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The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. Its members have a combined area of 4,233,255.3 km2 (1,634,469.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of about 447 million. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. For travel within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. A monetary union was established in 1999, coming into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits.
European Union culture policies aim to address and promote the cultural dimension of European integration through relevant legislation and government funding. These policies support the development of cultural activity, education or research conducted by private companies, NGO's and individual initiatives based in the EU working in the fields of cinema and audiovisual, publishing, music and crafts.
The European Research Area (ERA) is a system of scientific research programs integrating the scientific resources of the European Union (EU). Since its inception in 2000, the structure has been concentrated on European cooperation in the fields of medical, environmental, industrial, and socioeconomic research. The ERA can be likened to a research and innovation equivalent of the European "common market" for goods and services. Its purpose is to increase the competitiveness of European research institutions by bringing them together and encouraging a more inclusive way of work, similar to what already exists among institutions in North America and Japan. Increased mobility of knowledge workers and deepened multilateral cooperation among research institutions among the member states of the European Union are central goals of the ERA.
Europeanisation refers to a number of related phenomena and patterns of change:
The Directorate-General for Environment is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, responsible for the European Union policy area of the environment.
Multi-level governance is a term used to describe the way power is spread vertically between many levels of government and horizontally across multiple quasi-government and non-governmental organizations and actors. This situation develops because many countries have multiple levels of government including local, regional, state, national or federal, and many other organisations with interests in policy decisions and outcomes. International governance also operates based on multi-level governance principles. Multi-level governance can be distinguished from multi-level government which is when different levels of government share or transfer responsibility amongst each other. Whereas multi-level governance analyses the relationship of different state levels and interaction with different types of actors.'
Saskia Luutsche Ozinga is a Dutch environmental and social activist. She is the facilitator of the Forest Movement Europe (FME) and the co-founder of the NGO FERN, of which she is currently the campaigns coordinator.
Fern is a Dutch foundation created in 1995. It is an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) set up to keep track of the European Union's involvement in forests and coordinate NGO activities at the European level. Fern works to protect forests and the rights of people who depend on them.
Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) is an independent, not for profit policy studies institute, a green think tank and a leading centre for the analysis and development of environmental policy in Europe and beyond. It has a strong reputation among national and European policy-makers and non-governmental organisations. The Institute is based in Brussels with a branch office in London and a network of partners in other countries, which are particularly strong in the member states of the EU. These include universities, environmental and professional associations in a range of sectors, research institutes and consultancies. IEEP brings a non-partisan analytical perspective to policy questions, engaging in both pressing short-term questions and long-term strategic studies.
The European Forest Institute (EFI) is an international organization established by the European states. It has 29 Member Countries, and c. 120 member organizations from 38 different countries working in diverse research fields. EFI provides forest-related knowledge around three interconnected and interdisciplinary themes: bioeconomy, resilience and governance.
The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 27 EU member states, the United Kingdom and 15 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe. It was founded on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, with an aim of reinforcing the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed) that was set up in 1995 as the Barcelona Process. Its general secretariat is located in Barcelona, Spain.
The LIFE Programme is the European Union’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental and climate policy and legislation by co-financing projects with European added value.
Soil governance refers to the policies, strategies, and the processes of decision-making employed by nation states and local governments regarding the use of soil. Globally, governance of the soil has been limited to an agricultural perspective due to increased food insecurity from the most populated regions on earth. The Global Soil Partnership, GSP, was initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and its members with the hope to improve governance of the limited soil resources of the planet in order to guarantee healthy and productive soils for a food-secure world, as well as support other essential ecosystem services.
The Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals or IBEI is an inter-university research institute and postgraduate education center located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. IBEI was established in 2004 as a joint initiative between five public universities in the Barcelona metropolitan area and the CIDOB Foundation with the aim of promoting advanced training and research in international relations and related subjects. The director of the Institute is Jacint Jordana, Professor of Political Science at the Pompeu Fabra University, and the president is Narcís Serra, former Minister of Defense and former Vice President of Spain.
The European Union (EU) is considered by some to have the most extensive environmental laws of any international organisation. Its environmental policy is significantly intertwined with other international and national environmental policies. The environmental legislation of the European Union also has significant effects on those of its member states. The European Union's environmental legislation addresses issues such as acid rain, the thinning of the ozone layer, air quality, noise pollution, waste, water pollution and sustainable energy. The Institute for European Environmental Policy estimates the body of EU environmental law amounts to well over 500 Directives, Regulations and Decisions.
Tanja A. Börzel is a German Political scientist. Her research and teaching focus on the fields of European Integration, Governance, and Diffusion. She is professor of Political Science at the Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science of Freie Universität Berlin, director of the Center for European Integration, and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration. Currently, she is department chair of the Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science.
Eurafrica, refers to the German idea of strategic partnership between Africa and Europe. In the decades before World War II, German supporters of European integration advocated a merger of African colonies as a first step towards a federal Europe. As a genuine political project, it played a crucial role in the early development of the European Union but was largely forgotten afterwards. In the context of a renewed EU Strategy for Africa, and controversies about a Euromediterranean Partnership, the term went through a sort of revival in the last years.
The European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan is a European Union initiative to address illegal logging and the social, economic and environmental harm it causes. The EU adopted the Action Plan in 2003. The plan includes activities in the EU and in tropical countries that export timber and timber products to the EU. These measures include a regulation that prohibits EU businesses from importing or trading illegal timber, and bilateral trade agreements with timber-exporting countries. Much of the FLEGT Action Plan focuses on promoting trade in legal timber products and creating disincentives for trade in illegal products. However, the Action Plan's measures go further by addressing aspects of poor governance that enable illegal logging to persist.
Eugénia da Conceição-Heldt is a Portuguese-German political scientist, the reform rector of the Bavarian School of Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich and the founding dean of the TUM School of Governance. She is known for her research on the delegation of power to international organizations, European integration, global economic governance, two-level games theory, international negotiation analysis, as well as power and accountability in global governance.
References
- ↑ EFI site
- ↑ Well Grounded site
- ↑ The Courier Issue Nr II - September/October 2007 Archived 2008-09-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ FERN site