Diana gives Annual Lecture at the Europe in the World Centre, Liverpool University

6.00.00pm GMT Thu 1st Nov 2007

Today, Diana gave the Annual Lecture at the Europe in the World Centre, Liverpool University. The title of her lecture 'Heating Up the Arctic: 21st Century European Notions of Sovereignty' was delivered to postgraduate and undegraduate students as well as to members of the University's staff in the Law School.

The full lecture will be posted later. Below is a short precis of her topic.

'The Arctic is hotting up. The sea ice is melting and Arctic countries such as Russia, Denmark, Canada, Norway and the US will have easier access to oil and gas deposits and to trans-Arctic shipping routes.

Paradoxically there will be greater exploitation of the fossil fuels that have exacerbated the global warming that has caused the sea ice to melt in the first place.

The second International Polar Year in the 1950s saw the establishment of the Antarctic Treaty designed to protect that continent from unhindered exploitation. Does the current International Polar Year provide an opportunity for a similar treaty to cover the Arctic region? Is there a role for the EU in supporting an Arctic Charter?

Can the EU, with its experience of cross border governance, provide a solution to what might become the location of a 21st century 'Cold War'?'