Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In 2009, researcher Sébastien Duyck, Professor Kai Kokko and I conducted
a study ordered by Forest Europe (earlier the Ministerial Conference on the
Protection of Forests in Europe, MCPFE). Among other things, our goal
was to analyse the competence of the EU to participate in a planned
pan-European international forest management treaty. The Finnish position
at the time was that the EU has no competence in forest matters, and that
EU forestry policy had long been guided by policy-type instruments (such as
the forestry strategy on sustainable management of forestry, accepted by the
Council of the EU in 1998).
The Forest Europe process was suffi ciently well advanced down the route of
developing a legally binding treaty that we were able to analyse whether or not
the EU has competence on the basis of two draft treaties which the Forest Europe
secretariat had prepared. I will not describe this complex study in detail, but it was
interesting that the Finnish view was very clear: the EU has no legal competence
in forestry policy. This is now confi rmed by the Treaty on the Functioning of
the European Union. However, civil servants - even Finns - argued that the
defi nition of legal competence by and large depends on what your perspective is.
The two draft treaties presented the most diverse viewpoints to sustainable
forest management. Sustainable forest management, naturally, implies protecting
the biological diversity, the signifi cance of the forest in rural culture, and the
essential role of forests in combating climate change. It can also mean extensively
integrating the forest ecosystem services in policy-making, or concentrating in
the optimization of wood production, or turning forest reserves into biofuel.
Another important consideration is the relationship to the rest of the world.
How can a pan-European treaty guarantee that unsustainably felled forests from
the other side of the world do not end up as wood in the European market? Can
import bans or restrictions be applied, and if so, how?
Although there are different perspectives to forest usage and management, the
EU does have competence in forestry policy. Both draft treaties clearly proved
that it does: although forestry policy is not expressly mentioned in the lists of
competence even now - after the Lisbon amendments - this does not negate
the EU's competence through its other competences: environmental policy,
common commercial policy, energy policy, and so on. During all its years of
regulation, the EU has accumulated such signifi cant competence that it has at
least some competence in virtually every fi eld of policy.
It is interesting to note that Forest Europe initiated the negotiations for an
international forest management treaty in 2011.
Common areas
Certain areas outside the territory of any particular state are deemed common,
meaning that they can be enjoyed freely by any state or individual. All states
and the ships registered in them can operate fairly freely on the high seas. The
high seas area includes all seas and oceans beyond the exclusive economic
zones of states - amounting to approximately two-thirds of all marine areas.
Free navigation is even more extensive, as ships are permitted to navigate
 
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