Environmental Concerns in EU–Black Sea Affairs

Abstract

The European Union's (EU) environmental concerns vis-à-vis the Black Sea stem from various factors such as: the quest of the EU to reaffirm itself as a global actor; the development of the legal–institutional framework that regulates the relations between the EU and its near abroad; and the enlargement process, which provided the EU with direct access to the Black Sea shores. Following an institutionalist approach, this paper analyses how the EU's concerns, strategies and institutional/policy responses to tackle environmental problems in the region have evolved over time. Drawing on the concept of ‘actorness’, it discusses to what extent the adoption of an effective EU-led approach to environmental issues may strengthen the role of the EU in the region and elsewhere.

Acknowledgements

This paper has been developed under the framework of the project ‘The European Union and the Black Sea: State of Play’, coordinated by Sinem Acikmese and Dimitrios Triantaphyllou (Kadir Has University, Istanbul). We would like to thank the participants of the workshop for their valuable comments. We would like to thank Elena Devlen and Zehra Funda Savaş for their help in editing and formatting.

Notes

^[1] For a discussion of the EU as an environmental leader, see Anthony R. Zito, ‘The European Union as an environmental leader in a global environment’, Globalizations, 2(3), 2005, pp. 363–375.

^[2] The extension of qualified majority rule in the Council and the increased role of the European Parliament that followed the introduction of the cooperation procedure by the SEA favoured the inclusion of sustainable development concerns in other Community policies.

^[3] Council of the European Communities, Single European Act, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1986.

^[4] C. Hey, ‘EU environmental policies: a short history of the policy strategies’, in J. Hontelez (ed.), EU Environmental Policy Handbook, European Environmental Bureau, Brussels, 2005, pp. 18–30 at p. 27.

^[5] See, for instance, Roberto Belloni, ‘European integration and the Western Balkans: lessons, prospects and obstacles’, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 11(3), 2009, pp. 313–331; Arolda Elbasani, ‘EU enlargement in the Western Balkans: strategies of borrowing and inventing’, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 10(3), 2008, pp. 293–307; and Mustafa Aydin and Sinem A. Acikmese, ‘Europeanization through EU conditionality: understanding the new era in Turkish foreign policy’, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 9(3), 2007, pp. 263–274.

^[6] Launched in 2007 (operational in 2011).

^[7] K. Henderson and C. Weaver, The Black Sea Region and EU Policy: The Challenge of Divergent Agendas, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2010.

^[8] The Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution, Strategic Action Plan for the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black Sea, Sofia, 2009, < http://www.blacksea-commission.org/_bssap2009.asp> (accessed 2 March 2014). See also T. Adams et al., Europe's Black Sea Dimension, Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, 2002.

^[9] Due to space constraints we are unable to discuss country-specific environmental policies, such as Russian and Turkish environmental policies vis-à-vis the EU, but we rather focus on the EU's overall approach to the Black Sea.

^[10] J. Jupille and J. Caporaso, ‘States, agency and rules: the European Union in global environmental politics’, in C. Rhodes (ed.), The European Union in the World Community, Lynne Rienner, Boulder, CO, 1998, pp. 213–229.

^[11] S. Lavenex and F. Schimmelfennig, ‘EU rules beyond EU borders: theorizing external governance in European politics’, Journal of European Public Policy, 16(6), 2009, pp. 791–812.

^[12] M. A. Levy, P. Haas and R. Keohane, ‘Institutions for the earth: promoting international environmental protection’, Environment, 34(4), 1992, pp. 12–17, 29–36.

^[13] T. Börzel and D. Soyaltin, ‘Europeanization in Turkey: stretching a concept to its limits?’, KFG Working Paper Series, 36, 2012, p. 3.

^[14] Ibid., p. 3.

^[15] Lavenex and Schimmelfennig, op. cit., p. 795.

^[16] F. Duchêne, ‘Europe's role in world peace’, in R. Mayne (ed.), Europe Tomorrow: Sixteen Europeans Look Ahead, Fontana, London, 1972, pp. 32–49.

^[17] I. Manners, ‘Normative power Europe: a contradiction in terms?’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 40(2), 2002, pp. 235–258.

^[18] D. Devrim and E. Schulz, ‘Enlargement fatigue in the European Union: from enlargement to many Unions’, Working Paper, 13, Real Instituto Elcano, 2009.

^[19] Policy transfer is defined as a process where knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements and institutions serves as a basis for the development of policies, administrative arrangements and institutions in another time and/or place through voluntary and coercive mechanisms, or through lesson learning, direct coercive transfer or inducement. D. Dolowitz and D. Marsh, ‘Who learns what from whom: a review of the policy transfer literature’, Political Studies, 44(2), 1996, pp. 343–357. For a review on policy transfer, policy diffusion and Europeanization, see T. Börzel and T. Risse, ‘Transformative power of Europe: the European Union and the diffusion of ideas’, KFG Working Paper, 1, 2009, < http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/∼ kfgeu/kfgwp/wpseries/WorkingPaperKFG_1.pdf> (accessed 15 January 2013).

^[20] G. Sjöstedt, The External Role of the European Community, Saxon House, Farnborough, 1977.

