Katainen, Niinistö and Medvedev: "Baltic Sea protection must be stepped up"
(Translation. Originally published in Finnish on 5 April 2013)
On Friday 5 April, Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and Minister of the Environment Ville Niinistö met Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedv at the Conference of the Heads of Government of the Baltic Sea States on Environmental Protection (the Baltic Sea Summit) in St Petersburg. The ministers emphasised the importance of cooperation between high-level political actors and businesses in efforts to resolve the waste problems affecting the Baltic Sea.
"The poor condition of the Baltic Sea is a shame for all its coastal states. Europe and Russia agree on the need to improve the condition of the Baltic Sea and this provides an excellent means to build bridges between some other issues where Europe and Russia do not agree. In addition to enhanced environmental protection, the work towards improving the Baltic Sea's ecological condition provides great opportunities for Finnish businesses which seem to have seized the occasion and responded to the challenge in a commendable and responsible manner. We have plenty of suitable innovative technologies and we brought up some concrete examples of them in our discussions with Prime Minister Medvedev," said Prime Minister Katainen.
"Finland is quickly becoming a model country in terms of nutrient recycling. It would be rational to draw on our expertise as regards, for example, recycling of the waste generated by the pig, chicken and cattle farms in St Petersburg and the regions bordering the eastern parts of the Gulf of Finland. The development of this process would considerably improve the condition of the Baltic Sea," said Minister of the Environment Niinistö.
On Saturday 6 April, Minister Niinistö attended the Forum on Public-Private Partnership in the Baltic Sea Region which brought together environment ministers, representatives of businesses and non-governmental organisations, and researchers.
Baltic Sea Action Summit (BSAS) process launched by Finland aims primarily to speed up the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. It also focuses on deepening cooperation between public and private actors to improve the state of the Baltic Sea environment.
Finland will assume the one-year CBSS Presidency after Russia in July 2013.
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