EU aims to clean up European seas by 2021     The Baltic Sea and European Marine Strategy conference in Helsinki, Finland. The conference was held 13 to 15 November under the auspices of Finland's European Union (EU) Presidency. From left to right: Kaisa Kononen, Academy of Finland, Jan-Erik Enestam, Finnish Minister of Environment, and Peter Gammeltoft, Peter Gammeltoft, Head of the Protection of Water and the Marine Environment Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment.   This Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) image is centred over the Gulf of Finland, which extends east between Finland on the north and Estonia on the south and Russia to the west. At the extreme eastern end of the gulf is the Karelian Isthmus, separating it from the Ladoga Lake. The gulf is linked with the Ladoga Lake to the east by the Neva River. To the south, the Narva River links the Gulf of Finland with Lake Peipus. The cities of Helsinki, Finland (top centre left), Tallinn, Estonia (bottom centre left) and Saint Petersburg, Russia are visible as bright areas.   GMES Services stand at the Baltic Sea and European Marine Strategy conference, held 13 to 15 November 2006 in Helsinki, Finland.   A colourful summer marine phytoplankton bloom fills much of the Baltic Sea in this image captured by Envisat's MERIS on 13 July 2005. Release date: 2 February 2007