InPoland, there is a mismatch between the Helsinki Convention on theProtection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (HELCOM) signed on 9 April 1992 and ratified on 24 June 1999 (Dz.U.2000.28.346) and the current legislation. Although the HelsinkiConventionentered into force on 5 February 2000, Poland?s laws andregulations on the storage and use of animal fertilisers have not beenfully accommodation to the requirements ensuing from Annex III to the Helsinki Convention. The volume of slurry storage containerscan be an example ? according to the Polish laws, only farms located inNVZs are required to have 6 months storage capacity, whereas accordingto the Helsinki Convention, this obligation is imposed on allagricultural holdings.
AnnexIII to the Helsinki Convention shall not be binding until it ispromulgated in the Official Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland (Dz.U.). As a result, Poland has two equivalent (within the meaning ofinternational law) and dissimilar legal acts governing issues related tonatural fertilisers.
Dueto these discrepancies, it could be difficult to officially recognisethe criteria for inclusion/removal of Agricultural Hot Spots proposed byHELCOM in Poland. The Statement of the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development concerning HELCOM 30/2009 2.17/Rev.1/Add.2 on criteriafor criteria for inclusion/removal of agricultural ?Hot Spots?of March 2009 advocates for consultations on this issue and fordelaying the entry into force of these criteria in Poland. It arguesthat the criteria cannot be accepted - in the reality of the currentlybinding national laws and economic circumstances in the food productionand agricultural sector. This is even more surprising since, when the Baltic Sea Action Plan was signed in November 2007, the Polish Ministryof Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment were well aware of thecurrent legal Framework in Poland.
Thisopinion is in contradiction to Article 32 of the Helsinki Conventionconcerning amendments to the Annexes and the adoption of Annexes,according to which the amended Annex III validly entered into force inPoland.Also, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development claimsthat "Poland?s current laws fully guarantee that natural fertilisers aremanaged without any negative environmental impact?,as opposed to theconclusions of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) which inspectedlarge-scale swine farms in 2006 and 2007, and ? on revealing multipleirregularities and shortcomings ? negatively evaluated the activities ofPoland?s governmental bodies concerning development and implementationof State's policy on large-scale swine production, and the supervisionsystem of governmental bodies over large-scale livestock production. Theauthors of the Statement of the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment concerning HELCOM 30/2009 2.17/Rev.1/Add.2 on criteria forcriteria for inclusion/removal of agricultural ?Hot Spots? wereapparently familiar with these conclusions since the Statement reads: 'Poland has consistently held that the problem of water pollution cannotbe solved by regulation of the storage capacity of containers or slabs,but by the determination and monitoring of the method of storage andlandspreading'.
Polandshould promulgate the amended Helsinki Convention in the OfficialJournal of Laws (Dz.U.) in the first place in order to make room for itsfull implementation and transposition into Polish law, and to eliminatediscrepancies between the state legislation and the international laws.As a result, Poland will have no arguments to justify its refusal toadopt the criteria for inclusion/removal of Agricultural Hot Spots, orto block works on establishing general criteria for the Baltic Seacatchment area.Poland is currently bound by the obligations listed inAnnex III in external relations (in relations with signatories to theConvention and the Helsinki Convention itself), but not internally(since the obligations have not been officially notified to the stakeholders).
Secondly, financial means are needed to implement the requirements listed in theamended Helsinki Convention, under EU grants for farmers (Axis 1 to Rural Development Plans, to improve environmental protection standardsin agricultural holdings, including manure storage).