Adopted by the 18th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC)
The participantsParliaments of Free Hanseatic City of
Bremen, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Federal Republic of Germany,
Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Latvia, 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, Nordic Council.,
elected representatives from the Baltic Sea States, assembling in
Nyborg, Denmark, 31 August – 1 September 2009,
discussing Co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region, Maritime Safety
and Security, Civil Security, Climate Change and Energy Efficiency,
and Labour Market and Social Affairs,
A. emphasizing the significance
of a parliamentary dimension and parliamentary involvement in the strategies
and efforts to develop the Baltic Sea Region, thereby contributing
to a broad debate, transparency, legitimacy and support of the work;
B. reaffirming the mutually beneficial contacts and exchange
between BSPC and CBSS, and recognizing the important role of the
CBSS in initiating and coordinating actions against the challenges
of the Baltic Sea Region;
C. reiterating their support to the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action
Plan (BSAP) as a central tool for restoring a good environmental
status of the Baltic Sea by 2021, and underlining that governments must
fulfill their pledges to implement the plan according to its agreed
timetable;
D. supporting the design and development of strategies and
programs for the Baltic Sea Region as important instruments for
setting priorities, while also maintaining the necessity to coordinate
the strategies with the Northern Dimension policy;
E. stressing that the present economic downturn must not
be taken as an excuse for lowering environmental goals, cutting
environmental resources or delaying timetables for environmental
plans and projects; call on the governments in the Baltic Sea Region,
the CBSS and the EU,
1. define and pursue a common political
agenda for the Baltic Sea Region, e.g. by devising a joint understanding
of governance, leadership and division of labour among the leading
regional and sub-regional actors in the Region, and by enhancing coordination
between them;
2. proceed with strong and sustained measures to fulfill
the overall environmental goals and objectives of the HELCOM BSAP,
and to assure that the obligations to produce national action plans to
the HELCOM Ministerial meeting in Moscow in May 2010, as well as
to implement them prudently, are honored;
3. ensure a close linkage between the forthcoming strategies
and programs for the Baltic Sea Region and the HELCOM BSAP;
4. take concrete steps to ensure that strategies and programs
for the Baltic Sea Region, such as the emerging so-called EU Strategy
for the Baltic Sea Region, are closely attuned to and coordinated
with the Northern Dimension, in order to secure a mutual cooperation
on an equal basis between Russia, Iceland, Norway and EU, and to
incorporate the interests of the non-EU Baltic Sea Regions states
in the strategies;
5. Support the abilities to develop bankable projects for
the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, involving
the financial support to the project development fund managed by Nordic
Investment Bank (NiB) and Nordic Environment Finance Corporation
(NEFCO);
6. ensure that citizens are kept informed and involved in
the planning and implementation of strategies and projects that
influence the development of the Baltic Sea Region; NGO´s play an
invaluable role both as opinion-makers and independent experts,
and their views, warnings and advice should be taken seriously;
7. take concerted and solidaric measures to deal with the
causes and consequences of the current economic recession; a mutually
supportive and successful regional approach would also contribute
to the positive branding of the Baltic Sea Region and to the credibility
and usefulness of regional cooperation;
8. encourage active cooperation within
the International Maritime Organization(IMO) on the development
of relevant measures to reduce the environmental impacts of shipping
in the Baltic Sea, recognizing that IMO rules and regulations are
the basis for maritime development of any region, and that the regulations
should be developed according to current challenges;
9. promote continuous initiatives, support and concrete
measures within the field of Maritime Safety, such as increasing
the use of pilots in narrow and difficult international shipping
lanes, and enhancing the joint preparedness to tackle spills of oil
and hazardous substances;
10. promote and support concrete projects to implement maritime
spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region, encouraging cross-sectoral
and transnational coordination of resources, and thereby holding
up the Baltic Sea Region as a model region;
11. support the BSSSC Five Point Action Plan "Clean Baltic
Shipping", aimed at, i.a., reducing nitrogen and sulphur oxides
emissions in ports by using shore-to-ship power supply, minimizing sewage
discharge from ships, reducing the environmental load from cruise
shipping, encouraging sustainable port management, and stimulating
research and development of green and clean maritime technologies;
12. support the designation of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean
Sea, the North-East Atlantic and the Irish Sea as Sulphur Emission
Control Areas (SECA), as is already the case with the Channel, the
North Sea and the Baltic Sea, provided the criteria for such a designation
are fulfilled;
13. consolidate and further develop the progress made within
the fields of maritime safety and ship traffic monitoring, on the
one hand with a view to improving monitoring and separation of the
growing maritime traffic, especially in connection with hazardous
cargo and severe winter conditions, and on the other hand with a
view to monitoring the Baltic Sea for the purpose of environmental
protection, fishing and combating crime;
14. join and support the Surveillance Cooperation Baltic
Sea (SUCBAS) with the purpose of improving maritime situational
awareness across the entire Baltic Sea and approaches in support
of maritime safety, maritime security, protection of the environment
and countering illegal activities in the maritime environment;
15. contribute to the efforts of the Baltic Sea Region Harmonisation
Working Group on Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and Ship Reporting
Systems (SRS) established to harmonise and integrate VTS and SRS
operation to ensure that all systems assist safe navigation of ships
in an optimised and uniform manner;
16. join and support the initiatives under the Single Hull
Tanker and Banned Vessel monitoring project, developed jointly by
HELCOM and the European Maritime Safety Agency, for the purpose of
further improving maritime safety and supporting the Port State
