Ms Kapkájewa,
Ms Tikka,

Thank you very much for your warm reception and for making us feel so welcome here in Helsinki. As you know: seas do not separate people, they connect them. That is evident from our meeting today, and from our close trade relations and the many passengers who travel Baltic Sea ferries and cruise ships and count Hamburg and Helsinki among their favourite ports anywhere in the world.

And, moving to a completely different área, our new built concert halls are linked - but this may be a coíncidence - by input from the same acoustics designer. However, you have been far quicker to build and open your hall than we have in Hamburg. But we take heart from your success. We are hoping that our Elbphilharmonie will be an equally big magnet for visitors as the Musiikkitalo” is here in Helsinki.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
If it is true that seas link us together, it is even truer of ports. The world comes to visit every city with a port and it in turn directs its gaze to the world. Ports ensure that goods are transported rapidly and inexpensively from continent to continent, from country to country and city to city. We see this happen in Helsinki and Hamburg every single day.

Last year’s figures certainly make impressive reading. In an average week, 28 feeder ships left our port bound for Finland.

Hamburg, as Europe’s second-largest container port and potent logistics centre, is an excellent hub for cargo to and from Finland. We now form the interface between today’s most exciting growth markets. Some 11,000 logistics companies operate in the metropolitan region, including a large number of global players, giving us an important logistics role for Northern Europe.

At the same time, Hamburg stands for industry and innovation. The two create a firm foundation for trade and commerce. Our clusters policy is geared to logistics, renewable energies, aviation, life sciences, the maritime industry, creative businesses and healthcare. The aviation industry, for example, employs nearly 40,000 people in the metropolitan region. It is only against this backdrop that the port’s true dimension as the central pivot for our city’s global trade becomes apparent.

While we like to think of ourselves as Germany’s gateway to the world, Helsinki is Finland’s Gateway to the Baltic”, which means it is an attractive hub for trade and industry and therefore a key port for Hamburg. This status will not change, even when the Baltic ports in Russia, the Baltic States and Poland have been upgraded.

Ports need good transport networks that reach not only into their hinterland, but also connect with international destinations. The prime contribution to this goal will be made by establishing and expanding the uniform European transport network which, following lengthy discussions, was agreed by the European Commission, Council and Parliament at the end of May 2013. It’s been a long time coming, but worth the wait.

The aim of the TEN-T” or TEN-Transport Network” is to build an efficient network of rail, road and waterway routes that will link Europe’s major economic centres. The trans-European transport network will eliminate bottlenecks, modernize infrastructure and allow cross-border traffic to flow more freely. Not only will this benefit travellers and business customers throughout the EU, it will also be good for trade in our two port cities.

When the core network, which is due to be completed by 2030, becomes a reality, Hamburg and Helsinki will be linked even more closely, because two of its three corridors will pass through both our cities. One is the North Sea-Baltic” corridor from Helsinki via Tallinn, Riga, Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven to Antwerp; the other is the considerably longer Scandinavian Mediterranean” route from HaminaKotka via Helsinki, Stockholm, Hamburg and southwards to Italy. There is also an overall network, designed to join up every region with the transport infrastructure, which should be finished by 2050.

An additional benefit shared by Hamburg and Helsinki is that this re-structuring process fully recognizes the two cities as major air and seaports with important hub functions in the future TEN-T core network. Finnish ports Turku, Naantali, Helsinki and HaminaKotka are part of the network’s core area, as are the German ports Hamburg, Lübeck, Rostock, Wilhelmshaven, Bremen and Bremerhaven. The port industry in Finland will also profit from rapid, modernized, multimodal transport routes within Europe.

There are plans to upgrade the Rail Baltica route from Helsinki and Tallinn via the Baltic States and Poland as far as Berlin; this would also be integrated into the TEN-T network. Some of the planned corridors involve major transport projects, such as the fixed link across the Fehmarn Belt, currently the biggest infrastructure project in Northern Europe. This too will serve to bring the Baltic Sea regions closer together.

