"BSPC has called for active support to projects with the objective of reducing harmful emissions from ships and developing reception facilities for waste water from ships. In order to enforce the IMO ban from October 2010 on waste water discharge from passenger ships and ferries in the Baltic Sea, it is necessary that the states around the Sea urgently make adequate port reception facilities available",  said Christina Gestrin, in her keynote address to the European Maritime Day in Gdansk 19 May.

Gestrin is Chairman of the BSPC and member of the Nordic Council Presidium.

“Strong measures are needed to improve maritime surveillance, safety of navigation and environmental risk reduction, for example by harmonizing and elaborating existing ship reporting systems and vessel traffic services. We have also strongly urged governments to strengthen the joint regional and national capacity to tackle major spills of oil and hazardous substances”, she stressed.

The European Maritime Day, arranged by the European Commission, is the biggest annual maritime event in Europe, gathering close to a thousand participants.