Current issue 01 / 2010

Baltic Sea Conference

The 500 participants from countries bordering the Baltic Sea have agreed concrete measures of protection and revitalization of the sea. Shallow with practically no tides and few currents, the Baltic does not renew its waters, so the water temperature increases, leading to new foreign species of algae which choke the flora and fauna.
The sea is very fragile because of passenger traffic and oil mostly from Russia, the fertilizers used in agriculture and waste water discharged without being treated.

Attending the summit, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has thanked Finland for co-financing a sewage plant in St. Petersburg, a city of 5 million people, using to discharge untreated sewage in the Baltic. At the same time, he requested to speed up the construction of NordStream, the gas pipeline crossing the Baltic co-financed by Russia and Germany, saying that in the next 25 years it seems to be no alternative to oil and gas.

Prime minister's wish seemed to have been heard, as Finland approved the pipeline only two days later.

Trying to find a balance between ecology and economy, the summit has the merit to collect a large number of actors and to somehow make them commit to implementing the measures already existing to cleaning up the Baltic by 2021.

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