Environmental Co-operation in the Baltic Region
1. Introduction
| 1.1 | Danish environmental assistance to the Baltic region |
The Eastern European countries have been developing rapidly during late years. This has led to a long series of new and extended fields of co-operation both on the national, regional, and international level. For Denmark, especially the co-operation around the Baltic and the countries surrounding the Baltic are of great interest. Many of these countries have applied for membership of the EU, which further brings the various European co-operations and international processes within this field into focus. Consequently, there is a great need to have a better overview of these co-operations and international processes.
In 1988, a survey of the European cooperation within the field of environment was made. This survey became very popular and was frequently used in the following years.
This booklet has therefore been prepared with a view to create an overview of the regional co-operation between the countries in the Baltic area and their participation in the European and international cooperation within the field of environment, but also in order to assess whether the cooperation covers the existing environmental problems and involves the parties which are relevant for obtaining a solution.
In order to assess whether the cooperation meets the requirements, this booklet contains an overall description of the environmental problems of the region as well as a description of the co-operation within environmental legislation (conventions, etc.) and the most important fields of co-operation of the region, the European and international cooperation within environmental politics. The booklet concentrates on the framework of environmental policies, conditions and actors and will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the development of the environmental efforts and how the various environmental efforts can work together in the future.
The booklet has been made based on a Danish perspective for use in connection with the Danish efforts in the Baltic area, including the Danish financial support to the new countries of the region. This financial support is among others meant to support the implementation of international environmental legislation in the recipient countries.The clarification must also be useful in other Baltic countries and will therefore also be available in English
The definition of environment used in this booklet is broader than that of the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy, since it also includes the question of fisheries in the Baltic and that of nuclear safety.
Therefore, not only the Agencies of the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy and their national planning department have contributed to the booklet; also the Danish Ministries of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries and the Danish Emergency Services Agency have contributed. It is indicated in the description of the conventions, which ministry/agency is responsible for the convention.
Carl Bro International - Carl Bro Group have assisted with the preparation of the booklet and prepared parts of the chapter on the Baltic and the pollution thereof, parts of the chapter on political co-operation and the chapter on professional bodies in the Baltic Region. It should therefore be stressed that information and conclusions within this field do not necessarily express the opinion of the above mentioned institutions.
Nature as a Basis
Nature is the basis of all human activities.We get our resources from nature, we use nature to get rid of our waste, and at the same time we would like to have a clean and interesting nature with a varying flora and fauna so that we have something to look at when walking around in nature.
The resources we get from nature can be divided into the exhaustible resources, i.e. resources that can be used up, for instance oil and metals, the reproducible resources, for instance fish stock, forests, etc. and finally, the non-exhaustible resources, for instance wind, sun and wave energy, biogas, etc.
Our activities produce a large quantity of waste, which we would like to get rid of again.We deposit the waste in nature again, where it produces pollution. Our types of waste produce different types of pollution. There is local pollution, for instance separation of dioxins from waste combustion, groundwater pollution by pesticides, herbicides that can influence food safety.There also is the regional pollution such as that of the Baltic and finally the global pollution by ozone-depleting substances and green house gases such as carbon dioxide, etc. At the same time, we expect to have clean drinking water and a clean nature as a basis for food production and as a common benefit, which can be used for recreational purposes. A place where we can go for a walk, study the flora and fauna in our spare time. The clean nature thus also is an amenity value for us.
Nature is thus used for many different purposes, which do not always go together. It is therefore necessary to adjust human activities so that they do not destroy the natural basis and thereby the basis for other activities.
The Baltic is a good example if this.The pollution of the Baltic threatens the fauna and thereby the basis for a commercial use of the Baltic. In the 1970'ies, it was clear for the countries around the Baltic that if the commercial basis for using the natural resources of the Baltic should not be destroyed permanently, it would be necessary to co-operate in order to reduce the pollution.The Baltic countries therefore established a cooperation across the political borders, with the common task of reducing pollution in the Baltic. This co-operation was named HELCOM and the Gdansk Commission, and its purpose was to assure a sustainable exploitation of live resources in the Baltic.
However, the Baltic is not a closed inland sea and the environmental situation is therefore also dependent on physical and environmental political activities outside the Baltic region. On the environmental political side, among others the North Sea Conference is an important institution for the further formulation of sea environmental policies that are also of importance for the Baltic.
New Field of Co-operation in the Baltic
After the Tjernobyl accident and the fall of the wall, new opportunities opened for expanding the co-operation, also within the field of environment, and for creating a better feeling of common identity in the Baltic region. A totally new scene of cooperation was created about the development of the Baltic region.
The co-operation is today much more comprehensive than earlier and undergoing a rapid political development. It may therefore be difficult to get and maintain an overview of actors and activities, which is a condition for being able to prioritise and plan the cooperation in a convenient way.
A myriad of new co-operations and many new actors (state, municipal and NGObased) have been formed in the wake of the market-economic development in Eastern Europe.The majority of co-operation forums have incorporated the thoughts behind sustainable development and many of them have used the trans-boundary environmental pollution as their point of departure.
