Established in 2010

About MEPIELAN eBulletin

MEPIELAN E-Bulletin is a digital academic and practitioner newsletter of the MEPIELAN Centre, launched in 2010.  It features insight articles, reflective opinions, specially selected documents and cases, book reviews as well as news on thematic topics of direct interest of MEPIELAN Centre and on the activities and role of MEPIELAN Centre. Its content bridges theory and practice perspectives of relational international law, international environmental law and participatory governance , and international negotiating process, thus serving the primary goal of Centre: to develop an integrated, inter-disciplinary, relational, context-related and sustainably effective governance approach creating, protecting and advancing international common interest for the present and future generations. Providing a knowledge- and information-sharing platform and a scholarly forum, the Bulletin promotes innovative ideas and enlightened critical views, contributing to a broader scholarly debate on important issues of international common interest. The audience of the Bulletin includes academics, practitioners, researchers, university students, international lawyers, officials and personnel of international organizations and institutional arrangements, heads and personnel of national authorities at all levels (national, regional and local), and members of the civil society at large.

MEPIELAN Activities Forum

MEPIELAN Activities Forum

Contributing to the Implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy on Sustainable Development (MSSD): MEPIELAN Centre Submits Concept Notes on Launching Two MSSD Flagship Initiatives (20th Meeting of the MCSD Steering Committee, Athens, 23-24 January 2019)

MEPIELAN Centre as a Member of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD) substantially contributed to the implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy on Sustainable Development (MSSD) and its Objective 6 Improving Governance in support of Sustainable Development by drafting the Concept Note of the MSSD Flagship Initiative on developing capacity building programmes on issues related to implementation and compliance with environmental obligations and agreements (Flagship Initiative 6.3.5) and by cooperating with COMPSUD and MIO-ECSDE in the drafting of the Concept Note of the MSSD Flagship Initiative on Public Participation via the Aarhus Convention (Flagship Initiative 6.2.3). Both Concept Notes were submitted to the MCSD Steering Committee and were taken note by the 20th Meeting of the MCSD Steering Committee, held in Athens, 23-24 January 2019, constituting sections D and C respectively of the Annex I: MSSD Flagship Initiatives – Draft Concept Notes to the Document Work Plan of the MCSD Steering Committee for the Biennium 2018-2019, including the Preparation of the 18th Meeting of the MCSD – Updated Work Plan (UNEP/MED WG.456/4).

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MEPIELAN Centre | Jan 23, 2019 | 9 min read

MEPIELAN Activities Forum

MEPIELAN-UNEP/MAP: The Advancement of a Joint Postgraduate Programme (International Workshop, Athens, UNEP/MAP, 23 November 2017)

MEPIELAN Centre, as a UNEP/MAP Partner since 2013, has consistently supported Education as an implementing element of Sustainability Governance in the Mediterranean. The initiative for the development of a joint MEPIELAN Centre – UNEP/MAP international postgraduate programme on Mediterranean Environmental Governance and Sustainability was taken by MEPIELAN Centre and was repeatedly raised by its Director, Professor Evangelos Raftopoulos, during  the Meetings and Conferences of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention system (2015-2017), as well as during the 17th Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD) Meeting (July 2017), and it has been reflected in the Reports  of all these Meetings.
In the light of this and pursuance of a further exploration and elaboration of this in initiative, UNEP/MAP Coordinating Unit in cooperation with MEPIELAN Centre organized a closed international workshop at its premises on 23 November 2017. At the workshop, the UNEP/MAP Secretariat to the Barcelona Convention, was represented by Mr. Gaetano Leone (UNEP/MAP Coordinator), Ms. Tatjana Hema (UNEP/MAP Deputy Coordinator), Dr. Ilias Mavroeidis (UNEP/MAP Governance Officer), Ms. Luisa Rodriguez Lucas (UNEP/MAP Legal Officer), and Ms. Gyorgyi Gurban (UNEP/MAP Project Manager (EcAp)). MEPIELAN Centre, was represented by Professor Evangelos Raftopoulos, Dr. Alexandros Kailis, and Dr. Socrates Zachos. 
The following collaborating institutions were invited and participated in this workshop: the University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy), represented by Professor Tullio Scovazzi; the Istanbul Bilgi University Law Faculty (Turkey), represented by Professor Nilufer Oral; the University of Valencia (Spain), represented by Professor Jos? Juste-Ruiz; and, the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and National Resource Governance (C-EENRG), University of Cambridge (UK), represented by Dr. Maria Augusta Paim. 

