Today, on 27 September, the Estonian Minister of the Environment Mr Villu Reiljan met with Mr Miguel Bauza More, Spanish Ambassador in Estonia. The topics of discussion included the issues of marine safety, implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and future financing of the Natura 2000 trans-European nature protection programme in the European Union. Last week Mr Reiljan made a proposal to the Government that the continuing financing of the Natura 2000 nature protection network during the next financing period (2007 to 2013) should be included among Estonia’s priorities during the Dutch presidency. The Minister discussed the same issue at today’s meeting with the Spanish Ambassador, emphasizing that Estonia is definitely planning to support future financing of the Natura programme at the level of the European Union (EU). This subject will also be discussed at the meeting of the EU Environmental Council on 14 October in which the Estonian Minister of the Environment is going to participate. Another issue important for both Spain and Estonia is marine safety. In November 2002 there was extensive oil pollution off the coast of Spain caused by an accident with tanker vessel Prestige. Estonia faces similar risks due to the rather big volume of oil transit in the Baltic Sea. Every day, there are approximately 2000 vessels in the Baltic Sea of which about 200 are tankers. In the future, pollution in the Baltic Sea will be eliminated by a universal oil abatement ship to be modified from buoy boat EVA-316 belonging to the Estonian Maritime Administration. With regard to both Estonian and Spanish marine areas – the Baltic Sea in the case of Estonia and the Canary Islands area in the case of Spain – the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted a decision of principle to declare these waters as marine areas of special sensitivity. This would apply to the whole Baltic Sea, except for the area in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea and the area around Kaliningrad, which belong to Russia. In addition to the above, Minister Reiljan and Ambassador Bauza More talked about the Kyoto Protocol dealing with greenhouse gas emissions and discussed the possibilities of cooperation with Estonia as a new Member State of the European Union. The Ambassador said that Spain has experience, experts and competence in the use of EU financial resources and preparation of projects, and in this respect the Spanish people can be of assistance to Estonia. The Minister and the Ambassador also talked about cooperation and bilateral aid projects. It was agreed that communication in this regard would be continued at the level of experts to specify possible areas of cooperation. Further information: |
