Islands at the periphery : integrating the challenges of island sustainability into European policy

Abstract

Sustainable development is a fundamental objective of the European Union and the global community. The considerable sustainability challenges faced by small islands are recognised at UN level, however the sustainability challenges faced by EU islands are not well reflected in EU policy, where the approach to island issues has been incremental and fragmented. After identifying EU islands and their main sustainability issues, this paper argues for a stronger awareness of islands issues in EU policy processes. It notes in particular three issues that needed to be addressed before this is done. These relate to the current restrictive definition of islands, which excludes island states, and the fact that the island issues of peripherality and insularity do not fit into any of the categories provided in the EU’s impact assessment guidelines, a key tool for internalizing sustainability concerns in EU policy. Third, since European islands are found at various administrative scales, there is a lack of harmonized statistical data on fundamental factors necessary for monitoring sustainable development in EU insular regions. The role of Malta in highlighting challenges and concerns faced by European islands is also explored, vis a vis the European Union policy-making and policy- designing mechanisms.