The Contribution of the European Union to Marine Pollution Prevention.

In public international law the European Union (EU) is called an organisation for regional economic integration, however, its environmental duty goes beyond economic integration, and is global in scope. The EU has fixed itself on the objective of "promoting measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems."1 It has ratified all of the main UN environmental conventions, in particular, the Convention on the Law of the Sea.2 However, it is widely considered that EU foreign policy is at present largely rhetoric. The lack of sincere policy also affects foreign environmental issues and protection of the marine environment. Indeed, the EC has not developed a consistent policy to address the protection of the marine environment, either at the global or regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]