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MEPIELAN Centre | Nov 23, 2017 | 5 min read

MEPIELAN Activities Forum

MEPIELAN Centre as a Founding Member of the Ecological Law and Governance Association (ELGA) and a Founding Voice of the Siena Declaration of Solidarity (University of Siena, Italy, 12-13 October 2017)

MEPIELAN Centre, represented by its Director Professor Evangelos Raftopoulos, participated in the ELGA’s (Ecological Law and Governance Association) European Launch Meeting taken place in the University of Siena, in Siena, Italy, from 12 to 13 October 2017. The launch of ELGA was prepared by a two-day Working Group Meeting (11-12 October) that brought together 25 experts from 15 countries and from across disciplines, including law, philosophy, science, land use planning, and journalism. The Working Group provided input into the 2018-2020 ELGA Strategy Plan, including substantive and procedural organizational development (mission, vision, and principles), and program priorities. The 2-day meeting included a World Caf? style “Wisdom Caf?, which saw participants pondering various questions, resulting in a multiplicity of ideas for future exploration. 
The Working Group meeting first explored the foundations of ELGA in an open discussion. At his introductory statement to the Working Group, the Director of MEPIELAN Centre Professor Evangelos Raftopoulos presented the multifarious work of MEPIELAN in research, education and training in the realm of international environmental law, governance and negotiation and its potential contribution to ELGA as a transformative collective effort oriented towards ‘ecological law and governance’ approach. He emphasized that MEPIELAN Centre, from its inception, consistently elaborated and promoted “a relational approach” to, and “a process understanding” of international environmental law and governance. Such an approach inescapably calls for “contextuality” and “integrated legal thinking and acting” that paves the way for an ecological conceptualization of the law and policy governing the nature, an earth-centered approach to law.  He also underlined the international role and contribution of MEPIELAN Centre in the Mediterranean as an officially accredited partner to UNEP/MAP Secretariat of the Barcelona Convention and a newly elected Non-Contracting Member of the 40-member Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD) representing the Scientific Community Group, where it mainly advocates: the educational dimension of environmental governance; the promotion of a trusteeship approach to environmental governance, and especially the development of the “public trust approach”; and, the importance of understanding international environmental negotiation as a treaty governance process preparing, constituting and revising international common interest. The above approaches and ideas formed the background for the interactive contribution of MEPIELAN to the discussion in the “Wisdom Caf?” and highlighted the pros and cons of the common inputs into the 2018-2020 ELGA Strategy Plan.

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MEPIELAN Centre | Oct 12, 2017 | 11 min read

MEPIELAN Activities Forum

MEPIELAN Centre Participated in the 19th Meeting of the Contracting Parties (COP19) of the Barcelona Convention (Athens, 9-12 February 2016)

MEPIELAN Centre, an accredited MAP Partner, participated as an observer* in the 19th Meeting of the Contracting Parties (COP19) to the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and its Protocols, which took place in Athens, Greece, from 9 to 12 February 2016. The Meeting, which was held under the theme ‘Forty Years of Cooperation for a Healthy and Productive Mediterranean Sea and Coast: A Collective Journey Towards Sustainable Development’ to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Convention, was attended by delegates from 20 Mediterranean countries and the European Union as well as representatives from several inter-governmental, non-governmental and scientific organizations. In addition to MEPIELAN Centre, the following MAP Partners participated as observers: The International Centre for Comparative Environmental Law (CIDCE), the Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association (HELMEPA), the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles (MEDASSET), the Network of MPA Managers in the Mediterranean (MEDPAN), the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

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MEPIELAN Centre | Feb 9, 2016 | 4 min read

MEPIELAN Activities Forum

MEPIELAN Centre Proposed as a Member of the Mediterranean Commission On Sustainable Development (MCSD)

At the 16th Meeting of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD), held in Marrakesh, Morocco from 9 to 11 June 2015, the Steering Committee agreed that the new composition of the MCSD that will be proposed to the 19th Meeting of the Contacting Parties to the Barcelona Convention (19th MOP – 2016) will be composed as follows:

• 22 Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention

• Local Authorities (3):

- Local Agenda 21 Italy
- MEDCITIES
- UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) Mediterranean Commission

• Socio-Economic Actors (3):

- RAED (Arab Network for Environment & Development)
- UMCE (Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises)
- ANIMA

• NGOs (3):

- WWF MedPO
- ENDA-Maghreb (Environnement, D?veloppement et Action)
- MIO-ECSDE (Mediterranean Information Office – Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development)

• Scientific Institutions (3):

- FEMISE (Forum Eurom?diterran?en des Instituts de Sciences ?conomiques)
- UN SDSN (United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network)
- MEPIELAN Centre (Mediterranean Programme for International Environmental Law and Negotiation)

• IGOs (3):

- CEDARE (Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe)
- IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature)
- UfMS (Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat)

