BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

Fleming Otzen
Chairman of the Helsinki Commission
Introduction
16 August 1993
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE HELSINKI COMMISSION
Before considering what has been achieved within the Helsinki Commission context I think it is
worthwhile to look a little back in time to the early seventies when the HELCOM process was set in
motion.
Let us start in 1972 which was the year when the United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment took place in Stockholm which changed the old way of thinking that development was
the main objective while protection of the environment could wait until later.
Thus, the Conference adopted the principle of “Only One Earth” which stresses the need to handle
economic development within the framework set by the environment.
In the general principles for assessment and control of marine pollution adopted by the Conference
it is stated that States should join together regionally to concert their policies and adopt measures in
common to prevent pollution of the areas which, for geographical or ecological reasons, form a
natural entity and an integrated whole.
This message to the European marine regions sat in motion the work on the legal regimes for
protection of the marine environment in the different European geographical areas, thus also in the
Baltic Sea Area.
In the Baltic the Government of Finland took the initiative and approached the other six Baltic Sea
States and inquired whether they would be interested in the preparation of an agreement for the
protection of the Baltic Sea.
Taking into consideration the political situation around the Baltic in those days where some countries
belonged to NATO, some to the Warsaw Pact and the remainders were neutral as well as there were
different political ideas applied in different parts of the region then it seem for us to day unbelievable
that all states replied in the positive.
The regional process could then start and in May 1973 government experts convened in Helsinki to
prepare a Diplomatic Conference on the preservation of the marine environment in the Baltic Sea.
One of the most important conclusions from that meeting was that the Conference should take an
overall approach to the problem and adopt a convention which should address all sources of marine
pollution as well as it should address the co-operation between the Baltic States, e.g. scientific and
technological co-operation and co-operation in combatting spillages on the sea.
The meeting also prepared a note on the special characteristics of the Baltic Sea with the aim to obtain
the acceptance of the International Conference on Marine Pollution,1973 to include the Baltic as a
“Special Area” in the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 - also
known as MARPOL 73 - which should be adopted by that Conference in November 1973.