Our Baltic – High level meeting on the status of the sea
The European Commission organised the third edition of the Our Baltic Conference in Stockholm at the end of September. The commissioners and ministers for environment, fisheries and agriculture from around the Baltic Sea reaffirmed their commitment to the improvement of the marine environment. A first test will come when ministers decide on fishing quotas later in October.
When the EU Commission presented its Ocean Pact in June 2025, it also announced that another high-level meeting on the Baltic Sea would be arranged, the third edition of the Our Baltic conference since 2020. The Our Baltic conference took place on September 30 this year in Stockholm. In addition to Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall and Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner Costas Kadis, the participants included ministers (or their representatives) for the environment, agriculture and fisheries from the EU's Baltic Sea coastal states, as well as some representatives from the European Parliament, HELCOM and ICES. A total of around 60 people attended.
According to the European Commission's introduction and subsequent press release, the purpose of the event was to address the pressing environmental and socio-economic challenges affecting the Baltic Sea. Key outcomes of the conference included a commitment to revise the Marine Strategy Framework Directive to enhance its effectiveness and the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation to regenerate marine habitats and species. Additionally, the conference highlighted the role of the Water Resilience Strategy and the European Ocean Pact in promoting sustainable blue economies in the region. However, these proposals were already included when the Ocean Pact was presented in June.
In his opening speech, Kadis emphasised that the situation in the Baltic Sea is urgent – eutrophication and other pollution, declining fish stocks, destroyed habitats, etc. Kadis said:
What we are witnessing is not a crisis caused by a single factor, nor one that can be solved by a single measure. The decline of our unique ecosystem is the result of multiple, interconnected pressures – climate change, eutrophication, overfishing hidden by misreporting, habitat destruction and pollution. Each of these factors exacerbates the others, creating a cycle of degradation that threatens marine life, coastal communities, and entire industries. To break this cycle, we need more than isolated interventions – we need a comprehensive approach with coordinated action across sectors and across borders.
He emphasised that environmental pressures on the Baltic Sea interact and that measures must therefore also be coordinated. Kadis pointed out that fish stocks are in crisis. He addressed complaints that some total allowable fishing catches the Commission had proposed for 2026 were below the catches in the “headline advice” from ICES, pointing out that the Commission had also been taking into account the whole advice, not just the headlines. The need to consider the headline advice in context was underscored by ICES in a newspaper interview in connection with the conference, where Kadis said that the headline advice “is like a speed limit, which can work well under normal circumstances. But the Baltic is not in a normal condition.”
Kadis emphasised that the question of how much risk one is willing to take with the fish stocks is central. This was also highlighted by Henrik Svedäng, a researcher at the Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre, in his speech for Kadis in Simrishamn earlier this year.
Other issues emphasised by Kadis were the need for more research and the implementation of existing legislation.
Environment Commissioner Roswall also emphasised the need to implement agreed environmental legislation. She said that the EU has the right tools to deal with the problems, but that these tools must be used. Roswall also pointed out that the environment and security are interlinked.
The urgent situation facing fish stocks was reiterated in the speech by Minister for Rural Affairs Kullgren. The minister is responsible for both fisheries and agricultural issues. He argued that three things are needed to address the urgent crisis facing fish stocks: reduced quotas in the short term, a reduction in seal and cormorant populations in the medium term, and the implementation of environmental policy in the longer term. The need to review the mandate of ICES was also highlighted.
Helcom Director Strempel participated in the Our Baltic meeting and began by describing the dire situation facing the Baltic Sea, as summarised in the report State of the Baltic Sea – Third HELCOM holistic assessment 2016-2021. Strempel emphasised that the effects of climate change are happening faster in the Baltic Sea than in other seas and are already noticeable in various ways in the sea. In conclusion, he highlighted the Baltic Sea Action Plan as a key tool for addressing the problems.
No declaration or other formal results of the conference have been published, as the declaration after the first edition of the Our Baltic conference, and no extra funds were pledged as after the second edition, the European Commission has presented its conclusions on its website.
Overall, the conference emphasised the urgent need for stronger measures for the Baltic environement. It now remains to be seen how this will be translated into action. A first opportunity will be when the fisheries ministers decide on maximum catches for 2026 at their meeting in late October.
Text: Gun Rudquist, Head of Policy, and Charles Berkow, Policy Analyst
Read an article in which Charles Berkow is interviewed, which is related to the conference:
Europe struggles to save dying Baltic Sea as Russian military threats escalate
Last updated: October 9, 2025
Source: Baltic Sea Centre