During the HELCOM Annual Meeting on 3-4 March 2015, the Contracting Parties continued to address the issue of limiting passenger ships’ sewage ending up in the Baltic Sea.
The negotiations concerned various options to be able to be in a position that a joint notification by HELCOM countries could be sent to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The deadline for documents for the next meeting of the IMO decision making body (MEPC 68 in May 2015) is Friday 6 March.
The notification document has the function to notify that the relevant Baltic regional ports have adequate capacity to receive passenger sewage, as this is a prerequisite for the existing IMO Special Area status on sewage for the Baltic Sea to take effect.
The HELCOM Heads of Delegations considered the issue, in addition to the plenary, during two working sessions on 3 March. At that time an agreement could not be reached regarding a notification covering all the Baltic Sea countries.
As the HELCOM Chair stated in the meeting, HELCOM will follow developments at IMO and also continue the technical cooperation within the Port Reception Facilities (PRF) Cooperation Platform on sewage delivery between the administrations, industry stakeholders and the civil society.
Sweden – leading the drafting of the notification document – informed at the meeting to be prepared to continue to lead the drafting process to finalize the notification to MEPC 68 with the interested Contracting States.
On the other hand, the Russian Federation informed of the need to be aware of the shipping companies’ policy regarding the implementation of the more stringent standards for sewage treatment, whether they have plans in place to install new or upgrade existing sewage treatment plants on their passenger ships. The Russian delegation urged for a complex economic assessment of the consequences of the enforcement of the Special Area status.
All Contracting Parties informed in HELCOM that their reception facilities in relevant passenger ports are adequate.
Source: HELCOM
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