The
region of Baltic Sea is one of the most
important industrial and marine centers in the North of Europe. The territory
covers 800 km
of the coast and includes nine countries. Eight of these countries are already
members of European Union and devote the part of their economic and political
assignments to creating a solid integration of the region. The European Union
membership allows each country – Finland ,
Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania ,
Poland , German, Denmark and Sweden
– to use free trade of goods and services along the Baltic
Sea . Due to this advantage and economic, physical and cultural
closeness, all the countries have agreed to implement the strategy of Baltic Sea region of 2007-2013 using the structural funds
of the European Union.
During
the last decades the region of Baltic Sea has
suffered many severe problems that might have affected the welfare of
population of almost 100 million people living in the region. One of the most
noticeable weaknesses of the region is the low level of competitiveness in the
domestic market. In some countries there are no appropriate economic niches to
foster more beneficial competition. The need of regional integration is quite
visible in this case. One more issue that leads to this situation is the
territorial and economic isolation from the rest part of European Union. To be
more specific, Finland , Estonia and Sweden
are the most inaccessible countries from all Europe .
Another
serious issue is the deteriorating quality of water in the Baltic
Sea . The sea, which has water depth of only 58 meters , loses its
biological variety because of a huge quantity of nitrates and phosphates that
are thrown to the water by agricultural and industrial companies, not to
mention the pollution caused by tourism and people building their houses near
the coast. Furthermore, the seaweeds increasingly proliferating and covering a
huge part of the sea damage the shipping routes and because of the lack of
absorbed oxygen they also kill the majority of creatures living in the sea.
Finally,
the transportation problems of Baltic Sea also
should be taken into consideration. As the number of tankers full of oil
increases rapidly (the amount of oil shipped seeks up to 171 million tons per
year), the danger of toxic spills is getting more and more feasible. That comes
true especially in winter when ice covers harbors. Moreover, shipping is quite
unsafe due to high crime rates in the Baltic region. That could be referred to
economic and social problems of the countries.
European
Commission took the control of these problems and created a strategy that aims
to make the region of Baltic Sea prosperous,
easily accessible, environmentally-friendly and safe. These four main
characteristics are the basic guidelines for more than 900 projects that are
already created and started to be implemented. For instance, one project
suggests removing phosphates from washing powders that are sold in the region.
By doing this, one fourth of phosphates thrown into the sea would be
eliminated. Also, there is a prepared group of specialists who will help to
solve the agricultural problems related to fertilize consumption.
Another
aim of prosperity of the region is supposed to be achieved by facilitating the
bureaucratic processes and making easier mobilization through the region. Also,
for this reason projects involve collaboration of universities that could raise
the overall education level especially in the areas (such as shipping
industry), which might be exploited in the Baltic region.
In
addition, for making region more accessible, the ‘Rail Baltic’ project will be
implemented. According to it, the railways connecting Warsaw
and Tallinn 120 kilometers per
hour.
Finally,
there are some plans how to make the region safer. The tools of risk prevention
against the dangers in the Baltic Sea consist
of creating an integrated system of monitoring and communication through the
entire region. The system involves all activities in the sea such as shipping
safety, border control, sea environment safety and fishing control.
To
conclude, European Union together with countries of the region made a lot of
efforts to implement the regional strategy of Baltic Sea
and already devoted one milliard euros from European Union structural funds. As
there have been many successful projects every year, it is supposed that
European Commission will let to continue this strategy during the period
between 2014-2020 in
order to seek greater prosperity and integration of the region.
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