HELSINKI (AP) — Finnish President Tarja Halonen on Wednesday urged leaders of the nine countries surrounding the Baltic Sea to make commitments to help clean one of the world's most polluted seas.
"It is clear that something has to be done — and quickly," Halonen said, opening a one-day regional summit in the Finnish capital.
The Baltic Sea has been subjected to decades of nutrient deposits, toxic dumping, oil spills, weapons and untreated sewage. Experts say it's particularly vulnerable to environmental changes because it has only a narrow outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.
"Today, some of the richest and most environmentally conscious countries on Earth live on the shores of one of the world's most polluted seas," Halonen said. "Isn't it a tragedy?"
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was expected to discuss Moscow's environmental programs and an underwater natural gas pipeline planned between Russia and Germany.
The 750-mile (1,200-kilometer) Nord Stream pipeline is expected to carry 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually. The German-Russian joint venture has spent some euro100 million ($135 million) on researching the environmental impact of laying the pipeline on a seabed riddled with containers of toxic chemicals and weapons from two world wars.
"It's serious. We are worried about the dioxins and other poisons on the seabed," Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip told reporters. "We expect our scientists to get full information about it all."
Some 400 experts and participants attended the Helsinki meeting, including presidents and Cabinet ministers from Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania. The area around the Baltic Sea is home to more than 90 million people.
The European Union was represented by Regional Affairs Commissioner Johannes Hahn and observers included Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and government representatives from Belarus.
Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf urged participants to "act now," while his country's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren pledged to double Sweden's contribution to the Baltic Sea Action Plan to euro9 million ($12 million). Carlgren said scientists have described the Baltic Sea as "at the edge of ecological collapse."
The Helsinki Commission — an organization formed 35 years ago by the Baltic Sea countries to protect the maritime environment — expects clear pledges from government leaders, chairman Igor Maydanov said.
So far, some 140 commitments have been made by schools, non-governmental organizations, cities, private foundations, government departments and corporations. They include company funds for treatment of sewage, agricultural producers pledging to cut nutrient deposits, and colleges and schools promoting awareness of the maritime environment.
Sampsa Vilhunen, spokesman for the Worldwide Fund for Nature in Finland, welcomed the pledges but added "they are not enough, nowhere near big enough."
