THE BALTIC SEA
JOINT COMPREHENSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION PROGRAMME

HIGH LEVEL CONFERENCE ON RESOURCE MOBILIZATION

Declaration on Resource Mobilization
for the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme
(Gdansk Declaration)

__________________________
Gdansk, Poland 24-25 March 1993


CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT Helsinki Commission

in cooperation with


Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry of the Republic of Poland
and
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank,
Nordic Investment Bank and the World Bank

    
    Environment Ministers, and High Representatives of the Governments of
    
    Belarus,
    
    The Czech Republic,
    
    The Kingdom of Denmark,
    
    The Republic of Estonia,
    
    The Republic of Finland,
    
    The Federal Republic of Germany,
    
    The Republic of Latvia,
    
    The Republic of Lithuania,
    
    The Kingdom of Norway,
    
    The Republic of Poland,
    
    The Russian Federation,
    
    The Slovak Republic,
    
    The Kingdom of Sweden,
    
    The Ukraine;
    
    and the Representative of
    
    The Commission of the European Communities
    
    ASSEMBLED at the High Level Conference on Resource Mobilization for the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme in Gdansk, Poland, on 24-25 March 1993,
    
    RECALLING the Baltic Sea Declaration of 3 September 1990, in which Heads of Governments and High Political Representatives of the Baltic Sea States, Norway and the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and the Representative of the Commission of the European Communities expressed their firm determination to assure the ecological restoration of the Baltic Sea and for that purpose to prepare urgently a Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme in the framework of the Helsinki Commission,
    
    RECOGNIZING the severeness of global and European environmental problems, and the seriously threatened ecological balance of the Baltic Sea,
    
    RECALLING the Baltic Sea Environmental Declaration, 1992, and the need for-action and implementation of the Programme,
    
    NOTING with satisfaction the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme, endorsed in principle by the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, April 1992,
    
    NOTING ALSO the role given to the Programme Implementation Task Force in coordinating, facilitating, advising and reporting on the implementation of the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme,
    
    NOTING FURTHER the existing bilateral and multilateral agreements to support the States in the Baltic Sea catchment area with economies in transition,
    

    RECOGNIZING that the implementation of the Programme will extend over decades,
    
    REAFFIRMING their determination to make all efforts to continue and accelerate implementation of the Programme,
    
    UNDERLINING that these efforts will initially focus on Phase I of the Programme,
    
    UNDERLINING ALSO that investment activities will have to be complemented by policy reforms and strengthening of the environmental management institutions, as well as increasing public awareness and environmental education,
    
    RECALLING the common understanding that all States in the Baltic Sea catchment area on their own account take full responsibility to meet the investment and operational costs needed to fulfill the implementation of the Programme,
    
    CONSCIOUS that each State in the Baltic Sea catchment area has to decide on the necessary steps according to its national, political and economic situation,
    
    CONSCIOUS ALSO of the present difficult position of the countries with formerly centrally planned economies which requires active participation and support from the bilateral donors and international financial institutions,
    
    RECOGNIZING that countries in economic transition must commit themselves to undertake necessary investments, when appropriate, with participation by international financial institutions and the private sector,
    
    RECOGNIZING ALSO the need for grants from donor countries to establish the necessary basis for investments in environmental protection of the Baltic Sea catchment area,
    
    RECOGNIZING FURTHER that all participants to the Programme are equally committed to help remedy the situation and WILLING, in the spirit of partnership, to provide support for the resource mobilization necessary for the implementation of the Programme,
    
    HAVE AGREED TO
    
    1. MAKE ALL EFFORTS TO MOBILIZE local, national, bilateral or multilateral financial and other resources for the implementation of the Programme, including grant financing,
    
    2. EMPHASIZE that the scarcity of financial resources makes it necessary to adopt a phased approach to the implementation of many priority investment activities within the Programme,
    
    3. STRESS the need to restrict the preparation of feasibility studies to those projects in the Programme where such studies are a prerequisite and where there are concrete possibilities to realize these projects,
    
    4. RECOMMEND to create, wherever appropriate, mechanisms to support mobilization and efficient application of domestic resources such as the national environmental funds established in countries like the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Russia,
    
    5. RECOMMEND that appropriate economic, market-oriented instruments should be used more systematically in order to reduce discharges into the Baltic Sea,
    
    6. RECOMMEND ALSO the introduction of equitable and efficient user charges, conditioned upon expanded metering of water and energy consumption, or charges/levies related to discharges, taking into account the ongoing work within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Nordic Council of Ministers,
    
    7. EXAMINE the possibilities to use debt-for-environment-swaps as a way of financing projects in the environment and nature conservation sectors,
    
    8. CALL UPON international financial institutions to engage themselves in setting up arrangements for project financing including all approaches, such as co-operation with commercial financial institutions, integration of public grants and private investments and to apply the best possible conditions to loans,
    
    9. PROMOTE the combining of local, national, bilateral and multilateral financing to create more favorable conditions for implementing priority projects,
    
    10. ACKNOWLEDGE that grants, or other financial support, should, in coordination with the relevant international financial institutions, be made available as a basis for investments, inter alia, for feasibility studies or other project preparation activities in the recipient countries, and that, within the framework of the HELCOM Programme Implementation Task Force, appropriate means for that purpose should be considered,
    
    11. ENCOURAGE governments and other members of the HELCOM Programme Implementation Task Force to provide, within the Programme Implementation Task Force structures and on a voluntary basis, co-ordination responsibilities for particular parts of the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme,
    
    12. RECOGNIZE the importance of the role of the private sector and to facilitate its participation in the Programme,
    
    13. EMPHASIZE the need to mobilize sufficient resources for equity investments to initiate to the extent possible self sustaining projects,
    
    14. CONSIDER the further use of governmental credit guarantees and counter guarantees to facilitate the financing of environmental projects with credits.    
    
    
    

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