, to take effect
after the closure of 19th BSPC;
35. welcomes with gratitude the kind offer of the Parliament
of Finland to host the 20th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference
in Helsinki on 28 – 30 August 2011.