The rapid development in the countries within selected fields of environment, and the continued missing efforts within other areas, for instance traffic and urban environment, as well as the limited capacity of the former countries of Eastern Europe for carrying out the necessary steps, necessitate a continued adjustment of the efforts, including the financial support within the field of environment to the former Eastern European countries. EU has created large funds for financing the continued development of the countries to the East. Many donors are supplying the financial support within the field of environment to the new countries in the eastern parts of the region, but no further details will be given in this booklet. On the other hand, the booklet will contain information about support programmes in connection with cooperation forums and concerning coordinating the co-operation regarding the support.
1.1 Danish environmental assistance to the Baltic region
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Central and Eastern European countries were left with substantial environmental problems.
Denmark was among the first countries to support environmental improvement in these countries. From 1991 until 2001 Denmark supported countries in Central and Eastern Europe with environmental assistance to the tune of DKK 3.6 billion or EUR 475 million. The overall objective of the activities undertaken was to:
 | Protect the environment in the Central and Eastern European countries and to limit regional as well as global pollution. |
| Help countries preparing to apply for EU membership. |
| Contribute to political and economic development in an environmentally friendly manner. |
| Promote Danish environmental knowledge and technology. |
More than half of the EUR 475 million was donated to five countries in the Baltic Sea region, namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Poland.
Since 1995, the main focus of Danish environmental assistance has been to mediate EU accession for applicant countries from Central and Eastern Europe.
In the Baltic region, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland all belong to the group of applicant countries. Since then, fulfilling the EU's environmental protection legislation has therefore been a major guideline for the activities.
The effort has been successful.Today, all four applicant countries from the Baltic region meet EU requirements with respect to the environment. But it should also be mentioned that a recent analysis shows that 90% of the total cost of this enormous operation was actually financed by the Central and Eastern countries involved.
In terms of action areas, the objective of the Danish environmental assistance programme has largely concerned transboundary environmental problems such as water and air pollution.
Almost half of the support donated in the Baltic Sea region has for example been allocated to projects promoting mainly water quality.The other types of projects fall into the categories of waste, nature conservation, nuclear safety, soil and institutional strengthening.
Altogether, 275 projects have been carried out in the Baltic region within water quality improvement. Technical assistance projects have planned and identified water and wastewater projects in many cities including St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Vilnius,Warsaw and Wroclaw.
Cooperation and environmental benefits
During more than ten years of support, Denmark has donated EUR 475 million. This support has generated co-funding worth EUR 1.4 billion, which shows that the projects involve a great deal of cooperation with both recipient countries and international counterparts.
Naturally, the environmental benefits produced by 1,436 projects valued at a total of EUR 1.9 million cannot be quantified in numbers alone. Local, regional and global environmental benefits must also be taken into account - some can be quantified and others cannot.
Typically, global and regional environmental benefits stem from projects within energy, air and water, while local environmental benefits typically stem from projects related to soil pollution, waste treatment and nature conservation.
The Danish support to water projects in the Baltic region equals EUR 125 million, which has triggered co-funding worth EUR 375 million. One of the most important guidelines for this co-operation has been to help improve the Baltic Sea in accordance with monitoring carried out by the Helsinki Committee (HELCOM).
More than half of these projects involve rehabilitating existing wastewater treatment plants or constructing new treatment plants. As a result, estimations indicate that total nitrogen discharges have been reduced by more than 15,000 tonnes per year, with a total reduction in phosphorus discharges of more than 1,500 tonnes per year. These amounts correspond to the pollution load of approximately 3 million people.
These reductions have cost far less than similar reductions achieved in Denmark during the same period of time - the equivalent of one third, on average.
Poland is the largest cooperation partner in the Baltic region in terms of environmental support. Here cooperation has resulted in 46 investment projects in wastewater treatment plants. A recent evaluation of 14 of these plants indicated that it is money well spent, with discharges of organic matter reduced by between 91 and 98%, while nitrogen and phosphorus discharges were reduced by more than 80%. Figures that easily compare with most wastewater treatment plants in Denmark.
The environmental benefits of the Danish Polish cooperation are felt at a local level, with much healthier lakes and rivers, and at a regional level, with the Baltic Sea less likely to be affected by oxygen depletion from eutrophication from the different nutrients.
The support to wastewater treatment plants in the Baltic region has also resulted in a considerable reduction of heavy metal discharges.
Projects have also been executed within sewer rehabilitation and cleaner technology in industries that have demonstrated the efficiency of Danish methods and equipment in relation to environmental protection. Again, discharges of organic matter, nitrogen and heavy metals were significantly reduced in a number of industries.
Another important field of co-operation in the Baltic Sea covers monitoring the aquatic environment and controlling oil spills. Both of these activities have also received Danish support over the past 11 years.
Finally, a substantial part of the Danish aid has been distributed through the sectorintegrated environmental assistance originating from the Baltic Agenda 21 action plan. The regional action plan for the Baltic region is rooted in the global Agenda 21 adopted by UN member states in 1992 on a par with the Rio Declaration.
The activities were scheduled as partnerships between a range of Danish ministries and their counterparts in recipient countries. Most of the activities in the sectorintegrated environmental assistance were implemented in the field of energy.