Commission staff working document

Promote cost-efficient nutrient removal and sustainable sludge handling in urban waste-water treatment plants and in small-scale waste-water treatment. Focusing on municipal waste water continues to be beneficial for two reasons: there is significant potential to reduce nutrient loads by proper treatment of waste water and by reducing occasional and seasonal bypasses; and improving waste-water treatment is still a cost-efficient mean to reduce nutrient loads.

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  PRESTO. The project aims to significantly reduce the nutrient load to the Baltic Sea through education programmes for the operating staff, designers and academic trainers involved in waste-water treatment as well as technical studies and investments in selected Belarusian waste-water treatment plants (Baranovichi, Grodno, Molodechno and Vitebsk). Lead: Union of the Baltic Cities, Commission on Environment. Deadline: March 2014.
  

Promote measures and practices which support nutrient recycling and reduce nutrient losses from farming, fisheries, forestry, and waste-water treatment sludge. Additional Rural Development measures could be used to advance nutrient recycling, reduce nutrient run-off and leaching, reduce erosion and increase the retention capacity in the landscape. Intensively used agricultural land and areas with high domestic animal density should be focused on first. This action will contribute to full implementation of and reinforce measures adopted under the Nitrates Directive. It will also promote the full implementation by farmers of these measures, by increasing support through extension services and better controls.

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  Putting best agricultural practices into work – the Baltic Deal. The challenge of farm nutrient run-off and leakage eventually entering the Baltic Sea is recognised by the farming community. The Baltic Deal was initiated by five farmers’ federations as a voluntary sector response. Lead: Latvian Rural Advisory and Training Centre and Federation of Swedish Farmers. Deadline: end-2013.
  

Facilitate cross-sectoral policy-oriented dialogue among all sectors with an impact on eutrophication to develop an integrated approach to reducing nutrient loads to the sea. Supporting communication between actors can help align the different perceptions of eutrophication and find new ways for the integrated management of nutrient fluxes. For example, currently the consumption side is rarely addressed when discussing nutrient loads from agriculture, even though changes in consumption could result in remarkable reductions in nutrient loads. Enhancing cross-sectoral dialogue requires co-operation with other priority areas, e.g. with priority area ‘Agri’ regarding agro-environmental dialogue. Possible platforms for such dialogue include the HELCOM Agriculture and Environment Forum and the annual conference ‘A Greener Agriculture for a Bluer Baltic Sea’. Also, the Baltic Impulse Cluster initiative of the EU Baltic Sea Region Programme will bring together inputs from various projects on eutrophication. In addition to international and national dialogue, local and e.g. river-basin level cooperation, such as water users’ partnerships, is encouraged.

Stakeholders are encouraged to develop flagship project ideas under the theme ‘Agriculture and Environment Policy’. Possibilities for organising common roundtable discussions and/or workshops for agricultural producers and policy-makers will be investigated, for instance in cooperation with agricultural exhibitions in different countries in the region. Cooperation possibilities for joint events with the HELCOM Agriculture and Environment Forum as well as priority are ‘Agri’ will likewise be investigated.

Study and cooperate in developing new sustainable innovative and socio-economic means for cost-efficient nutrient reductions. These tools could include new mechanisms to allocate the cost of nutrient reduction to the Baltic Sea region countries in a fair and efficient way (e.g. through emission trading) as well as restorative techniques to improve the environmental status of the Baltic Sea, provided these techniques pass sustainability and risk assessment procedures.

To progress work on this action, discussion will be held with stakeholders, for instance in the priority area steering committee, with the aim of examining possibilities for targeted events and new flagship projects.

Cooperate with non-EU Member States, particularly Russia and Belarus, through HELCOM and the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership.

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  PRESTO (see action ‘Improving waste water treatment’).
  
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  Assessment of regional nutrient pollution load and identification of priority projects to reduce nutrient inputs from Belarus to the Baltic Sea. The project identifies priority investments and builds local capacity in the reduction of nutrient inputs to the Baltic Sea in the context of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership, with particular focus on agriculture, municipal waste-water and industry, including the production and use of detergents containing phosphorus. Lead: NEFCO. Deadline: 2013.
  

Support efforts to improve the completeness and reliability of nutrient load data as a basis for monitoring success in reducing nutrient loads. Data collection processes are currently insufficient, which precludes a full understanding of the eutrophication situation in the Baltic Sea. HELCOM works to ensure that nutrient pollution assessments are harmonised across the region.

Opportunities to launch a flagship project in cooperation with HELCOM to support Baltic Sea-wide compilation and assessment of nutrient pollution load data with additional measures to improve its quality, completeness and consistency, including preparatory work for harmonising reporting to HELCOM on relevant EU directives will be investigated.