The Faroe Islands and the European Union have today jointly requested the arbitral tribunal established pursuant to Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to terminate the proceedings.
The EU trade measures against the Faroe Islands were lifted this week, and the parties are no longer in disagreement.
The arbitral proceedings were instigated by the Faroe Islands in response to threats by the EU of coercive economic measures against the Faroe Islands in relation to a disagreement on allocation of the shared fish stock Atlanto-Scandian herring.
A similar notification to terminate proceedings has today also been submitted to the dispute settlement body under the World Trade Organization, thereby also closing those parallel proceedings.
According to Prime Minister, Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen, the instigation of the proceedings under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the WTO Agreement has proved to be a vital tool to resolve the disagreement.
Two third party organs were vested with powers to consider and issue binding decisions on whether the trade measures adopted by the EU were consistent or in violation of its obligations under international law and the WTO Agreement.
“First and foremost, however, I am pleased that the Faroe Islands and the EU have managed to resolve the disagreement amicably, and that we can now move forward to promote a new era of stronger and broader bilateral cooperation”, said Prime Minister Johannesen.
[Dr Bjørn Kunoy, Dr Esa Paasivirta, Agents and Mr. Andre Bouquet Co-Agent, for respectively the Faroe Islands and the European Union, in the arbitral tribunal proceedings under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, executing the joint request which was submitted to the arbitral tribunal today]