NDEP works to improve the ecology of the Northern Dimension Area, covering north-west Europe from the Arctic and Sub-Arctic areas, including the Barents and White Seas, to the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. It includes all countries in this vicinity from north-west Russia in the east to Iceland in the west.

In 2009 the NDEP welcomed Belarus to its Partnership and its project pipeline there is aimed at rehabilitating, in the first instance, its inefficient wastewater treatment facilities. These investments have significant cross border benefits for the Baltic Sea.