The Baltic Shadow Plan: for the future of the Baltic Sea

CCB • March 3, 2020

This shadow plan presents NGO requests to HELCOM for the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) update.

The Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) adopted in 2007, by the Helsinki Convention, had the goal to restore the Baltic marine environment to a good ecological status by 2021. However, the nine Baltic Sea Countries are nowhere near achieving this goal .

The vision of the BSAP for “A healthy Baltic Sea environment, with diverse biological components functioning in balance, resulting in a good environmental/ecological status,” cannot be reached without explicit implementation of the ecosystem approach across all the segments of the Action Plan and engaging all economic sectors and human activities within the Baltic Sea catchment area.

We are in the midst of a biodiversity and climate crisis . Healthy marine and coastal life and habitats are essential to our resilience to ecological and climate breakdown. We are dependent on marine and coastal ecosystems to be healthy and rich so that they can perform their natural functions. We depend on it as a crucial life system and as a protein source, even for those who live inland far from the sea.

The coming decade will be decisive. A collapsed Baltic cod population is the most alarming indication yet, signalling the very real need to change how we manage the entire ecosystem where we continue to fish, build and extract. With brave and sufficient political commitment, we can deliver that change – if we act now .

We call on all the Baltic Sea countries to keep to their commitments of the founding HELCOM BSAP and to strengthen those by adopting the revised 2021 Action Plan that aims to:

  1. lead on the protection and conservation of the marine ecosystems on which livelihoods and all marine sectors ultimately depend;
  2. urge all actors to intensify efforts to safeguard marine biodiversity and recovery of the Baltic Sea and;
  3. invite and engage civil society, stakeholders and rights-holders to work together towards a sustainable blue economy.

Read and download the full Shadow Plan here .

CCB is looking for a Network Officer to join our team at the CCB International Secretariat

By CCB • April 9, 2025
Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.

Attacks on NGOs: 570+ Organisations Join Forces to Defend Civil Society

By CCB • April 7, 2025
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.