Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, 1992, entered into force on 17 January 2000. The States-Parties to the Convention agreed individually or jointly to take all appropriate legislative, administrative or other relevant measures to prevent and eliminate pollution in order to promote the ecological restoration of the Baltic Sea Area and the preservation of its ecological balance. The Parties undertake to apply: The aim of the States-Parties to the Convention is to prevent and eliminate pollution of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea
Languages of Sweden Languages of Sweden Swedish is the official language of Sweden and is spoken by the vast majority of the 10 million inhabitants of the country. It is a North Germanic language and quite similar to its sister Scandinavian languages, Danish and Norwegian, with which it maintains partial mutual intelligibility and forming a dialect continuum. For most of its history, Sweden was a larger country than today. At its height in 1658, the Swedish Empire comprised the territories of what is Finland and Estonia as well as parts of Russia, Latvia, Germany, Denmark and Norway. Hence, Sweden's linguistic landscape has historically