Call for an EU Arctic Policy

10.24.26am GMT Fri 29th Feb 2008

Diana Wallis MEP, a Vice-President of the European Parliament, has called for the European Union to set up a dedicated Arctic policy.

Speaking at a joint meeting of the Standing Committee of Arctic Parliamentarians and the University of Arctic Rectors Forum in Rovaniemi, Finland, yesterday, Ms. Wallis the Vice-President of the European Parliament with a particular responsibility for Arctic matters, said:

"The time might be right for the EU to … take a much more proactive role in the Arctic. And I am thinking here of a dedicated Arctic policy."

Ms. Wallis spoke of her frustration over the lack of coordination across policy areas such as energy security, climate change and so on within the EU institutions.

Also she said that although the Northern Dimension is set up to have an Arctic Window, since enlargement the focus of the Northern Dimension has been much more to the Baltic than other areas of that policy.

"I would like to see the Arctic Window, increasingly sitting uneasily within the Northern Dimension, stripped out and given a priority of its own.

"The Commission has hinted in the past that such a policy could be forthcoming. In October last year in its Communication relating to the EU's Maritime policy it says: Attention will be given to the geopolitical implications of climate change. In this context the Commission will present in 2008 a report on strategic issues relating to the Arctic Ocean."

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Read the speech Diana delivered in Rovaniemi.