ПсковГУ EU governance of natural resources Research The Arctic Policy of the European Union and Policy Options for the New Commission

The Arctic Policy of the European Union and Policy Options for the New Commission

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Authors

Ruben Zondervan (Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, Utrecht, the Netherlands)
Anton Shkaruba (Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia)

Abstract

The EU has a strategic interest in and aims at playing a key role in the Arctic region. Developing an Arctic policy however has taken time but resulted in the 2016 Integrated European Union Policy for the Arctic. Taking into account that the strong and specific regional institutions make forum shopping easy, that the main issues on the Arctic agenda of climate change and sustainable development are EU-wide top priorities hence will likely be addressed with that broad scope rather than in a specific Arctic related approach, and noting the positions the EU Institutions, this article suggests two possible avenues for the new von der Leyen Commission to make progress on the EU ambition to play this key role in the Arctic: Developing an environment – security nexus within its Arctic Policy, and advancing the already existing and widely supported ideas to strengthen science and innovation programmes related to the Arctic.

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Full information about the paper and link to it on the website of the publisher will be available upon its acceptance and online publication.