BSAP aims are a (1):

• Baltic Sea unaffected by eutrophication: clear water, natural level of algal blooms, natural distribution and occurrence of plants and animals and natural oxygen levels;
• Baltic Sea undisturbed by hazardous substances: concentrations of hazardous substances close to natural levels, all fish are safe to eat, healthy wildlife and radioactivity at the pre-Chernobyl level;
• favourable status of Baltic Sea biodiversity: natural marine and coastal landscapes, thriving and balanced communities of plants and animals and viable populations of species;
• environmentally friendly maritime activities: enforcement of international regulations and no illegal discharges, safe maritime traffic without accidental pollution, efficient emergency and response capabilities, minimum sewage pollution from ships, no introductions of alien species from ships, minimum air pollution from ships, zero discharges from offshore platforms, minimum threats from offshore installations.

The BASP includes a large amount of concrete actions to reach these objectives. One of the most important is the provision of Maximum Allowable Inputs (MAI) of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus. It indicates the maximal level of inputs of water- and airborne nitrogen and phosphorus to Baltic Sea sub-basins that can be allowed to fulfil the targets for non-eutrophied sea. This is complemented by Country-Allocated Reduction Targets (CART), indicating how much nutrient inputs the HELCOM countries need to reduce comparing to a reference period (1997-2003). The up-dated BSAP (2013) defines the years 1997-2003 as reference years with an input of 910,344 t total nitrogen and 36,894 t total phosphorus. It demands a load reduction of 118,134 t total nitrogen (13%) and 15,178 t total phosphorus (41%) (2).

EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the BSAP share many similarities. The BSAP can be regarded as approach to expand the WFD from coastal waters to an entire sea. The BSAP is an approach to implement EU environmental policy, mainly the WFD, in a comprehensive way. It is updated from time to time, to ensure that problems and new challenges are addressed adequately.

The BSAP already addresses several of the 11 qualitative descriptors determining the Good Environmental Status (GES) according to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), such as eutrophication, contaminants or biological diversity. For all 11 descriptors HELCOM collects data and publishes reports on the state of the Baltic Sea environment. This enables HELCOM in future, to expand the BSAP towards problems such as marine litter or underwater noise. The environmental policy and management of the Baltic Sea is an outstanding example worldwide and serves as a blueprint for other regional European seas.