On May 7th, EULawSD academic coordinator Riccardo Pavoni joined a webinar on ‘The European Response to the COVID-19 Emergency’, which was aired on Italian regional broadcaster Alò Web TV.
During the show, Professor Pavoni discussed the basket of measures taken by European institutions to confront the pandemic, ranging from those aimed at ensuring the availability of medical equipment across all EU countries to the European Central Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme and the Commission’s efforts towards the development of a EU Recovery Fund.
Professor Pavoni was joined on the show by fellow Prof Giammaria Milani (Università degli Studi di Siena), who offered a comparative legal perspective on the different strategies adopted by selected European countries.
We are proud to announce that the second session of the 2020 EULawSD webinar series will take place on Tuesday, 28th April. For the occasion, we will welcome Elena Cima, who is a Lecturer at the Pôle de Gouvernance de l’Environnement et Développement Territorialof the University of Geneva, as well as at its Faculty of Law. Elena will join us for a dialogue on ‘The EU and the Modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty: What Could it Mean for Climate Action?’.
In particular, the webinar will focus on the process of modernisation that the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is currently undergoing, with the active participation of all its Parties. Given the important role that the energy sector plays in relation to both contributing to climate change and providing mitigation solutions, the reform of the ECT presents a unique opportunity to ensure that the new text of the Treaty facilitates and increases investments in the energy sector in a sustainable way. As such, Elena will explore the position of the European Union, as well as some of its Member States, which emphasises the need to design a “modernized ECT which should reflect climate change and clean energy transition goals and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Paris Agreement.” Although none of the items open for discussion and reform explicitly refers to or mentions climate change, Elena will argue that many of the core provisions of the Treaty could, if drafted differently, provide for more climate-friendly developments in the EU and beyond.
The webinar will be visible on the YouTube channel of the EULawSD Module or in the box below. As usual, it will be possible to join the event live and ask questions to our speaker.
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About the speaker
Elena Cima is a Lecturer in International Energy and Environmental Law at the University of Geneva. She holds a PhD Degree in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, a Bachelor of Laws LL. B from the University of Milan and an LL.M degree from Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Journal of International Law.
Previously, she studied at Harvard Law School (Department of East Asian Legal Studies) and then moved to Beijing, where she was Marie Curie Fellow at Tsinghua University and Beijing Normal University and worked as a researcher for over two years on projects funded by the European Commission on energy trade and investment. Her research interests include international trade and environmental law, U.S. and Chinese energy law and policy, and the interfaces between energy and international law.
Dario Piselli, programme manager of the Jean Monnet Module on EU Law and Sustainable Development) was invited to discuss the health impacts of EU biodiversity lawduring a seminar organised by the Centre for International Environmental Studies of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, which took place on November 21st in Geneva. The seminar was part of the Fall 2019 edition of the CIES Lunch Seminar Series, a series of interdisciplinary research seminars on environmental, natural resource and development issues aimed at the dissemination of research results to academic experts and policymakers.
Mr Piselli, who is a PhD candidate and affiliate member of the Centre for International Environmental Studies, presented the book chapter on ‘EU biodiversity law and its health impacts‘ that he recently co-authored together with EULawSD academic coordinator Riccardo Pavoni. In particular, he focused on the interaction between EU nature conservation legislation and human health and well-being considerations, as articulated in the Birds and Habitats Directives (Dir. 2009/147/EC and Dir.92/43/EEC) and their interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
From May 13 to 17, the European Union will celebrate a new edition of its EU Green Week with a series of events in Brussels and across the EU member states. After the publication of its Environmental Implementation Review in April 2019, the European Commission has decided to use this edition to discuss the findings of that review and focus on the application of environmental legislation in Europe more broadly, including by asking questions such as:
What benefits do EU environmental laws bring for citizens?
What does successful implementation look like?
Where are the problem areas?
How can stakeholders take ownership of these laws?
How can can EU facilitate the process, making sure that the voices of citizens are heard?
The EU Green Week will culminate with the Brussels Conference, taking place at BLUEPOINT Conference Centre from May 15 to 17. A number of the conference sessions will be dedicated to topics that we have explored extensively as part of the Jean Monnet Module in EU Law and Sustainable Development, including the impact of environmental laws on human health, the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network, and the synergies between environmental goals and the EU Common Agricultural Policy.
The academic staff of the Jean Monnet Module in European Union Law and Sustainable Development is honoured to announce the first two webinars of the 2019 EULawSD Webinar Series. On April 4th (at 3pm CET), we will host Marianne Kettunen, Principal Policy Analyst and Head of the Programme on Global Challenges and SDGs for the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP). Kettunen will discuss the current prospects for SDG implementation in the European Union in the light of the recent Reflection Paper ‘Towards a Sustainable Europe by 2030‘, published by the European Commission in order to highlight different strategies and priorities for the further incorporation the 2030 Agenda in the policies and actions of European institutions and the Union’s member states.
On April 26th (at 12pm CET), Gabriela A. Oanta, Associate Professor of Public International Law at Universidade da Coruña and Director of its University Institute for European Studies, will instead deliver a lecture on whether the European Union’s current approach to negotiating Fisheries Partnership Agreements with third countries can contribute to (or undermine) global efforts to achieve SDG 14 on ‘Life Below Water’.
The Jean Monnet Module in European Union Law and Sustainable Development is pleased to announce its support for the Global Strike for Future, taking place on 15 March 2019 thanks to the efforts of thousands of students and young climate activists from around the world.
