Security of Northern European sea borders
18.08.2008 | Tarmo Kõuts | English news
Globalisation makes it impossible to distinguish between internal and external security, as many states depend on the same or similar security factors. The processes inside the European Union bring the economic, political and security-related interests of the Member States into an ever increasing correlation, since the security risks are widely overlapping.
Meanwhile, the security of every Member State is an issue of national sovereignty - from military, economic, ecological as well as demographical point of view. The security of every country is influenced by various domestic factors as well as developments in neighbouring countries and elsewhere.
Foreign security impact on internal security, domestic stability and safety knows no state borders, be they drawn on land, air or sea. Coastal countries are particularly susceptible to the impact of the multitude of activities carried out at their sea borders. If the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean are mainly threatened by international organised crime - terrorism, drug and human trafficking - the sea borders of the Northern European countries are at risk from the deteriorating ecological situation brought on by the intense economic activity.
The ecological situation of the Baltic Sea causes particular concern as it adds pressure to the economy of many countries (drastic decline in fish stocks, negative processes among marine life forms, etc). The key issue of recent years in the Gulf of Finland is the massive increase of petroleum products transit from Russian ports (Primorsk, Ust-Luga, Vyssotsk).
Despite the complex navigational and meteorological conditions (shallow water, difficult ice conditions, frequent storms, limited visibility, etc), oil has long been transported in cheap single-hulled tankers. Frequent leaks and criminal pumping of bilge water from vessels into the sea has repeatedly caused extensive pollution on the Baltic coastline (particularly in the Gulf of Finland area). A case in point is the 2004 oil spill which killed tens of thousands of seabirds on the Estonian North-Eastern coast. The polluter was never identified. Such examples can already be counted in dozens.
It is plain and clear that the Baltic Sea is not an open sea. The water circulation pattern has its particularities. The Baltic is an almost closed off internal sea where the water circulates through the narrow Danish straits (i.e. Great and Little Belt and Oresund). This is why the ecological situation of the Baltic Sea requires closer international attention.
It is with unpleasant surprise that we recorded a new security risk in the Baltic Sea region - the Nord Stream gas pipeline - which has in actual fact reached construction phase. The planned pipeline would run on the bottom of the Gulf of Finland around the Western Estonian islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa and the Eastern coast of the island of Gotland. The route would pass through sites where thousands of WW I and WW II sea mines were buried, most of them anchor mines. In addition, 80,000 sea mines were scattered in the Gulf of Finland during the WW II, thousands of which are still in place and possibly active. Although Estonian navy has cooperated with fleets of other countries of the region (Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania), and also with those of the Netherlands, USA, Denmark, Germany etc, to locate and destroy hundreds of sea mines in the coastal sea of Estonia and Latvia, it is clear that these extremely dangerous activities could be continued for years to come.
However, the pre-eminent ecological threat to the Baltic Sea probably arises from the extremely toxic chemicals, such as chemical weapon components sarine, somane, yprite and others, buried by Russia and Germany in the centre of the Baltic Sea during and after the WW II.
The barrels are by now heavily corroded from decades of exposure to sea water, and any contact with them might result in a catastrophe of unprecedented scale to the Baltic Sea ecosystem as well as to the lives and health of everyone living in the countries around it.
These and other possible catastrophic consequences of building the underwater Nord Stream pipeline have been repeatedly highlighted by numerous governments: Polish, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Danish. The European Parliament has also woken up to the issue. Discussions on the topic in the relevant European Parliament committees lead to the general conclusion that if the Baltic Sea ecosystem and region should appear to be compromised by the planned pipeline, the Commission, the Council and the Member States must do all in their power to prevent the construction of the pipeline in the extent planned by Nord Stream.
The pressure on the marine bio-system of the Baltic is first and foremost the result of the general maritime policy of the European Union, which actively favours the development of maritime activities in the Member States. This has lead to a dramatic increase in the number of ships operating on the Baltic.
All this forces the countries of the Baltic Sea region to commit further to the protection of the ecological environment on legislative as well as practical level. The result is a gradually tightening cooperation between the competent authorities of various countries.
In this context, the deepening and purposeful cooperation between the Baltic Sea countries has an important practical and tangible significance for the whole EU. It is an example to be followed.
Source: Vision de la Défense Européenne / European Defence vision, September 2008
This article is also published in the "Défense" magazine of IHEDN, October 2008 edition: La sécurité aux frontières septentrionales maritimes de l'Europe
