OSPAR / HELCOM ministerial meeting in Bremen

The functional model was presented at the joint Ministerial Meeting of the Helsinki and OSPAR Commissions, Bremen 25-26 June 2003. At the meeting, representatives from twenty countries and the European Community worked together to improve the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic and the Baltic Sea areas.

This was a great opportunity to demonstrate the OSIS sensor for the European decision makers. Apart from the European ministers many NGO’s were represented during the 2 day meeting where the OSIS sensor attracted great interest. The Danish minister of the environment introduced the OSIS project in very positive terms to the environmental ministers of the participating countries, providing a high degree of awareness.

Here follows a summary of the minister's speech at the Meeting: ...“I want to stress that Denmark adheres to the OSPAR offshore strategy. And having the floor I also want to mention a Danish contribution to deal with oil from offshore platforms. Denmark is surrounded by open sea classified as "Special Areas" and has great focus on the offshore environment. In particular reducing contributions from oil spills are receiving our special attention. So far we have expanded our airborne surveillance against oil spills but are facing a considerable challenge when it comes to contamination from the growing number of offshore installations. To improve this, the Danish Ministry of the Environment has facilitated the development of an online oil spill surveillance system to be permanently mounted on offshore installations operating in Special Areas. The system will be operational shortly. If you are interested in further information about the product, the first generation of this system is exhibited outside this room”….

A number of delegations and private individuals were given a presentation of the concept.