Redesigning Maritime Space: EU Multi-Level Governance and Environmental Issues of the Baltic Sea

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the current state and the prospects of ecological collaboration activities to protect the Baltic Sea including both the EU and Russia. The researchers, studying the EU environmental policy in the Baltic Sea region often ignore Russia since this country has separate environmental policy concerning the Baltic Sea area. However, Russia is a member of Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) a supranational body which was established forty years ago to safeguard the marine environment of the Baltic Sea strengthening interstate cooperation. The main focus is the investigation of new patterns of interaction on environmental issues that influence the allocation of space and meaning of societal time in the Baltic Sea region. Relying on multi-level governance theory, three dimensions of space (natural, national and trans-boundary) and five levels of societal time (regional, EU, national, municipal, cross-border) are analyzed. While space is regarded as a politico-social object, which should be subjected to transformation, the societal time is used to plan required environmental changeovers. Both aspects encompass not only area of the EU littoral members in the Baltic Sea region but all states of the Baltic Sea catchment area (Belarus, Czech Republic, Russia, Slovak Republic and the Ukraine).