^[21] C. Damro, ‘The EU–UN environmental relations: shared competence and effective multilateralism’, in K. Smith and K. V. Laatikainen (eds), Intersecting Multilateralism. The European Union and the United Nations, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2006, pp. 175–192; also see Zito, op. cit.

^[22] Fraser Cameron, ‘After Iraq: the EU and global governance’, Global Governance, 10, 2004, pp. 157–163.

^[23] For a summary of other regional aspects of the Black Sea, see Ruxandra Ivan (ed.), New Regionalism or No Regionalism? Emerging Regionalism in the Black Sea Area, Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, 2012.

^[24] Bosphorus: 31 km long, 0.76–3.60 km wide, 36–124 m deep. Dardanelles: 61 km long, 1.2–6 km wide, 55–103 m deep.

^[25] The Bucharest Convention was ratified by all six littoral Black Sea countries in 1994. It provides the basic framework for cooperation in the area, in addition to three protocols that deal with (a) the control of land-based sources of pollution, (b) waste and (c) joint response in case of accidents (namely, oil spills). The EU has observer status. The Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution, The Bucharest Convention, 1992, < http://www.blacksea-commission.org/_convention-fulltext.asp> (accessed 28 February 2014).

^[26] The Convention was signed on 29 June 1994 by 11 of the Danube riparian states—Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine—and the EC, and duly came into force in October 1998.

^[27] Liliana Andonova, Transnational Politics of the Environment: The European Union and Environmental Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004, p. 153.

^[28] European Commission, Sixth Environmental Action Programme of the European Community 2002–2012, < http://ec.europa.eu/environment/newprg/archives/index.htm> (accessed 20 October 2013).

^[29] International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River.

^[30] On Europeanization, see Aydin and Acikmese, op. cit.; Börzel and Risse, op. cit.; S. Andreev, ‘Sub-regional cooperation and the expanding EU: the Balkans and the Black Sea area in a comparative perspective’, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 11(1), 2009, pp. 83–106; Beken Saatcioglu, ‘AKP's “Europeanization” in civilianization, rule of law and fundamental freedoms: the primacy of domestic politics’, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 16(1), 2014, pp. 86–101.

^[31] K. Kern and T. Löffelsend, ‘Governance beyond the nation state: transnationalization and Europeanization of the Baltic Sea region’, in J. Joas and K. Kern (eds), Governing a Common Sea: Environmental Policies in the Baltic Sea Region, Earthscan, London, 2008, pp. 115–141.

^[32] M. Aydin and D. Triantaphyllou, A 2020 Vision for the Black Sea Region: Report of the Commission on the Black Sea, Bertelsmann Foundation, Gutersloh, 2010, < http://www.ctsp.vt.edu/Publications/data/A%202020%20Vision%20for%20the%20Black%20Sea.pdf> (accessed 20 January 2014).

^[33] S. Acikmese, ‘The EU's Black Sea policies: any hopes for success’, Euxeinos—Online Journal of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, 6, 2012, pp. 17–22; see also N. Tavitian et al., Greening the Black Sea Synergy, WWF—World Wide Fund for Nature and Heinrich Böll Foundation, Brussels, June 2008.

^[34] Emelie Dahlberg, Turkey Environmental and Climate Change Policy Brief, University of Gothenburg, 2009, < http://sidaenvironmenthelpdesk.se/wordpress3/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Turkey-Environment-and-Climate-Change-Policy-Brief-Draft-090213.pdf> (accessed 15 January 2014).

^[35] S. Van Deveer and J. A. Carmin, ‘Environmental policy and the challenges of Eastern enlargement’, in A. Jordan (ed.), Environmental Policy of the European Union: Actors, Institutions and Processes, Earthscan, London, 2005.

^[36] Ecotec Research and Consulting, Administrative Capacity for Implementation and Enforcement of EU Environmental Policy in the 13 Candidate Countries, final report to DG Environment, 2000, < http://ec.europa.eu/environment/enlarg/pdf/administrative_capacity.pdf> (accessed 28 January 2014).

^[37] The Birds and Water directives are two of the oldest environmental directives, and a central pillar of nature conservation in the EU. The first directives regulating the quality of bathing water and fresh water date back to the mid-1970s. Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000, establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy [Official Journal, L 327, 22 December 2001]. Directive on the conservation of wild birds: Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979. For a summary of EU main environmental policy measures, see UAPME, EU Environmental Issues and Policy Guidelines, undated, < http://www.ueapme.com/business-support%20II/Training%20Tools/Confartigianato/Environment/EU%20Environmental%20Guide.pdf> (accessed 2 March 2014).

^[38] UAPME, op. cit.

^[39] For more on this point, see P. Manoli, ‘EU's flexible regional multilateralism towards its Black Sea neighbourhood’, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 12(3), 2012, pp. 431–442.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tatiana Coutto

Tatiana Coutto is Assistant Professor at the American Graduate School of Paris and Research Associate to the Catholic University of Lille, France. Her research interests include institutional analysis, the role of the EU as a global actor, and the practice of public diplomacy by ‘traditional’ and ‘emerging’ middle powers.

Balkan Devlen

Balkan Devlen is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and the Director of African Strategic Research Center (EKOAF) at the Izmir University of Economics, Turkey. He was a Levin Institute Fellow in 2011 and a 2012–13 Black Sea Young Reformers Fellow. His research interests are at the intersection of IR theory, international security and foreign policy analysis.