By the way, improving the supra-regional transport infrastructure is enshrined in the government programme of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg as a central objective of transport policy. Focal policy aims are

• to optimize infrastructure along the middle and upper reaches of the Elbe and the cross-country Elbe-Seiten canal,
• to create more rapid routes towards the German borders with Poland, The Czech Republic and Austria, and to ensure the existence of good connections with the fixed link across the Fehmarn Belt that was mentioned just now.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ports are about movement. Ships arrive and leave, ports have a rhythm of their own, a heart that beats 24 hours a day, 365 - and sometimes 366 - days a year. To keep this heart beating strongly in future, waterways need to be maintained in keeping with the latest technical developments. In Hamburg we have two major concerns here. The first is enhancing the navigation channel in the River Elbe so it meets the demands of today’s container ships.
As you know, the Court has ordered a temporary halt to the project. However, the Court has recognized an interest in starting work as soon as possible and allowed the initial preparatory measures to go ahead. We are therefore confident that the Federal Administrative Court will recognize this fact and rule in favour of the project.

The second concern is the Kiel Canal. It is an important, vital element in the system of waterways. It represents a considerable short-cut between the North Sea and the Baltic and between Hamburg and Helsinki. I know that Finland also takes a keen interest in the efficiency of the Kiel Canal.

Hamburg is making strénuous efforts, including lobbying the Federal government, to ensure that - unlike recently - the Kiel Canal operates without disruption. We are firmly on the side of our neighbours in Schleswig-Holstein on this issue, and together we are demanding that improvements be included in the Federal Transport Plan.

Moreover, Hamburg has joined the Initiative Kiel Canal” in order to cooperate with all those involved in lobbying for the necessary funding and a tight schedule for completing the required work.

Some measure of success has already been achieved: despite all the difficulties encountered so far, repairs have started. An additional 75 million euros were set aside last autumn - bringing the total to 375 million - to build a fifth lock to serve as a by-pass while the two large locks are being repaired.

It is expected that building and repair work will last from 2014 to 2028.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Port cities have a special flair, but all over the world port cities share the experience that the smell of the sea, redolent of the great wide yonder, is all too often mingled with diesel fumes. That somewhat spoils the flair of a port and is also unhealthy. The EU has therefore ruled that by 2015 at the latest, the sulphur content of marine diesel is to be reduced to 0.1 per cent. The North and Baltic Seas have been designated as Emission Controlled Areas.

As is so often the case with environmental issues, there are two sides to a good idea: the one is cleaner air; the other is the rise in costs caused by using low-sulphur fuels. Shipping lines are particularly worried about this.

In Hamburg’s case, I can report that since 2010 ships have not been allowed to use fuels containing more than 0.1 per cent sulphur if they are berthed for longer than two hours. Since then, low-sulphur fuels have been used while ships are at their moorings. In the port and its surroundings, this has led to a permanent reduction in sulphur pollution.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Earlier on I talked about several borders” - that’s a term I don’t usually use very often. Fortunately, the borders inside the EU have lost so much of their significance that one hardly needs to talk about them. This illustrates the enormous progress that Europe has made over the last quarter of a century and it is the basis for almost everything we are now undertaking and discussing with each other.

Our aim is to be viable and competitive on the international stage and to preserve jobs. All the signs indicate that the international division of labour and global trade will continue to grow - hopefully with fewer disruptions than the crises experienced in recent years.

If we want to make an all-out effort to ensure that our ports in Helsinki and Hamburg develop and grow, that they remain the economic powerhouses of their metropolitan regions, we need to understand what is happening in the world around us - and we need strong partners and a strong Europe with a strong, common currency. We need stability and growth. I am glad that Finland and Germany agree on these basic principles.

The Vikings had a saying:
We can’t make the wind do what we want, but we can trim our sails accordingly.”

In our case, trimming the sails means that we can make sure that the links between Hamburg and Helsinki become even stronger. The north of Europe has a robust economy, a strong industrial base, and is still growing at above the average rate in the eurozone.

And if the Northern Highlights” develop even better, it will benefit the rest of Europe too. Let’s get to work on it.

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.