"For us politicians it is about credibility. Politicians, authorities and interest organisations must work closer together to protect the environment in the Baltic Sea," said Bohlin, chair of the Nordic Council's Swedish delegation, at a seminar in the Swedish Parliament in the wake of the Helcom meeting in Moscow on 20 May.

Helcom, which is an intergovernmental organisation which includes Sweden, Finland and Denmark amongst its members, aims to restore the Baltic Sea to the good ecological status of the 1960s in the space of 11 years, by following the agreement in the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

The ministers for the environment from the Baltic Sea countries met to report on how the governments will live up to the goals in the action plan.

Gunnar Norén from the environmental organisation Coalition Clean Baltic attended the meeting in Moscow. He believes that the work to meet the objectives in the Baltic Sea Action Plan has advanced, but not enough.

"The level of ambition for environmental work in the Baltic Sea has dropped in several of the countries around our inland sea in recent years. Denmark and the Baltic countries brought no plans at all with them to Moscow, and Finland had no comprehensive plan," said Gunnar Norén.

He hopes for a revitalization of the co-operation amongst the Baltic Sea states. Sweden will take over the chairmanship in Helcom in July this year and the programme for the chairmanship includes achieving the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

"Sweden was amongst the best in class. We have measures to deal with eutrophication, biodiversity, hazardous substances and the growing environmental problem of shipping. This was more than what many other countries presented in Moscow," said Anders Alm, First Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment.

Alm received support for his statement from Monika Stankiewicz, representative for Helcom.

"Sweden is the driving force in Helcom," she said.

Arne Grove from the Nordic Council of Ministers office in Kaliningrad underlined that official Nordic co-operation has an important role to play as a partner with Russia and the Baltic countries in the work for a cleaner Baltic Sea. Amongst other things, several Nordic workshops are being organised to involve Russia in various issues included in the action plan.

The seminar in the parliament was organised by the Swedish delegation to the Nordic Council and the Nordic Region in Focus.