Control authorities with the aim to eliminate the operation of sub-standard ships
in the Baltic, and ensure that the maritime transport operates in
a safe, secure and environmentally friendly way;
17. enhance cooperation and coordination
on civil security issues in general, in order to foster a joint and
comprehensive understanding of the risks and threats facing the
Baltic Sea Region, as well as strategies and measures to counter
them;
18. step up strategic and operational cooperation between
law enforcement authorities and other relevant actors in order to
strengthen the joint capacity to identify, monitor and take forceful
action against organized cross-border crime, such as trafficking
in human beings, drug trafficking, illicit trade, corruption, money
laundering, illegal migration, illegal labour, hate crimes, and
others;
19. intensify cooperation against trafficking in human beings,
placing emphasis on, i.a., preventive measures, protection and support
– by means of e.g. safehouses – for victims and people at risk,
as well as strategies and measures against the root causes of trafficking;
20. improve and coordinate data collection concerning the
scale of the problems of trafficking in human beings in order to
provide a realistic basis for the development of adequate measures
to fight the problem;
21. carry out the adoption, implementation and coordination
of proper legislation – in accordance with relevant UN and Council
of Europe protocols and conventions of which they are parties – against
trafficking in human beings, which targets all forms of exploitation
and includes measures to assist victims;
22. strengthen cooperation on crisis management and civil
protection against natural, technological and man-made risks and
emergencies, e.g. by coordinating planning, prevention and resources,
and by streamlining existing arrangements within a comprehensive
region-wide framework;
23. take concerted action to reinforce IT security by analyzing,
detecting and managing cyber crimes, and by launching defensive
and protective measures against the disruption of critical infrastructure
systems;
24. actively work for a new international
climate agreement, addressing all relevant climate change risk factors
in accordance with their impact;
25. develop a coherent energy strategy for the Baltic Sea
Region, in order to enhance security of energy supply, increase
the use of renewable energy, and strengthen interconnection between
countries, for instance by interconnected transmission lines that
will gradually develop into a smart grid between the countries and
the off-shore windmill parks;
26. launch action plans for the propagation of Combined
Heat and Power (CHP) and for building renovation and housing innovation,
for the purpose of improving energy efficiency and energy-saving;
27. use the present economic crisis as an opportunity to
promote qualitative growth in the Baltic Sea Region, for instance
by directing financial packages, investment plans and subsidies,
as well as international financial resources, towards renewable
energy production, energy efficiency investments, CHP, efficient
district heating systems and interconnecting the electricity grid;
28. establish a common regional training programme to strengthen
the joint capacities in energy planning, for instance by developing
the exchange of experiences and promoting best practices among officials
at local and national level;
29. make systematic and coordinated efforts
to identify barriers to the development of cross-border labour markets
and mobility, in accordance with the political recommendations in
the final report of the BSPC Working Group on Labour Market and
Social Welfare, and to carry out practical measures to dismantle
and prevent such barriers;
30. make labour market and social welfare issues a priority
task on the agenda of the CBSS, taking into account the work and
results of the Baltic Sea Labour Network (BSLN);
31. strengthen the existing information centres in the Baltic
Sea Region and to establish new centres in locations where the number
of cross-border commuting is growing but where centres do not exist; the
information centres should have the capacity and mandate to provide
comprehensive and official information on social security, employment legislation
and tax legislation in all the languages spoken on both sides of
the border, including, where applicable, minority languages;
32. foster regular dialogue between associations representing
cross-border workers, trade unions, employers and political decision-makers,
and strengthen cooperation regarding cross-border labour markets
via the establishment of councils for border regions and the development
of networks; likewise, an exchange of experience should be organised
regarding the work of the information centres throughout the Baltic
Sea Region;
33. enhance transport and logistic capacities in border
regions, especially as regards public transport, in order to facilitate
cross-border commuting and to promote economic growth; efforts undertaken
should be compatible with the overall objectives of the Northern
Dimension Partnership on Transport and Logistics;
34. take concerted action to exchange and implement best
practices regarding training and employment of young people in the
Baltic Sea Region, including cooperative activities between schools,
social partners, public authorities and civil society, and paying
special attention to disadvantaged groups;
35. begin giving pupils an introduction to the world of
work two years before they leave secondary school, propose agreements
between governments and the social partners to ensure sufficient training
places are created, and ensure that, in the case of youth unemployment,
the employment agencies offer integration plans and, after three months
of unemployment at the latest, further training, the opportunity
to gain additional qualifications, training places or jobs;
36. confirms its support to the CBSS
in its transformation towards a more focussed and target-oriented
organization, and in realizing the political and operational priorities
of the CBSS, hence looks forward to ongoing cooperation with CBSS;
37. agrees – concering the year 2009-2010 – that the Enlarged
Standing Committee should convene twice a year and the Standing
Committee convene twice a year with the Standing Committee open
for observers from national and regional parliaments that are not
represented in the Standing Committee;
38. asks the Standing Committee to establish a Working Group
on Integrated Maritime Policy, especially infrastructure and logistics,
and a Working Group on Civil Security, especially trafficking in human
beings, to submit reports to the 20th BSPC;
41. adopts the amended Rules of Procedure, to take effect
after the closure of 18th BSPC;
42. welcomes with gratitude the kind offer of the Åland
Islands to host the 19th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in
Mariehamn on 29 – 31 August 2010.