On that occasion, coordinator Prof Riccardo Pavoni will join students from the Siena chapter of the Fridays for Future movement and participate in a public panel in which he will discuss the actions that the European Union needs to take to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and mitigate climate change by 2030.
On 30 January, the European Commission has finally presented its long-awaited reflection paper on implementing the 2030 Agenda in the EU, which was originally expected in the first half of 2018. The paper, titled ‘Towards a Sustainable Europe by 2030‘, discusses the key policy foundations and horizontal enablers needed to achieve a sustainable Europe by 2030. In addition, the paper presents and analyses three possible scenarios that could shape a Union-wide strategy on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and namely: (i) an overarching SDG strategy to guide all the actions of the EU and its member states; (ii) a continued mainstreaming of the SDGs in the policies of the Commission, without enforcement at the member states’ level; and (iii) a consolidation of existing policies, coupled with an increased focus on the SDGs in the external action of the EU.
In its preliminary assessment of the paper, the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has welcomed the urgency and wide scope of the Commission’s work, while also emphasising that only the adoption of the first proposed scenario would be able to deliver on the EU’s commitments by 2030. Moreover, the IEEP recommended a series of concrete policy actions that would be required to implement (and improve upon) the policy foundations and horizontal enablers identified by the Commission.
On 18 September, EUROSTAT issued the 2018 version of “Sustainable Development in the European Union“, its monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. The Report is complemented by a range of additional materials, including a short brochure providing a visual summary of the Report’s findings, the “SDGs & Me” digital publication, a series of Statistics Explained articles on individual SDGs, and a revamped EUROSTAT’s website section dedicated to the Goals.
The 2018 Report highlights significant progress on Goal 3 (“Good Health & Well-being”, Goal 4 (“Quality Education”) and Goal 7 (“Affordable and Clean Energy”), as well as moderate progress for eight additional goals. However, the Report also underscores a worrying shift away from a sustainable development trajectory for Goal 10 (“Reduced inequalities”), owing to the ongoing rise of income inequality within EU member states. Moreover, EUROSTAT continues to be unable to track trends for Goal 6 (“Clean Water and Sanitation”), Goal 13 (“Climate Action”), Goal 14 (“Life Below Water”) and Goal 16 (“Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”), due to the conspicuous absence of reliable data over the past five years. Lastly, broad progress on a Goal is in some cases hiding insufficient progress, or even negative developments, for specific areas within that Goal.
Overall, the EUROSTAT Report follows the evidence presented in July by the 2018 SDG Index & DashboardsReport of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), suggesting that the EU is not on track to meet all 17 SDGs by 2030 and that the level of ambition should be raised on the part of both EU member states and European institutions.
On May 31st, ASviS (the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development) will host a high-level international event on “SDGs, Climate Change and the Future of Europe” as part of the 2018 edition of the Italian Festival of Sustainable Development (#FestivalSviluppoSostenibile).
The event, which will take place at UniCredit Pavilion in Milan, is organized in collaboration with several other EU civil society actors. Thanks to the participation of leading EU practitioners and policymakers, it will seek to explore the future of the European Union and its role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, at the crossroads of the Union’s traditional stance as a “sustainable development champion” and the risks of new isolationist tendencies.
You can watch the livestream here or on the Facebook page of ASviS, at this link.
To read more about the event, it is also possible to visit the dedicated page on ASviS’s website here.
To read the full calendar of events for the #FestivalSviluppoSostenibile, click here.
The EULawSD staff is honored to announce that on 3 May 2018 it will co-host Prof. Joanne Scott, Co-Director of the Academy of European Law of the European University Institute, for a keynote lecture on “Sustainable Consumption: The Geographical Scope of the EU’s Environmental Responsibilities“.
The lecture, which will address critical aspects of the responsibility of the EU in implementing Sustainable Development Goal 12 on responsible consumption and production, will take place in the Aula Magna Storica of the University of Siena’s rectorate building (Banchi di Sotto 55, 53100 Siena, Italy) at 10.00am.
The lecture is co-organized with Europe Direct Siena and takes place in the context of Europe Direct’s ‘Lezioni d’Europa‘. Prof. Francesco Francioni (Emeritus Professor, EUI), Prof. Massimiliano Montini (UNISI’s Director of Europe Direct), and Prof. Riccardo Pavoni (EULawSD Academic Coordinator) will engage in a discussion with Prof Scott following her lecture. The floor will then be open to questions from the academic and wider Siena community which will be present at the event.
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Prof. Joanne Scott has been appointed as Professor of European Law at the EUI from 1 April 2017. She is on special leave from the Faculty of Laws, University College London (UCL) where she has taught from 2005. Joanne taught previously at the Universities of Kent, Queen Mary and Cambridge and has been a visiting professor at Columbia and Harvard Law Schools. She was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the EUI in 1997/98. Joanne was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2013 and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012.
Joanne has research interests in the areas of environmental law and climate change law. She has been exploring the theme of EU extraterritoriality in her recent work following the award of a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust (2012-2014). Joanne also has research interests in new modes of EU governance and in the relationships between different legal orders.
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The keynote lectures of the EULawSD Module are public events aimed at exposing the course participants to a leading figure (scholar, expert or practitioner) in EU law and sustainable development, which touch on the most relevant issues and challenges in the field while also focusing on key themes that will be different each year. The 2-hour lectures seek to raise awareness among the general public about the importance of the EU in realizing the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The EULawSD staff is honored to announce that on 3 May 2018 it will co-host Prof. Joanne Scott, Co-Director of the Academy of European Law of the