Regulating the Baltic Sea – A Showcase of Normative Pluralism

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 347-376
Author(s):  
Viljam Engström
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
Regulatory Impact ◽  
Normative Pluralism ◽  
The One ◽  
The Baltic

The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) faces several challenges, not the least in respect of the poor state of the sea itself. The regulatory framework governing the BSR is complex, displaying a multi-layered structure with up to five regulatory levels. The regulatory scene is also characterised by many features that could be assumed under the umbrella of post-national rulemaking. This article discusses features of the pluralisation of BSR regulation. The BSR regulatory framework is on the one hand rich with regulatory initiatives at the fringes of both ‘actorness’ and ‘ruleness’. On the other hand, the framework is characterised by cross-fertilisation between regulatory layers. Such interaction can add to the regulatory impact of normatively soft acts, but can also come with drawbacks. In any case, the article claims, a complete picture of BSR regulation can only be attained through an appreciation of normative pluralism. Keywords: Baltic Sea, Post-National Rulemaking, European Union, Soft-Law, Framework Instruments, Pluralism, Helcom

scholarly journals Seca Regulatory Impact Assessment: Administrative Burden Costs in the Baltic Sea Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunice O. Olaniyi ◽  
Gunnar Prause
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Compliance Rate ◽  
Control Area ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Administrative Burden ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
Regulatory Impact ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Sulphur Emission ◽  
Emission Control Area

Abstract After three years of 0.1% Sulphur limit of the Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA) enforcement, empirical results have shown that the fears that SECA regulation would be a disadvantage for the Baltic Sea maritime sector are unfounded. Results have also shown commendable compliance rate and improved environmental conditions for the BSR. Nonetheless, there is still a need to clear the air regarding the costs information obligations that are required from maritime actors regarding their compliance activities. These activities are arguably obviously needful but could also lead to an unintended increase of costs of regulations. Using a BSR-wide survey and case studies, the paper identified SECA information obligations related to the shipowners from shipping line whose vessels ply the SECA waters. The authors further evaluated the costs of the administrative burden related to these tasks. The results show that the administrative burden for SECA regulations is different for shipowners and maritime authorities.

scholarly journals Cooperation, Media and Framing Processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (s1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Anna Maria Jönsson ◽  
Mikael Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
Controversial Topic ◽  
The One ◽  
The Baltic

AbstractCooperation and communication play an important role for environmental governance. This holds true for the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe, one of the most disturbed ecosystems in the world, where insufficient cooperation between different stakeholders is one reason for goal failure. This article addresses the linkages between (media) framing on the one hand, and cooperation on the other. The case in focus is a set of negotiations related to the Baltic Sea Action Plan, the most central governance strategy in the Baltic Sea region. Our results show that in order to influence political decision-making, key stakeholders compete over the power to define and interpret problems, causes and solutions to an extent impeding cooperation. We focus the analysis on eutrophication, which we show to be a complex and controversial topic, framed in incompatible ways by different stakeholders.

scholarly journals A Digital or Sustainable Small and Medium-Sized Port? Sustainable Port Blueprint in the Baltic Sea Region Based on Port Benchmarking

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-342
Author(s):  
Christopher Meyer ◽  
Laima Gerlitz ◽  
Robert Philipp ◽  
Vytautas Paulauskas
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Core Network ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
The One ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Small and medium-sized ports (SMSPs) in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) are caught in a dilemma of less financial support by the European funding programmes due to their peripheral position in the TEN-T Core Network. Most of the BSR ports belong to the TEN-T Comprehensive Network, which is rationally less important in the topical financial, infrastructural and policy discourses. Despite this, BSR ports are of a colossal importance for the regional economic development serving as gateways for the individual regions and drivers of socio-economic and environmental transition. In addition, ports are essential in pursuing new innovation avenues. The environmental targets published by the European Commission for maritime sector in 2030 and 2050 are applicable for SMSPs as well, creating further obstacles and future challenges on the one hand, but opening new horizons to grow and innovate on the other one. A successful environmental and digital transformation going hand in hand in SMSPs enable sustainable boost of sustainable development. Thus, as a first step, the assessment of sustainable readiness in SMSPs is incumbent in order to implement tailor-made solutions on individual basis, by ensuring efficient usage of available resources and capabilities. In line with the Connect2SmallPorts project, part-financed by the INTERREG South Baltic Programme, 38 SMSPs in the BSR were approached to mapping their digital readiness according to the methodology of the Digital Readiness Index for Ports (DRIP), published within the project in 2020. Building upon this, this paper introduces the idea of digital and environmental twinning to conclude on sustainable development potentials in SMSPs with an adaptation of the DRIP score. Hence, the research contributes to the sustainable port concept and illustrates the positioning of SMSPs in the progress of sustainable development.

