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Baltic Sea Action Summit process continues in St. Petersburg on 5.-6.4.2013

Finnish BSAG foundation drives Baltic Sea issues to the high political agenda
The Baltic Sea Summit on environmental protection of the Baltic Sea is held in St. Petersburg April 5.-6. 2013. The event  brings together the Prime ministers and the Ministers of Environment from the Baltic Sea and CBSS countries, as well as Russian and international businesses. The Summit is also one of the most important events within the presidency of Russia in the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). The Summit is continuation of the Baltic Sea Action Summit, BSAS, held for saving the Baltic Sea in Helsinki in February 2010. The invitation process for the event is underway.
“The Baltic Sea will be only saved if the states commit to the work. A low threshold for cooperation between the public and private sectors is also essential,” says Ilkka Herlin, Chairman of the Board of BSAG.
As a part of its work for the Baltic Sea, BSAG has acted as a catalyst for the BSAS process. Co-conveners of the BSAS Helsinki 2010 were President Tarja Halonen,Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Chairman of the board of BSAG Ilkka Herlin. BSAG has since continued its work for the Summit of concrete actions to become a regular event in the Baltic Sea area.
The agenda of the Baltic Sea Summit includes, among others, questions of public-private cooperation for saving the Baltic Sea, and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), which brings together multiple users of the ocean to make informed and coordinated decisions about how to use marine resources sustainably.
Also the progress of commitments, given at the Summit in Helsinki 2010, will be examined at the Baltic Sea Summit in St. Petersburg. BSAG has been collecting and monitoring Baltic Sea Commitments since year 2009. For the Summit in St. Petersburg BSAG has, among other things, taken care of follow-up on the State Commitments, given in Helsinki 2010. Follow-up report on the Commitments will be published at the Summit in St. Petersburg 2013.
“The BSAG foundation gathers together all parties that have concrete solutions for saving the Baltic Sea. At the moment there are all together over 220 Commitments. Roughly half of them are completed while the other half is at the stage of active implementation. Commitments are very different from each other and it is essential, that all Baltic Sea’s problems are being taken care of at the same time”, Herlin says.
“And one should remember that when solving problems of the Baltic Sea we address also the global problems such as food supply and need for clean water”, Herlin continues.
More information: Johanna Konttila, BSAG, Communications Director, firstname.lastname@bsag.fi,  +358 40 352 8899
www.bsag.fi
www.balticsummit.ru

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