BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

until 80-100%. All local costs will always be carried by
the receiving parties. Hence it may well be seen that any
project will necessitate a profound involvement of the
cooperating parties.
Until today the Finnish government funding through its
regular budget for environmental investments include for
Estonia USD 7 million, Poland USD 6.5 million and Russia
4 million. Technical assistance includes respectively for
Estonia USD 0.8 million, Latvia and Lithuania USD 0.2
million, Russia USD 1.8 million, joint projects USD 1.2
million and trust funds USD 1.1 million.
The main effort regarding investments has been aimed at
improving/maintaining the operational capacities of vital
infrastructure like waste water treatment facilities with
provisions for spare parts and completion of unfinished
structures. It has become quite clear that meanwhile the
feasibility studies are being carried out urgent actions
for running the facilities are pertinent. During these
preliminary actions training also may take place in a
very effective and practical way.
So far 25 investment projects have received funding and
several negotiations are on-going. Moreover, close to 100
projects providing expertise, training or special studies
have been funded covering several fields of environmental
protection.
2. Successes and failures
Due to the low-profile and careful initial phases of the
project in the first place and secondly to the long-term
previous scientific relations with all the cooperating
countries no particular failures have been recorded so
far. Delays in various developments were to be expected
as normal routine and the severe economical conditions
have to be taken into account at every step as part of
the programme. These problems have been discussed and
must be dealt with jointly to find proper solutions at
each case.
Without going into details considering successful elements
of the project the joint preparation of the initial
survey stands as the primary cornerstone for any successes.
Annual programmes are prepared jointly as well,
which will enable a flexible focusing of the attention to
most pertinent questions taking into account long-term
developments as well. From this standpoint direct contacts
and good relations have been established with all
parties concerned and in such a way several bureaucratic
obstacles may be overcome. Through honest and direct
exchange of opinions the best results will be obtained.
As succes criteria the considerable allocations of funds
in Estonia, St.Petersburg and Carelian Republic to the
projects and studies under the present conditions indicate
the high priority the environmental issues are receiving
presently. The initial early implementation of
selected concrete projects has contributed remarkably to
raising the motivation necessary for actions in this
field.
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