Minister of the Environment Tiilikainen to open the OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum in Vienna
Press release 24/2008
25 January, 2008
The OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum will convene in Vienna on Monday, 28 January, to address the security and environmental aspects of maritime and inland waterways co-operation, one of the priorities of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship. The Preparatory Conference to the Forum was held already last autumn in Helsinki.
The Finnish representative in the Forum is Minister of the Environment Kimmo Tiilikainen. Other speakers at the Forum include, among others, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, OSCE Secretary-General, and Anne Christine Brusendorff, Executive Secretary of the Helsinki Commission. In addition to the OSCE’s 56 participating States and OSCE partner states, the other invited participants include the EU Commission, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission i.e. the Helsinki Commission, the International Maritime Organization IMO, UN Economic Commission for Europe UNECE, and representatives of NGOs and the worlds of science and business.
The volume of maritime transportation, and particularly energy transportation, has increased significantly in Europe, including also the Baltic Sea. The volumes of goods and passenger traffic are similarly on the rise. Ensuring the security of transportation requires quick measures and the development of mutual cooperation between states. The concerns raised by countries without direct access to central maritime or inland waterways constitute a separate range of issues.
The OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum is an annual event. The Forum is divided into two parts, the first of which will be held in Vienna on 28—29 January and the second in Prague on 19-21 May. The Preparatory Conference to the Prague Forum will be held in Ashgabad, Turkmenistan from 6 to 7 March.
Additional information: Desk Officer Ritva Hautanen, Finnish OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, tel. +358 40 746 2971, and Head of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship Task Force Aleksi Härkönen, tel. +358 400 330 406, http://www.osce.org/item/28348.html