“We as Baltic Sea parliamentarians have always tried to bring together economic and ecological aspects, as much as possible. Cruise Tourism constitutes an important pillar for our economic development. With more than 5 million passengers annually, the ferry and cruise shipping constitutes an important economic pillar, it contributes significantly to the economic and social development. Passenger numbers in the past 15 years have gone one way: up. This fact can be a mixed blessing. A major challenge for cruise tourism in the Baltic Sea is the set-up of port reception facilities e.g. for waste water. For this reason, we asked the governments in the Baltic Sea Region with last years resolution to proceed with strong efforts and dedicated resources for the continued improvement and modernization of the waste water treatment capacity throughout the entire Baltic Sea Region in compliance with the stricter threshold values agreed to HELCOM, and to ensure continous work to upgrade reception facilities for sewage in passenger ports in line with the Special Area Status for the Baltic Sea under MARPOL Annex IV of the International Maritime Organization. Just some days ago I have expressed this position again in a letter adressed to HELCOM. There are some uncertainties in the implementation of this. But we shall not give up. From my personal point of view we need an EU-wide concept for the set-up of port reception facilities and a launch of corresponding European funding programmes. And we need a political-strategic frame for the operative approach of cooperation between stakeholders in the tourism sector like the Baltic Sea Tourism Forum: with a view to the future strategic direction of the international Baltic Sea cooperation the previous activities require a continous further development. The transformation of projects into a steady and long-term cooperation and the commitment of the national political representatives and the national tourist associations are fundamentally important for this process. An also the first Pan-European dialogue between cruise operators, ports and coastal tourism stakeholders fits in this context and shall be continued.”