HELCOM is the governing body of the Helsinki Convention. The first Helsinki Convention was published in 1974. The modified Helsinki Convention of 1992 was signed by the contracting parties Denmark, Estonia, the European Union, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden and entered into force in 2000 (1).

“HELCOM was established to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental cooperation. HELCOM's vision for the future is a healthy Baltic Sea environment with diverse biological components functioning in balance, resulting in a good ecological status and supporting a wide range of sustainable economic and social activities” (1).

HELCOM sees itself as:

• “an environmental policy maker for the Baltic Sea area by developing common environmental objectives and actions
• an environmental focal point providing information about the state of and trends in the marine environment, the efficiency of measures to protect it and common initiatives and positions, which can form the basis for decision-making in other international fora
• a body for developing, according to the specific needs of the Baltic Sea, recommendations of its own and recommendations supplementary to measures imposed by other international organisations
• a supervisory body dedicated to ensuring that HELCOM environmental standards are fully implemented by all parties throughout the Baltic Sea and its catchment area
• a coordinating body, ascertaining multilateral response in case of major maritime incidents.”

HELCOM has eight main working groups that implement policies and strategies as well as propose issues for discussion at the meetings of the heads of delegations, where decisions are made. The heads of delegation represent the contracting parties and form the Helsinki Commission which meets annually. The groups are:

• GEAR - Group on the implementation of the ecosystem approach supports region-wide co-operation on all elements of national marine strategies (2).
• MARITIME - Group to prevent any pollution from ships – including deliberate operational discharges as well as accidental pollution (3).
• PRESSURE - Group provides the necessary technical basis to the work on inputs of nutrients and hazardous substances from both diffuse and point sources on land, including follow-up of the implementation of the HELCOM nutrient reduction scheme (4).
• RESPONSE - Group works to ensure swift national and international response to maritime pollution incidents (5).
• STATE AND CONSERVATION – Group covers monitoring and assessment functions as well as issues related to nature conservation and biodiversity protection in HELCOM (6).
• FISH – Group deals with fisheries in relation to the implementation of the ecosystem-based approach (7).
• AGRI - Group enhances dialogue between agricultural and environmental authorities on the development and application of sustainable agricultural practices with the least environmental impact on the Baltic Sea (8).
• Maritime spatial planning - a joint HELCOM-VASAB group established to ensure cooperation among the Baltic Sea Region countries for coherent regional MSP processes in the Baltic Sea.