This report is a part of a project about the impact of EU membership on Åland. 25 years of EU experiences have been analysed by the Åland Islands Peace Institute in cooperation with Åland Statistics and Research (ÅSUB), commissioned by the Åland Government. The report is available only in Swedish.

The purpose of this report is to examine what the 25 first years of EU membership have contributed to within the field of environmental law on Åland. It is clear, that the work burden on the environmental regulation side is relatively high. The EU environmental acquis has led to detailed environmental regulation on Åland, prescribing both scientific data collection and reporting to the EU commission. The environmental field is well represented in terms of initiated infringement processes, however, this is understandable considering the large amount of legislation in the field and the similar situation in Member States. The EU demands all environmental legislation to be implemented, even such legislation that could be deemed irrelevant in the Åland case, and hence, experienced as unnecessary bureaucracy or “gravel in the administrative machinery” on Åland. During the years, the environmental field has been entrenched as prioritised within the Åland politics, largely thanks to the EU. EU legislation has acted as a catalyst for a driven Ålandic legislative engine. From the Ålandic side, EU environmental legislation is often implemented through the incorporation of the corresponding Finnish act into the Ålandic legislation. The autonomous ambitions in this field are relatively small, with the exception of some areas that already before the EU membership had Ålandic legislation in the making, i.e. water, nature conservation, environmental impact assessment and waste. During the EU years, the environmental work on Åland has found its place and form.