Member States as ‘Trustees’ of the Union? The European Union and the Arctic Council

Abstract:

This paper sets out to analyse two elements often overlooked in the literature on the European Union (EU) and international organisations, namely EU representation in the Arctic Council and the duty of sincere cooperation as a tool of EU representation. Since the EU is not a member of the Arctic Council, this paper assesses to what extent the EU is able to rely on its three member states (Denmark, Sweden and Finland), as members of the Arctic Council, to represent Union interests.

After having shown the extent to which the duty of sincere cooperation has effectively been invoked by the European Court of Justice to enforce unity in representation, EU representation in the Arctic Council serves as a case study exemplifying the limits of the duty. While the duty of sincere cooperation entails general and concrete obligations on the activities of member states in international organisations, the duty remains a reactive legal tool only applicable when the EU legal order is challenged. Hence, the duty of sincere cooperation plays a minor role for international organisations dealing with matters of Common Foreign and Security Policy and with decision-making powers that do not directly affect the EU legal order. For the Arctic Council, this paper therefore concludes that the EU has only to a limited extent been able to rely on its member states as ‘trustees’ of the Union.