The Europa Institute hosted a one-and-half day workshop on 4-5 February 2011, which brought together academics specialized in international and EU law, practitioners from the European Commission and the UK government, as well as PhD and LLM students, to exchange views on the environmental dimensions of the EU external relations following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The event was funded by the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence of the Europa Institute, the UN Environment Programme-funded project on Environment and Human Rights (hosted by the Scottish Centre of International Law) and the Edinburgh University School of Law.

The workshop was divided into three sessions, looking at: (i) the legal and institutional framework for the EU’s external action and its implications for the EU external environmental policy; (ii) the EU practice in relation to environmental protection at the unilateral, bilateral, inter-regional and multilateral levels; and (iii) the linkages between the EU’s environmental law and international environmental law.

Prof. Marise Cremona (Professor of EU Law, European University Institute) opened the first session with an in-depth analysis of the rules and principles underpinning the concept of coherence in the EU external action, focusing on its meaning and implications in the specific context of the EU external environmental policy. Dr. Chad Damro (Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and Co-director of the Europa Institute, University of Edinburgh) outlined the institutional set-up for the EU external action emerging from the Treaty of Lisbon, outlining how the new arrangements may affect the EU’s leadership in international environmental negotiations. Mr. Matthias Buck (European Commission) shared insights regarding the changes introduced, and challenges posed, by the post-Lisbon legal framework for the EU’s representation in multilateral environmental negotiations. Mr. Jolyon Thomson (UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) offered an assessment of this new framework from a Member State perspective.

The second session turned to an analysis of the EU practice, beginning with an appraisal by Dr. Gracia Marín Durán (Lecturer in International Law, University of Edinburgh) of the extent to which environmental protection requirements have been integrated – as mandated in Article 11 TFEU– into the EU bilateral and inter-regional association agreements concluded pre-Lisbon. Mr. Rok Zvelc (European Commission) provided an insider’s evaluation of the legal tools put in place by the EU to ensure mutual supportiveness between trade and the environment in the EU’s external relations. Dr. Kati Kulovesi (Post-Doctoral Researcher, Law Department of University of Eastern Finland) concentrated on climate change as the most prominent area of the EU external environmental action, assessing the impacts of the highly legalised and institutionalised approach deployed by the EU in the ongoing negotiations on a post-2012 international climate change regime. Dr. Daniel Augenstein (Assistant Professor, University of Tilburg) added a human rights perspective to the discussions, identifying synergies between human rights and environmental protection and reflecting on the possible implications that could derive from the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights.

The third and final session of the workshop explored the interactions between the EU external environmental action and international environmental law. Dr. Elisa Morgera (Lecturer in European Environmental Law, University of Edinburgh) explained how the EU has been increasingly using its unilateral, bilateral and inter-regional external relations tools to actively support environmental multilateralism, with a view to facilitating the implementation of existing treaties, building alliances in the context of ongoing multilateral environmental negotiations, or conversely, building consensus in the absence of such negotiations. Prof. André Nollkaemper (Professor of Public International Law, Universiteit van Amsterdam) reflected on the manifestations and consequences of the Europeanization of international environmental law, focusing on the international responsibility of the EU and/or its Member States towards third State parties to international environmental agreements. Prof. Riccardo Pavoni (Associate Professor of International Law, Università di Siena) focused instead on the internationalisation of EU environmental law, assessing the influence of international environmental principles and treaties on the development and operation of EU environmental law.

The workshop proceedings will be elaborated into an edited collection, under the guidance of Dr. Elisa Morgera and Dr. Gracia Marín Durán.

Donna Wood, Postdoctoral Fellow from the University of Victoria in Canada was in Edinburgh for the 2010 autumn term as a Europa Institute visiting scholar in order to examine the degree to which European governance ideas through the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) could be used to improve intergovernmental relations, strategic policy making, and citizen and stakeholder participation in Canada. The research focus was on employment policy. Donna was successful in interviewing 20 people during her stay in Europe ─ five Commission officials, six member state officials, two Canadian officials, and seven individuals representing business, unions, academia and civil society. Her findings ─ including how governance in employment policy in Canada is managed compared to the European Union ─ have been written up with Dr. Amy Verdun and were published last August as two policy briefs available on the Canada-Europe Transatlantic Dialogue website, available at http://canada-europe-dialogue.ca/. This seven year project, funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is aimed at bringing together scholars and partner organizations to promote research on relations between Canada and the European Union, and on policy challenges of common concern to Europe and Canada.

Dr. Wood and Dr. Verdun are also organizing an international conference to be held at the University of Victoria, Canada on October 14-15, 2011 that advances this research to other areas of social policy, using the OMC as a way to reflect on how collaborative governance in social policy in Canada might be improved. Conference details are available at http://web.uvic.ca/jmc/conference. Six Europeans expert on the OMC and Canada-EU comparisons ─ John-Erik Fossum, University of Oslo; Caroline de la Porte, University of Southern Denmark; Laura Cram, Strathclyde University, Glasgow; Dimitry Kochenov, University of Groningen, Netherlands; Robert Csehi, Central European University Budapest; and Åse Gornitzka, University of Oslo ─ are presenting at the conference, as well as Canadians expert on federalism in Canada. It is anticipated that an edited book or journal will be produced out of the conference, providing further insight into the value of comparative work between Canada and the European Union, especially as it relates to the processes and techniques they use to manage governance in their complex multilevel systems.