The European Union and Small Island Developing States: The Geo-political/legal, Trade, and Cooperation Dimensions
| Autor | Erwan Lannon |
| Cargo | PhD. Rennes University (France). Profesor de Derecho Europeo en el Instituto Europeo de Derecho de Gante. Universidad de Gante (Bélgica). [erwan.lannon@Ugent.be]; [https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8589-6728]. |
| Páginas | 139-169 |
143
The European Union and Small Island Developing States: The Geo-political/legal…
OASIS, ISSN: 1657-7558, E-ISSN: 2346-2132, N° 37, Enero - Junio de 2023, pp. 139-169
INSULARIDAD Y POLÍTICA
the UK. The impact of Brexit is therefore im-
portant for the EU at geopolitical and strategic
levels, but also in terms of natural resources
and for the SIDS themselves. From a legal
perspective, the UK withdrew from the EU
and became a third country as of 1 February
2020. The withdrawal agreement includes a
reference to the ‘special arrangements for the
association’ of the OCTs with the EU (Eu-
ropean Union, 31 January 2020, Article 3 §
1 (e)). The Trade and partnership agreement
concluded in 2021 between the EU and UK
for the Post-Brexit relations (European Un-
ion, 30 April 2021) also includes Article 774
regarding its territorial scope that states, in its
fourth paragraph, that the Agreement ‘does not
apply to the overseas territories that experience
special relations’ with the UK’, referring explic-
itly to all the above-mentioned UKOTs. There
is also a specific declaration on the Chagos
archipelago, annexed to the agreement stating
that, for the EU, ‘the reference to the British
Indian Ocean Territory in paragraph 4 of Ar-
ticle 774 of the Agreement is to be interpreted
and implemented in full respect of applicable
international law’.
Map 1.
Overseas Countries and Territories Association of the European Union
Source: European Commis sion, accesse d 1 July 2022, https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/where-we-work/overseas-
countries-and-territories_en
Erwan Lannon
144
OASIS, ISSN: 1657-7558, E-ISSN: 2346-2132, N° 37, Enero - Junio de 2023, pp. 139-169
An EU Council decision (2021/1764)
on the association of the OCTs with the EU,
including Greenland, which was adopted in
October 2021 and known as the ‘DOAG’
Decision stated, in its preamble, that follow-
ing Brexit, the overseas association ‘applies to
the OCTs listed in Annex II to the Treaty
on the Functioning of the European Union
(TFEU)’ while ‘excluding the 12 UK OCTs
listed in that Annex’ (EU Council, 5 October
2021, 6). The DOAG decision sets out the
political-institutional, trade, and financial
cooperation framework to ‘support the EU
OCTs’ sustainable development, as well as
to promote the values and standards of the
Union in the wider world’ (EU Council, 5
October 2021, p. 13). The decision in fact
‘unifies the rules for the partnership with all
OCTs and includes specific provisions guiding
the partnership with Greenland’, while tak-
ing into consideration the new state-of-play
for the UKOTs (European Commission, 17
December 2021). The impact of Brexit was
already important for the UKOTs, according
to the first analyses. As underlined by Jessica
Byron: ‘Brexit poses a major challenge for the
UKOTs’, for whom the EU is ‘a very important
trade and development cooperation partner’.
In fact, they ‘could not vote in the 2016 Brexit
referendum’ and ‘are severely affected by the
consequences of such developments on which
they were minimally consulted’. It is impos-
sible to detail the impact of Brexit at all dif-
ferent levels; but is clearly important given
the number and geographical locations of the
islands implicated (Benwell, et al., 2022, pp.
3-12; Byron, 2019; Clegg, 2016).
The objective of the OCTs association,
according to Article 198 TFEU, is to promote
their ‘economic and social development’. This
decrees a need to ‘establish close economic
relations between them and the Union as a
whole’. It is important to mention that ‘OCT
nationals are EU citizens’, and that the asso-
ciation is primarily designed to ‘further the
interests and prosperity of the inhabitants of
these countries and territories in order to lead
them to the economic, social, and cultural de-
velopment to which they aspire’. In 2013, the
EU Council adopted a decision to modernise
the association of the OCTs with the EU (EU
Council, 19 December 2013, p. 1). This deci-
sion was then replaced by the DOAG Decision
(2021/1764) that took Brexit into considera-
tion, but mainly updated the approach of the
EU vis à vis the OCTs. Even if the OCTs are
not considered to be third countries, they
do not form part of the EU Internal market.
Moreover, the principle according to which the
TFEU and secondary legislation ‘do not auto-
matically apply to the OCTs, with the excep-
tion of a number of provisions which explicitly
provide for the contrary’, was confirmed by
the DOAG Decision. Therefore, the OCTs
have to comply with the obligations imposed
on third countries for trade and in particular:
‘rules of origin, health and plant health stand-
ards and safeguard measures’ (EU Council, 5
October 2021, p. 7). What is important, for
this contribution, is that the OCT Association
is promoting, through the DOAG Decision,
regional cooperation and integration with
other partners, including Outermost Regions’
and SIDS’ neighbours.
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