Harmonisation in the Baltic Sea Region

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-258
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Kirk ◽  
Harriet Silfverberg
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Regimes ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
The One ◽  
The Baltic

AbstractThis paper explores harmonisation of international regimes, in particular the factors that impact on it in practice. These issues are explored in the context of the harmonisation project undertaken by HELCOM in 2000–01. As will be demonstrated there are four main factors that influence the likelihood of harmonisation of measures. Of these the one most likely to promote harmonisation is pragmatism. The other three—geographic, economic and political factors—are all more likely to tilt against harmonisation than for it.

scholarly journals Securitizing Russia: Discursive Practices of the Baltic States

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Øyvind Jæger
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
The One ◽  
The Baltic

The author argues that the security situation of the Baltic countries cannot be separated from the way the Balts themselves speak of security. This is a discourse of danger producing insecurity in pursuit of security. Moreover, this article is a study of identity by demonstrating how Baltic security issues are constituted by discourses of danger revolving around Russian Otherness and European Sameness. In conclusion, the following aspects are addressed: the prospects for the coming together of East and West in the Baltic Sea Region – and NATO’s role in this process – and whether this process will come to ease with a parallel between sovereignty and regionality as organising principles for political space, or whether the one will succumb to the other in the course of a prolonged contest.

Factor endowments and international trade: a study of land embodied in trade on the Baltic Sea region, 1750–1856

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 716-735
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Theodoridis ◽  
Klas Rönnbäck ◽  
Werner Scheltjens
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Trade Openness ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
Factor Endowments ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
The One ◽  
The Baltic

Abstract Baltic trade is one of the key examples of flourishing economic activity in early modern European history. This study empirically outlines the role of comparative resource advantages between 1750 and 1856, using trade data from the Sound Toll Registers Online. On the one hand, the results show the significance of relative land abundance for trade patterns between the Baltic Sea region and North-Western Europe: the land abundant Baltic Sea region was overall exporting more land-intensive commodities. On the other hand, however, the results also show a seeming paradox: increasing trade openness during the nineteenth century was not associated with a higher degree of specialization along these comparative advantages.

Tracing the SW border of the Svecofennian Domain in the Baltic Sea region: evidence from petrology and geochronology from a granodioritic migmatite

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgenia Salin ◽  
Jeremy Woodard ◽  
Krister Sundblad
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Short Distance ◽  
Sedimentary Cover ◽  
Crystalline Basement ◽  
Drill Core ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
Drill Site ◽  
Southwestern Margin ◽  
The Baltic

AbstractGeological investigations of a part of the crystalline basement in the Baltic Sea have been performed on a drill core collected from the depth of 1092–1093 m beneath the Phanerozoic sedimentary cover offshore the Latvian/Lithuanian border. The sample was analyzed for geochemistry and dated with the SIMS U–Pb zircon method. Inherited zircon cores from this migmatized granodioritic orthogneiss have an age of 1854 ± 15 Ma. Its chemical composition and age are correlated with the oldest generation of granitoids of the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt (TIB), which occur along the southwestern margin of the Svecofennian Domain in the Fennoscandian Shield and beneath the Phanerozoic sedimentary cover on southern Gotland and in northwestern Lithuania. It is suggested that the southwestern border of the Svecofennian Domain is located at a short distance to the SW of the investigated drill site. The majority of the zircon population shows that migmatization occurred at 1812 ± 5 Ma, with possible evidence of disturbance during the Sveconorwegian orogeny.

scholarly journals Variation of growth and phenology traits in poplars planted in clonal trials in Northern Europe—implications for breeding

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anneli Adler ◽  
Almir Karacic ◽  
Ann-Christin Rönnberg Wästljung ◽  
Ulf Johansson ◽  
Kaspars Liepins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Populus Trichocarpa ◽  
Selection Criterion ◽  
Volume Index ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Bud Burst ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
European Climate ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
The Baltic

AbstractThe increased demand for wood to replace oil-based products with renewable products has lifted focus to the Baltic Sea region where the environment is favorable for woody biomass growth. The aim of this study was to estimate broad-sense heritabilities and genotype-by-environment (G×E) interactions in growth and phenology traits in six climatically different regions in Sweden and the Baltics. We tested the hypothesis that both bud burst and bud set have a significant effect on the early growth of selected poplar clones in Northern Europe. Provenance hybrids of Populus trichocarpa adapted to the Northern European climate were compared to reference clones with adaptation to the Central European climate. The volume index of stemwood was under low to medium genetic control with heritabilities from 0.22 to 0.75. Heritabilities for phenology traits varied between 0.31 and 0.91. Locally chosen elite clones were identified. G×E interactions were analyzed using pairwise comparisons of the trials. Three different breeding zones for poplars between the latitudes of 55° N and 60° N in the Baltic Sea Region were outlined. The studied provenance hybrids with origin from North America offer a great possibility to broaden the area with commercial poplar plantations in Northern Europe and further improve the collection of commercial clones to match local climates. We conclude that phenology is an important selection criterion after growth.

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