Climate Change and Environmental Issues in the Economic Partnership Agreement and the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Japan

Abstract

on 17 July 2018. The former is a so-called “EU only agreement” which the EU can conclude alone without participation of the EU Member States. Therefore, after the ratification by the EU and Japan, it entered into force on 1 February 2019. On the other hand, the latter is a mixed agreement and needs to be ratified by the EU and all the EU Member States. As a result, its provisional application commenced on that day. In the beginning Japan wanted to conclude only the EPA because Japanese companies were concerned about adverse effects in the export-manufacturing fields by the conclusion of the FTA between the EU and South Korea. On the other hand, from the outset, the EU requested a binding agreement, covering political, global and other sectoral cooperation in a comprehensive manner. 3 Since the enactment of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the EU has had its own values and those values should be applied in EU external action. According to Article 21 Treaty on the European Union (TEU), the EU shall seek to develop relations and build partnerships with third countries that share principles such as democracy, the rule of law, and respect of human rights. 4 Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics 48 (2020), pp.9-21. C Hitotsubashi University