Baltic

TORVALDS Niels

I come from the coastal area of Finland; I was born in the small city of Ekenäs, in middle between Helsinki and Turku. In Southern Finland and in Helsinki, the Baltic Sea and the archipelago is always present. I´ve spent all the summers of my life on a small island in the Archipelago Sea, the most beautiful archipelago in the world, according to me. By some definitions, the thousands of islands in Finland are the largest archipelago in the world.

Before becoming a Member of the European Parliament in 2012, I was working as a journalist my whole life. Mainly as a correspondent for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) in both Moscow and Washington DC.

In earlier mandates, I was quite active in the Committee of Fisheries (PECH). Nowadays I´m (only) a member of the ENVI and BUDG committees and substitute in the ITRE-committee. In the ENVI-committee I´m also working as coordinator for the Renew Europe Group.

In the Intergroup, I am the Vice-Chair for the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean of the North. The brackish water, the special biodiversity and the challenges with the state of the sea makes it particularly interesting. As does the inhabited archipelago along the coastlines and in the Åland Islands. The possibilities for a sustainable blue growth also exists there.

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What is an Intergroup?

The Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas Intergroup is one of the 28 Intergroups that were approved on 11 December 2014 by the Conference of Presidents. Intergroups can be formed by MEPs from any political group and any parliamentary committee with a view to holding informal exchanges of views on particular issues and to promoting contact between MEPs and civil society.

The Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas Intergroup brings together more than 80 MEPs from six different political groups and from 19 Member States.

Intergroups are not Parliament bodies and therefore may not express Parliament's opinion.

Intergroups are subject to internal rules adopted by the Conference of Presidents on 16 December 1999 (last updated on 11 September 2014), which set out the conditions under which intergroups may be established at the beginning of each parliamentary term and their operating rules.