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On 9 January 2024, the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) endorsed the government's proposal to allow exploration for the possible extraction of seabed minerals on the Norwegian continental shelf. Extraction licences for businesses will require further parliamentary approval. The aim is to mine important critical raw materials that are increasingly needed for the green and digital transitions, and the defence and aerospace sector. However, these developments have raised concerns in the country and ...

Local communities in the Arctic face a unique set of challenges, including remoteness, depopulation and a severe climate and topography. EU regional policy can support development in the European Arctic through investments under the European structural and investment funds, delivered through regional development and European territorial cooperation programmes, with further support also available in the form of a special aid allocation for northern sparsely populated regions. Structural funds represent ...

During the first plenary session of October 2021 in Strasbourg, Parliament held a number of debates, in particular on the proposed EU Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, which should ensure a coordinated EU approach for future health crises. Debate also took place on possible European solutions to the rise in energy prices for businesses and consumers and the role of energy efficiency and renewable energy, highlighting the need to tackle energy poverty. Members discussed the release ...

Le réchauffement climatique et l’intérêt croissant porté au potentiel économique de l’Arctique bouleversent la vie des quelque 4 millions de personnes vivant dans la région. La politique arctique de l’Union européenne de 2016, qui s’articule autour de la durabilité, du développement économique et de la coopération internationale, est en cours de révision pour tenir compte de ces évolutions. La commission des affaires étrangères, dans son rapport sur la question qui figure à l’ordre du jour de la ...

The EU is currently working towards updating its Arctic policy. It needs to respond to two major changes that affect the region and pose challenges to the role of the EU in the Arctic; accelerated climate change and increased geoeconomic and geopolitical competition. The EU finds itself in a rather unique position. As a supranational institution with competences in parts of the Arctic, and with Member States having territories in the region, as well as institutionalised linkages with Arctic countries ...

Cette quatrième édition de la publication annuelle de l’EPRS vise à proposer un éclairage sur dix problématiques et domaines d’action susceptibles de figurer parmi les priorités politiques de l’Union européenne au cours de l’année à venir. Les thèmes analysés sont la biodiversité, les politiques de l’Union européenne pour l’enfance, l’ère de la 5G, le prix de la transition énergétique, la «ludification» de la démocratie européenne, les solutions possibles pour la politique européenne d’asile, le ...

Unlike the Arctic states, China has no territorial sovereignty and related sovereign rights to resource extraction and fishing in the Arctic. Faced with very limited rights as a non-Arctic state, China has been eager to design strategies to bridge the widening gap between the legal and institutional constraints in the Arctic and its growing Arctic interests. It has developed a self-defined Arctic identity as a 'near-Arctic state' and sought – and in 2013 gained – observer status in the Arctic Council ...

EU Arctic policy has evolved significantly in recent years, culminating in the April 2016 Joint Communication from the European Commission and the HRVP for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The Communication focuses on the environment and climate change, sustainable development, and peaceful international cooperation, with overarching support for scientific research. This coincides with most of the priorities of the EU’s Arctic Member States, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The Communication does ...

Climate change is expected to significantly affect the Arctic Ocean, primarily through warming and reduction of ice cover. Models suggest that fisheries in the Arctic will benefit from increased primary productivity, expansion of distribution ranges of mainly low to medium resilience boreal commercial species and availability of new fishing grounds, especially in international waters not covered by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. The EU Arctic policy should further develop international ...

The ministerial meeting in Iqaluit, Nunavut (Canada), closed Canada's two-year Arctic Council (AC) chairmanship. Arctic cooperation seems relatively unaffected by the poor state of Russia's relations with the West. Canada invested much in its AC Chairmanship, but its deliverables have been less significant than those of previous chairs. Canada's two main achievements are the Arctic Economic Council and the framework for action on black carbon and methane. The framework is only a step in the right ...