The European Union’s most effective forum for voicing its views would be the Arctic Council, if it is allowed to join. Established by the Ottawa Declaration in 1996, it links all states with Arctic territorial claims and is one of the main arenas for countries to coordinate their efforts in the region. The Council also allows non-Arctic states and NGOs to enjoy observer status. The EU submitted its application to be an observer in 2008, but the following year this, along with similar observer status bids by China, Italy and South Korea, was rejected at the Council’s meeting in Tromso, Norway.

It is widely speculated that Canada is blocking the accession in retaliation for the EU’s recent seal products ban. “Canada doesn’t feel that the European Union, at this stage, has the required sensitivity to be able to acknowledge the Arctic Council, as well as its membership, and so therefore I’m opposed to it,” said Lawrence Cannon, Canadian foreign minister, who also noted that Canada believes the seal hunt is a sustainable and humane practice. Canada is not alone in rejecting EU membership as seal hunting is a major contributor to the economy of Denmark’s Inuits in Greenland. While Norway also engages in seal hunting, unlike Denmark, it chose to support the EU’s bid. “Norway shares that view [on the seal ban] with Canada. But for Norway, that’s yet another reason to invite the observers in,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The support may be due to the closer ties the two parties have recently established over energy security as the EU seeks to better diversify its oil and gas suppliers in the face of Russian unreliability.

The Arctic Council, which meets every six months, operates a number of working groups. These focus on different aspects of Arctic issues ranging from the protection of resources, marine life and climate to emergency prevention, and sustainable development. The Council is also a primary tool for data collection and analysis, having recently published the ‘Arctic climate impact assessment’ (ACIA), in which over 300 scientists participated.

A formal, though non-binding, declaration is issued every two years, summing up the Council’s past accomplishments and future work. They cover the main areas of Council business, including climate change, sustainable development, Arctic monitoring and assessment, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and other contaminants in the Arctic, as well as the work of the five working groups. The Council has recently been criticised for not doing enough to include indigenous populations and in October 2009 the Inuit Circumpolar Council issued a statement decrying the neglect by their governments. The EU maintains that it will push for indigenous inclusion, a goal that it has consistently listed as a high priority for the development of a coherent Arctic policy.