Anna Fotyga announced the decision in an interview with Polish state news agency PAP on Friday.
At its recent session, the European Parliament approved the bloc's budget for 2024, including funding for the removal of unexploded ordnance and chemical weapons from the bottom of the Baltic Sea, according to officials.
Fotyga, an MEP with Poland's conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, said she was "pleased that funding has been secured" for clearing the Baltic of unexploded munitions.
She warned that they posed a threat to the environment, public health and security, the PAP news agency reported.
Fotyga told the media that the EU would initially spend EUR 5 million on the effort, as a "pilot project," and the bloc's executive Commission was open to increasing the funding in the future.
The Polish MEP also said she had worked on the initiative with her counterparts from all the Baltic countries, alongside the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, and officials at the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in Brussels.
Fotyga encouraged Polish firms to bid for EU contracts to remove unexploded munitions from the Baltic Sea, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, portalmorski.pl
