Having discussed the two EU macro-regional strategies (the EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region) Chairpersons of the Committees on Environment Protection and the Committees on State Administration and Local Authorities continued their debate at the Meeting in the Seimas on how Member States could combine their efforts to jointly address regional problems. Environmental aspects play a key role in the EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The idea to develop macro-regional strategies was raised when countries decided to coordinate their actions and to share their experiences.

Valentinas Mazuronis, Minister of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania, said that in 2009, when approving the EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region the European Council stressed that the strategy could serve as an example for other regions. “The Baltic Sea Strategy has three objectives: to save the sea, to connect the region and to increase people’s prosperity. [...] Environmental situation of the Baltic Sea is a concern of the entire region, including public institutions, private sector as well as each and every member of our society. [...] We have to understand that achieving and preserving good environmental level of our natural resource, the Baltic Sea, is becoming an increasingly significant regional challenge”, said the minister.

Mr Mazuronis highlighted that special attention should be given to sustainable use of resources since the major share of pollution comes from river basins, though the report published by the European Commission in summer 2013 indicated that Lithuania was one of four best wastewater managing countries in the EU. The minister suggested that we have to reduce pollution in rivers in order to release fewer pollutants into the Baltic Sea.

Similar problems are addressed by the countries in the Danube region. Andreas Beckmann, World Wide Fund for Nature, Director of the Danube-Carpathian Programme, noted that: “If we use phosphates (contained in shampoos and detergents) in Austria, it has an impact further downstream in the Danube and in the Black Sea. Pollutants also have an impact on fish population, therefore, the speaker welcomed one of the goals of the EU strategy for the Danube Region which focuses on conservation of the Danube sturgeon. Sturgeons used to migrate all the way to Germany and now because of Iron Gate dams and many other dams further upstream it cannot get any further than the Romanian-Serbian border”, Mr Beckmann said.

The speaker emphasised that the key value of the Danube Region Strategy is integration of economic sectors and cooperation with other stakeholders. “The problem with the EU strategy for the Danube Region is that we have not taken a forward look with this strategy. It is very much based on current view and not a future vision. In terms of moving forward we really have to keep our eyes on this bigger vision, so we should be thinking of what we need to achieve in the longer term, in ten or fifty years, and what are our milestones today”, said Mr Beckmann.

Asta Markevičienė, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6202, e-mail: [email protected]