The Helsinki Commission, set up in 1991, is the governing body of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, usually referred to as the Helsinki Convention. It works through intergovernmental co-operation between Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden, and is a clear example of combining efforts for a noble cause.
"Russia will ensure the fulfillment of Helcom's Baltic Sea Action Plan," Igor Maidanov, director for international cooperation at the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said when assuming office. "We have agreed on the necessary mechanisms and must now use them efficiently."
The plan to drastically reduce pollution in the Baltic Sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021 was adopted at the Helcom ministerial meeting in Krakow last year. It stipulates pollution standards from agriculture, navigation and other sources.
"We will do our best to ensure that all member countries comply with these standards," Maidanov said.
New problems are regularly added to European concerns over the Baltic Sea, such as the Nord Stream gas pipeline project proposed in 2005. Not all Baltic region countries accept this Russian-German idea, some rejecting it as completely unsound. This has put Russia and Germany in an uncomfortable position.
The quandary was predictable, however, and project organizers should have foreseen the conflict of interest.
"It was clear from the start that the Baltic countries would protest the project. This is why it's loosing momentum," said Lev Merklin, a researcher at the Institute of Ocean Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He said the problem should not be solved by sheer force and that a solution should be coordinated with all of the Baltic countries.
Construction of the 600-km (373-mile) onshore segment of the pipeline in the Vologda and Leningrad regions in northwest Russia began in December 2005 and is to be completed by 2010. Its 1,189-km (739-mile) offshore segment should begin at the Portovaya Bay near Vyborg in the Leningrad Region and end at Greifswald in Germany.
The pipeline's design capacity is 55 billion cubic meters (1.94 trillion cubic feet) a year, supplying Russian natural gas to consumers both in Russia and in Germany as well as many other countries, ensuring sustainable development of the European economy.
However, its environmental impact cannot be overlooked because the Baltic Sea is "the ailing man" of Europe, and new impacts on it should be allowed only after thorough consideration.
Part of the problem is that 1 million metric tons of chemical agents were buried in the sea in 1945 by the Allies'. It was a mistake made amid the euphoria of the alliance's victory over Nazism, which future generations will have to work hard to remedy.
"The coastal nations using the sea's resources are rightfully concerned about man's handling of the sea's ecosystem," said biologist Mikhail Flint, deputy head of the Institute of Ocean Studies. "The average depth of the Baltic Sea, which has been damaged by the burial of WWII chemical weapons, is only 71 meters. The gas pipeline will affect fragile marine life in that active belt."
Professor Flint said modern marine experience and technologies could make the pipeline project relatively harmless for the Baltic Sea if the countries and companies concerned act accurately and wisely, avoiding the chemical weapons burial sites.
Few people are aware of Norway's offshore gas pipeline in the sea, for example, because it is being operated very carefully, he said. The Nord Stream pipeline could also be relatively harmless if available research and technical capabilities are applied to the problem.
The immediate task is to reach a consensus with the Baltic countries in whose territorial waters the pipeline is to be laid. Helcom is a good instrument for attaining this goal by acting prudently and patiently and respecting the positions of the countries involved.
Moscow hopes that its chairmanship of Helcom will facilitate a solution for the Nord Stream problem.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