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MEPIELAN Centre | Jun 19, 2015 | 3 min read

MEPIELAN Activities Forum

MEPIELAN Centre Participated in the Meeting of the MAP Focal Points (Athens, 19-21 May 2015)

MEPIELAN Centre, an accredited MAP Partner, participated as an observer to the Meeting of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) Focal Points, held in Athens from 19 to 21 May 2015, in accordance with the programme of work adopted by the 18th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols (Istanbul in 2013). At the Meeting, seventeen Contracting Parties were represented (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, European Union, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey). Apart from MEPIELAN Centre*, the following NGOs and MAP Partners were also represented as observers: HELMEPA (Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association), INARE (Institute of Sustainable Development and Management of Natural Resources), MEDASSET (Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles) and MIO-ECSDE (Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development).

The Meeting discussed the Draft Strategic Framework of the UNEP/MAP Mid-Term Strategy 2016-2021 (UNEP(DEPI)/MED WG. 415/3) and its strategic themes referring to “Land- and Sea-Based Pollution”, “Biodiversity and Ecosystems”, “Climate Change”, “Natural Resources”, “Governance” and “Mediterranean Environment Under Review”. Each of these themes comprised one or more strategic objectives, a set of indicators, and strategic outcomes with their corresponding key outputs.

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MEPIELAN Centre | May 19, 2015 | 3 min read

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Articles

Articles

The Negotiation on Mainstreaming a new Partnership Agreement between the EU and ACP countries into Sustainability Governance: Integrating Law and Policy

The European Union and the countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States officially opened negotiations for the conclusion of a new Partnership Agreement in New York on 28 September 2018 in the margins of the UN General Assembly. The new agreement will enter into effect after 2020, following the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement on 29 February 2020. The Cotonou Agreement was adopted in June 2000, and entered into force in April 2003. To date, it is the most comprehensive and balanced partnership agreement between the EU and developing countries. It determines the legal regime and general governance framework applicable to EU relations with ACP countries on a wide range of policy issues focused on: the eradication of poverty, the promotion of sustainable development from an economic, social, environmental and cultural perspective, and the progressive integration of ACP countries into the global economic system.

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Alexandros Kailis | Nov 6, 2020 | 21 min read

Articles

Unilateralism in the treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Biologist’s Perspective

Humanity has waged long wars against many different, sometimes imaginary threats. In 1958, in the Republic of China, a relentless four-year war was waged against an animal species that would hardly be declared an enemy: the little sparrow. The real cause of this war was the miserable policy of the Party that threatened China with famine. The "enemy" was none other than the endemic arboreal sparrow: a small, cowardly bird that had the misfortune to be included in the" Four Pests Campaign" along with mosquitoes, flies, and rats, well-known carriers of dangerous pathogens. Mao's authority declared war because the "experts" defined the sparrow as a competitive species in grain farming.The leader's authority and the "excellence" of the party turned China's people into a ruthless killer of millions of small birds, which caused a severe ecological disaster and the great Chinese famine.

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Aggelina Metaxatos | Nov 5, 2020 | 17 min read

Articles

In Treaty we Negotiably Trust: Unearthing the Interrelationship between International Negotiation and Treaty in Constructing International Common Interest

There is a challenging and refreshing approach in my new book “International Negotiation: A Process of Relational Governance for International Common Interest” that maintained my spirit daringly devoted and my interest creatively alive throughout the years of its writing. I propose a relational theory that systematically unveils the interrelationship between International Negotiation and Treaty as a process of relational governance constructing International Common Interest (ICI), thus raising a fundamental theoretical claim and a practical platform for an interdisciplinary and more knowledgeable understanding and conduct of international negotiation.

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Evangelos Raftopoulos | Feb 22, 2019 | 8 min read

Articles

Science-Policy Interfaces and Regional Environmental Governance: The Case of the Mediterranean

In the Mediterranean region, there are longstanding procedures and practices of dialogue and interaction between Science and Policy within robust institutional frameworks established for a better environmental governance and sustainable management of marine and coastal ecosystems, in particular within the UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) – Barcelona Convention system. Being subject to an increasing number of cumulative pressures and threats associated with human activities that have significant impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems, the Mediterranean basin is both a showcase and a testing ground for environmental governance and for evidence-based policy-making at the regional level.

