New initiative for regional cooperation in Öresund

The Danes and the Swedes living along the shores of the Öresund have commenced action to improve the water quality. A number of local councils and counties on both sides of the Öresund have concluded a cooperative agreement to maintain the desired environmental quality.

The Agency of Environmental Protection in the City of Copenhagen has offered to provide a secretariat and a scientific secretary to run the daily cooperation between the members. The members have agreed on three immediate tasks:

• to provide a list of land-based sources discharging into the Öresund and the pollution concerned and to calculate the atmospheric deposition of polluting substances
• to clarify the need for coordination of the measurement activities and monitoring programmes
• to publicise this cooperation, e.g., by means of printed information or by carrying out projects (e.g., establishment of a common environmental data base for the Öresund)

From a longer perspective, the cooperating authorities have set more overall targets which include a general description of the present condition of the Öresund and an agreement about its desirable future condition together with how this condition may be achieved. The partners, moreover, intend to work with special issues in connection with their harbours and with pollution created by maritime activities. The first physical product of the Danish - Swedish work is the Öresund Bibliography covering the period from 1990 to 1996.

For further information, please contact Mr Finn Bjerre in Öresundsvattensamarbetet, fax: + 45 33 66 71 33.

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