Turku 9 May 2003

                                 

 

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.