CCB calls to postpone the adoption of the Lynetteholm project
CCB as an environmental NGO network, was approached by our Danish and German members with an information about ongoing discussions on the Lynetteholm project and its expected adoption by the Danish Parliament in early June. It appeared rather alerting as despite of the scale of the project and potential magnitude of its impacts on the Baltic marine environment, no information about any wider international consultations was available. The impacts for the whole Baltic Sea are primarily connected with obstruction of salt water inflow to the Baltic from the North Sea, which is vital for oxygenation of oxygen-depleted bottom layers and serves important role in Baltic biogeochemical cycle .
CCB as an active Observer to the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (Helsinki Commission) has filed a request HELCOM for such information to be provided to other Baltic countries (along with similar requests for 2 other large-scale infrastructure projects in Russia and Poland). It will be raised at the 60 th Meeting of HELCOM Heads of Delegation that happens today and tomorrow.
At the same time our members have approached national contact points for Espoo Convention on environmental impact assessment in transboundary context, asking whether any notification about Lynetteholm was given to other neighbouring countries. None of those, but Sweden, were informed about the project and Swedish response from various authorities to the proposed project was strongly negative. Based on inquiries to relevant authorities, now Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Finland, have asked Denmark for further information on the project.
Finally, given the short deadline before the hearings in the Danish Parliament, CCB submitted an open letter prior to it, referring to the contradictions of the project approval without proper consultations with the Baltic Sea countries. The letter has been also shared with the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries , as well as with Directors General of respective DG of the European Commission and the Chair of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference . In a letter, CCB calls for a postponement of the adoption of the project before necessary transboundary consultations are being held and respective impact mitigation measures are jointly devised.
