The European Commission has set out a new strategy for securing its geopolitical standing in the Arctic region, placing the focus on the EU’s Green Deal.
The strategy calls for restrictions on fossil fuel exploration and extraction in the Arctic and pledges EU funds to speed up the green transition in the region.
May 19, 2021
Katarina Kertysova
This week, the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the leading intergovernmental forum for Arctic affairs, will pass from Iceland to Russia for a two-year term. Russia will take the baton at a time when the organization grapples with multiple challenges and Russia-West relations have hit another historic low. COVID-19 has caused a major disruption to the Icelandic chairmanship agenda, while the preceding Finnish chairmanship (2017-2019) was negatively affected by the Trump administration’s policy departure on clean energy and climate change, which put the U.S. out of step with other Arctic governments and jeopardized efforts to adopt a ministerial declaration in 2019. Military buildup in the Arctic, coupled with the emerging narrative of great power competition, further undermine the cooperative spirit that the Arctic Council represents.
The circumpolar North is back on the EU’s agenda as the Commission and the External Action Service are currently preparing an update to the EU’s Arctic policy, writes Andreas Raspotnik.
Andreas Raspotnik is a Senior Research Fellow, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Lysaker (Norway) & Senior Fellow, The Arctic Institute – Center for Circumpolar Security Studies, Washington DC (United States).
It takes no great powers of prophecy to know that a new Joint Communication – to be expected this autumn – will remind the international audience of the EU’s Arctic objectives and competences. Yet it will
not resolve the major problems that come with the overall objective of establishing an integrated and comprehensive Arctic policy for the EU.