Minister vid Finlands ambassad i Stockholm Mikael Antell välkomsttalade på WWF:s Östersjöseminarium på ambassaden den 27 augusti 2014

Your Royal Highness, Mrs. Minister, Your Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great honor for the Embassy of Finland to welcome you all to today´s seminar which we host together with our long-standing partner WWF.

Finland is strongly committed to the Baltic Sea Cooperation. The Embassy has from the very beginning had an active role at the Baltic Sea festival, this late summer event that yearly gathers such a wide range of actors for a common cause. This is now the 12th year in a row that this seminar is organized with the aim of making a difference - contributing to a better environment in the Baltic Sea.

We have seen a lot of good initiatives during the past years. The adoption of the Helsinki Commission´s Baltic Sea Action Plan and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region provide the necessary frameworks. Also globally we have seen positive new legislation and international commitments. The development is going in the right direction, but I think we can all agree that the process could go faster.

To speed up the process it is of crucial importance that we emphasize the continued need for coherence and cooperation between the various organizations that provide the architecture for Baltic Sea Region cooperation. We can´t meet the challenges of our common sea country by country, sector by sector. We have to deal with them in a more coherent way. This was also one of the main objectives during the past year when Finland chaired the Council of the Baltic Sea States. The main priorities of our presidency included integrated maritime policy and especially clean shipping.

Green solutions are also good economy. I´m convinced that the rising amount of commitments that many companies are showing and through more public-private partnerships the challenges of the area can be turned to a success environmentally as well as economically. If we succeed in creating the right architecture for how to deal with maritime questions the Baltic Sea region can be a world leading model for how to handle maritime questions globally.

But let us now focus on today´s seminar "OUR SEAS – OUR FUTURE".  I hope the seminar will be fruitful. I wish you all once more warmly welcome to our premises here at the Embassy of Finland.