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Ilias Mavroidis and Julien Le Tellier | Feb 21, 2019 | 17 min read

Articles

Going against the UNCLOS (in One Specific Instance)

There is no doubt that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Montego Bay, 1982; UNCLOS) is a cornerstone in the process for the codification of international law. It was described as a “constitution for oceans”, “a monumental achievement in the international community”, “the first comprehensive treaty dealing with practically every aspect of the uses and resources of the seas and the oceans”, as well as an instrument that “has successfully accommodated the competing interests of all nations”. However, there is at least one specific matter where the UNCLOS regime was seen as leading to very unsatisfactory results. A new instrument of universal scope was adopted to better address this matter.A new instrument of universal scope was adopted to better address this matter. It is the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (Paris, 2001; CPUCH).

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Tullio Scovazzi | Feb 20, 2019 | 13 min read

Articles

Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Greece: The pursuance of policy coherence and interlinkage

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2015, provide a universal, visionary and transformative framework for sustainable development, ensuring that “no one is left behind”. They introduce an integrated and balanced approach to the process of managing multifaceted economic, environmental and social challenges. They generate, for the first time, contrary to the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015), implementation commitments up to 2030, for both developed and developing countries, tailored to the specific national context and needs.

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Alexandros Kailis | Feb 19, 2019 | 18 min read

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Books

Books

Global Environmental Governance Reconsidered

The notion of global governance is widely studied in academia and increasingly relevant to politics and policy making. Yet many of its fundamental elements remain unclear in both theory and practice. Yet many of its fundamental elements remain unclear in both theory and practice. This book offers a fresh perspective by analyzing global governance in terms of three major trends, as exemplified by developments in global sustainability governance.

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Frank Biermann and Philipp Pattberg | Nov 12, 2012 | 3 min read

Books

Nuclear Weapons, Justice and Law

Elli Louka, in this timely written important book, skillfully presents, in a “realistic” language, a thorough and insightful examination of the nuclear non-proliferation order and the particularities of its governance in its various contexts. It is often argued that the nuclear non-proliferation order divides the world into nuclear-weapon-haves and have-nots creating a nuclear apartheid.

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Elli Louka | Feb 22, 2012 | 4 min read

Books

The World Ocean in Globalisation

In this major book, edited by Davor Vidas and Peter Johan Schei, thirty-three experts on marine affairs and the law of the sea examine the emerging challenges for the World Ocean, inquiring into developments prompted by globalisation in central issue-areas of the law of the sea. These are explored systematically in sections on the key challenges and developments in the interface of science, economic uses and law (Part I); climate change and the oceans (Part II); sustainability of fisheries (Part III); challenges and responses related to global maritime transport (Part IV); and the regulatory responses to global challenges in seas surrounding Europe (Part V).

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Davor Vidas and Peter Johan Schei | Sep 21, 2011 | 5 min read

Books

Law, Technology and Science for Oceans in Globalisation

In this major book, edited by Davor Vidas, thirty-four experts on marine affairs and the law of the sea, from six continents, examine the emerging challenges for our World Ocean. The accumulating consequences of human activities on the seas indicate that the Earth may already have entered a new epoch, the Anthropocene, dominated by the human impact. This volume analyses developments in the interface of law, technology and science in some central law-of-the-sea issue areas. These are explored systematically in sections on the World Ocean in the Anthropocene epoch (Part I); combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (Part II); combating illegal oil spills from ships (Part III); marine genetic resources and bio-prospecting (Part IV); and the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines (Part V).

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Davor Vidas | Apr 6, 2011 | 5 min read

Books

From Government to Governance? New Governance for Water and Biodiversity in Enlarged EU

The book is a result of interdisciplinary research conducted under GoverNat Project (Multi-level Governance of Natural Resources: Tools and Processes for Water and Biodiversity Governance in Europe), a Marie Curie Research Training Network in the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission focusing on research and training in all aspects of multi-level environmental governance.

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Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská | Nov 4, 2010 | 2 min read

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Thematic News

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Environmental Governance Regimes

MEDITERRANEAN SEA – Outcomes of the 21st Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols

Fourteen thematic decisions related to pollution and marine litter, biodiversity and marine protected areas, blue economy and integrated coastal zone management alongside a groundbreaking roadmap for the proposal of a possible designation of the Mediterranean as an Emission Control Area for Sulphur Oxides, were adopted by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols during their 21st Meeting in Naples, Italy (COP21).

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MEPIELAN Centre | Nov 6, 2020 | 6 min read

Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030

UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development: Its 2018 Session

The annual session of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF 2018), convened under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council, took place from 9 to 18 July 2018 at the UN Headquarters in New York. This was the third HLPF session since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. This HLPF session brought together government officials as well as representatives from international governmental and international organizations and the civil society with the aim to take stock of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The five-day experts' meeting took place from 9 to 13 July and it was followed by a three-day Ministerial Meeting convened from 16 to 18 July as part of ECOSOC's high-level segment.

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MEPIELAN Centre | Feb 6, 2019 | 4 min read

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