Ms Outi Ojala, Chairman of the Standing
Committee of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference
NGO
FORUM in Turku 9 May 2003
Chairman,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me first of all
express my profound delight that we are gathered here in Turku, this old beauty at the shore of the Baltic Sea. I
would like to thank the hosts and the organizing committee for this opportunity
to participate and discuss current topics with the NGOs in our region. I would
also like to thank the city of Turku for generously hosting the conference. It
is impressive to see such a large gathering of NGOs. This Forum shows us that
the NGO activities are significant in our region.
Like the NGO
activities, I would like to argue that the Baltic Sea Parliamentary
cooperation, which I am presenting today, is of fundamental importance for
promoting the democratic, economic, social and cultural development in the
region. During the last ten years, cooperation has widened and deepened. One of
the most significant outcomes of the cooperation, as I see it, is the Baltic
Sea perspective and Baltic Sea cooperation has become a natural part of the
everyday work in our national parliaments. The parliamentary cooperation took
off on a initiative of the then Finnish Speaker Kalevi Sorsa in the early
nineties, and from the very outset we have endeavored to have close contacts
and cooperation with the NGOs as well as
the governments in the region. The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference
has annually, during the conference, met the NGOs and had discussions on issues
important for all parties. We have also financed participation of some of the
NGOs to the conferences.
Last year I had the
privilege of participating in the 11th Ministerial Meeting of the
CBSS, which also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the
organization. We parliamentarians have all the reason to be pleased with the
CBSS. It was parliamentarians who, at the first parliamentary conference in Helsinki
in 1991, issued an appeal to the governments to establish a governmental
cooperation.
Besides the Baltic
Sea co-operation at the governmental and parliamentarian level, a broad NGO
engagement is an essential condition for successful development of the Baltic
Sea Region. We parliamentarians appreciate very much the work already done by
NGOs from all of the Baltic Sea countries and consider this work as a
fundamental cornerstone for our political activity.
Next year, eight out
of nine countries around the Baltic Sea will most likely be members of the EU.
Six of these will also be members of NATO. This will not eliminate the need for
regional cooperation. On the contrary, we will continue to strengthen
cooperation between all countries, EU members as well as non-EU-members. From
the parliamentary point of view, we see the importance of developing as close
relations as possible between EU and Russia as paramount. The CBSS and the
annual parliamentary conferences are providing good opprtunities to develop
this partnership.
Baltic Sea
Cooperation will face new challenges and meet ever-new demands. We therefore
must pursue an open and unconditional discussion about the form and content in
the forthcoming Baltic Sea co-operation. It
remains to be seen if there is need for new structures or if we can
strengthen and use our existing organisation.
Chairman,
The Baltic Sea
co-operation and the CBSS are playing an important role in creating a new
action plan for the Northern Dimension 2004 – 2006. They can be seen as an
important partner of this development. The Northern Dimension has the
overriding objective to strengthen democracy, stability, security, prosperity
and a sustainable development in Northern Europe. An important task now is to
give the Northern dimension a concrete content and to equip it with powerful
instruments. This is a task that not least we parliamentarians should take
seriously. From the parliamentary side
we should increase the political pressure in order to support practical efforts
to implement the Northern Dimension. This goes for the national, regional,
sub-regional and local levels alike. The local and practical perspective is
fundamental. Efforts should evolve from the conditions at local level and end
up in tangible results at that level.
Contacts and
cooperation with all the actors involved in the implementation of the Northern
Dimension are essential. CBSS has, as I already said, assumed a prominent role
in this work and produced its contribution for the new action plan for the
Northern Dimension.
The environmental
issues have already from the beginning been high on the agenda of the Baltic
Sea Parliamentary Conference. Those issues have lately been broadened and
deepened. They no longer deal with environmental protection alone. To a growing
extent, they are a matter of recognizing and understanding the relationship
between environmental issues and issues of social and economic development, as
well as sustainable development.
The Northern
Dimension has, as I indicated earlier, been accused of generating more nice
talk than solid results. However, when it comes to the environmental field, I
think certain practical steps have been taken.
The role of the NGOs has in this context been very important.
Another key sector
for the Baltic Sea region in the Northern Dimension is transports. The
parliamentarians have expressed their support to the development of transport
routes with higher capacity. At the same time, we want to emphasize the
necessity to apply different measures to counter the risks that could emerge
when traffic and transport loads, for instance at sea, expands. But much
remains to be done, and active cooperation is imperative.
The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference has
adopted a statement regarding classification of the Baltic Sea as a whole as a PSSA (Particularly Sensitive Sea
Area). The Standing Committee of the parliamentarians has issued an appeal to
the Baltic Sea States´ governments in order to strengthen the condition for oil
transports in Baltic Sea. The ice condition last winter have in a very concrete
way shown the necessity to take concrete measures in this direction. I am
pleased to hear that Mr Tuomioja, the CBSS Chairman, yesterday tackled this very same problem. HELCOM
and Baltic 21 have been our contact
points in this issue.
Developing Baltic Sea
cooperation in the field of civil security is vital. Organized and cross-border
crime, a growing drug problem, trafficking of women and children, smuggling of
persons, and a brutalized violence are emerging and worrying manifestations on
the crime scene. Xenophobic violence is spreading and the rift and hostility
towards immigrants is showing a growing tendency. Powerful measures against
cross-border crime, trafficking, drugs dealing and racism are urgently needed,
just like measures to overcome the growing cultural and social disparities and
facilitate integration between various groups of society. It is fundamentally
important that the measures carried out are in full compliance with basic
freedoms and rights.
Chairman,
The NGO Forum – as
the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference - is an important instrument in the
discussion. It gives us an opportunity to gather our experiences, to evaluate
them, to get a situation report over where we are standing today, and to
consider in what direction we want to go in the future. This year, the Baltic
Sea Parliamentary Conference will be convened in the City of Oulu, one of the
northernmost cities in the Baltic Sea region. The main themes for the
conference are knowledge society, labour
market issues and environmental questions. I am glad to have the
opportunity to wish representatives for the NGO Forum warmly welcome not only to participate at the
conference but also to inform the
parliamentarians about the outcome and results of this forum.
Today we can look at the development of the Baltic Sea region as a
success story and I am convinced that this forum is an important chapter in the
story. I am confident that one of the reasons for this is that we have understood
the importance of co-operation at all levels.
This Forum is an important step and shows us that the civil society is
actively working for the best of the peoples in the Baltic Sea Region. I want
to assure that the parliamentarians share the objectives of building a strong
cili society. It is a common task for politicians. Baltic Sea is our common
sea. Let´s take care of it together.