Photograph: 123rf.com

The Baltic Sea is eutrophying.

This is not an ugly neologism coined by a Danish Eurosceptic to blame Brussels for the decline of the ancient waterway that bound the great northern medieval trading cities of the Hanseatic League. No, eutrophication is uglier still – the process through which effluent, poorly treated sewage, and the dumping of phosphates and nitrogen have turned large parts of the Baltic Sea into a mushy-pea-green summer soup. The washing machines and dishwashers of Nordic housewives have done their bit to turn the Baltic into a thickening sludge of algae bloom.

The Baltic Sea is sick. That much is consensual. But the European Commission is on the case. Sweden is in the EU presidency chair. The time is ripe for a “Baltic Sea Strategy”. Another one.

It has become a ritual of rotating EU presidencies to exploit their six months of agenda-setting powers to promote localism and regional priorities. Over the past two years there have been three examples of this. First came the Slovenes and a vaunted focus on the western Balkans – though it turned out that once their time in the limelight was over, they became the biggest obstacle to integrating the former Yugoslavia into the EU.

Then the Elysée Palace looked to Europe’s southern rim and decided to reinvent the Barcelona Process during the French presidency, with money, bureaucracy, and French clout invested in the new “Club Med” – the Union for the Mediterranean. The jury remains out on the results.

Finally the Czechs, spurred by the Poles and the Swedes, used their Buggin’s turn to try to out-Sarkozy the French president by launching the “Eastern Partnership” to coax six post-Soviet states out of the Kremlin’s “sphere of influence”. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has other ideas.

And for Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, the Baltic Sea is this season’s strategic priority. The imperative is strong. The crisis is pressing. The time is right.

In all of these regional initiatives, the European Commission has played a strong role, preparing the ground years in advance and timing its communications, action plans and proposals for the incoming presidency. Hence the Commission’s suggestions for a “Baltic Sea Strategy” unveiled in June, three weeks before Stockholm assumed control.

If the Swedes are continuing the trend, there are also big differences with th......