The ‘green’ agreement between the European Union and Japan

Abstract

In the European Green Deal, the European Commission expressed its will to build alliances with European Union’s (EU) partners who have a similar approach to environmental protection. The first green alliance was concluded by the EU with Japan on 27 May 2021. The aim of the paper is to analyse the content and nature of this alliance and to assess its potential effectiveness as an instrument for the implementation of the European Green Deal and its possible impact on international relations and respectively EU, national, and international legal norms in the field of the environment. As shown in this study, the first green alliance is not a model solution. On the one hand, this instrument requires a formal correction (involving Member States and relevant EU institutions in adopting any amendments in line with the principles of division of competences between the EU and its Member States and institutional balance, clarification of the nature of obligations), on the other hand, it is deeply embedded in the unique international legal framework of EU-Japanese relations. However, the first green alliance has great potential to influence the EU's relations with other third countries and the content of the resulting legal norms at various levels.