Observer States’ Commitments to the Arctic Council: The Arctic Policy Documents of the United Kingdom and Germany as Case Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 375-397
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Śmieszek ◽  
Paula Kankaanpää
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Arctic Policy

The Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council in Kiruna, Sweden in May 2013 received unprecedented coverage in the worldwide media. The main reason behind that attention was triggered by the expected decision of the Council to grant observer status to applicants, including China and the European Union. However, not only countries and entities seeking access to the AC proceedings have been increasingly active in their approach towards the region. Also the ‘old’ observer states to the Council got spurred by recent developments and among them the United Kingdom and Germany were the first ones to set out their overall Arctic policies in fall 2013. This article looks at both documents to examine the vision for the Arctic that both countries bring and proposes to read the texts in light of the rules for observers’ participation in the Arctic Council, which were approved in Nuuk in 2011. It continues with setting them against a broader picture of the involvement of outside actors in the Arctic cooperation.

Discursive Psychology and Journalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 256-276
Author(s):  
Joanne Meredith
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Discursive Psychology ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

Discursive psychology is focussed on the microanalysis of the language—how specific words and practices can perform specific actions and how alternate ways of describing the situation are omitted. In this chapter, a review is presented of discursive psychology and its application to media research. This is followed by an illustrative case study based on newspaper headlines relating to Brexit, the process of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union following the referendum on UK membership in June 2016. Finally, the chapter proposes that discursive analyses can not only help readers explore how particular events, people, and texts are constructed in the news but also help journalists understand how readers might interpret their words and what inferences may be drawn from this.

Arctic Policy in the European Union

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Njord Wegge ◽  
Cristina-Elena Merticaru
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
System Level ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Policy ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Arctic Policy ◽  
The Eu

The EU’s Arctic policy process represents and exemplifies a process of foreign-policy formation where forces from the Union’s internal dimension, involving tensions between member-state and community-level interests, have interplayed with influences from external actors and impacts from the system level in global politics. Going back to challenges with its relationship to Greenland, following the Kingdom of Denmark joining the EU in 1973, the Union’s Arctic relations have often been complex and challenging. The difficulties have ranged from the need to acquire better knowledge of the geographic and cultural properties of the Arctic, understanding the role of indigenous lifestyles and cultures; to comprehending the dynamics within and the roles of key regimes in the region, such as United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Arctic Council. After a decade of gradual policy development, it appears that the EU, with the European Parliament’s resolution of March 16, 2017, on an “Integrated European Union Policy for the Arctic,” has achieved striking a more appropriate balance between the role as passive observer and as proactive actor in the High North.

scholarly journals European Union and Cooperation in the Arctic Council

2021 ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Arseniy V. KIRGIZOV-BARSKIY ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Arctic Policy ◽  
The Eu

Since 2008, the European Union has unsuccessfully tried to obtain permanent observer status in the Arctic Council, the central cooperation forum in the Arctic. The analysis shows that the EU's failures in this area are connected both with its location mostly outside of the region and remoteness from the northern realities, as well as global geopolitical tensions. However, the EU has had de facto observer ad hoc status since 2013, allowing it to participate in almost all formats of interaction in the Arctic Council. Considering this fact, the permanent observer status has rather a symbolic meaning and is equivalent to joining a kind of “privileged Arctic club”. An analysis of the EU's functioning in its relations with the Arctic Council and its members shows that the EU is ready to adapt and listen to the opinion of the Arctic countries in order to become a legitimate Arctic actor. The Arctic Council is of uneven importance for the different EU member states: Denmark, Finland and Sweden are full members, several countries are permanent observers, but most EU countries are not interested in the Arctic issues. Because of this multifaceted nature, the collective EU is more of an extra-regional player on the platform, but one with serious Arctic claims. The EU is actively working on a common Arctic policy. It is represented in the Arctic Council by the Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs, introduced in 2017, who acts in coordination with the European Commission and the member states concerned. The EU's overall approach is not unsuccessful: it has managed to engage more member states on the Arctic vector, and European expertise and input on sustainable development issues is already becoming an integral part of the AC's work and promises to evolve further.

Euratom and Brexit: Could the United Kingdom Maintain One Foot in the European Union? Current Scenarios and Future Prospects of British withdrawal from the EAEC

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-151
Author(s):  
Andrea Circolo ◽  
Ondrej Hamuľák
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Independent Solution ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Status ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Energy Community ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The paper focuses on the very topical issue of conclusion of the membership of the State, namely the United Kingdom, in European integration structures. The ques­tion of termination of membership in European Communities and European Union has not been tackled for a long time in the sources of European law. With the adop­tion of the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), the institute of 'unilateral' withdrawal was intro­duced. It´s worth to say that exit clause was intended as symbolic in its nature, in fact underlining the status of Member States as sovereign entities. That is why this institute is very general and the legal regulation of the exercise of withdrawal contains many gaps. One of them is a question of absolute or relative nature of exiting from integration structures. Today’s “exit clause” (Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union) regulates only the termination of membership in the European Union and is silent on the impact of such a step on membership in the European Atomic Energy Community. The presented paper offers an analysis of different variations of the interpretation and solution of the problem. It´s based on the independent solution thesis and therefore rejects an automa­tism approach. The paper and topic is important and original especially because in the multitude of scholarly writings devoted to Brexit questions, vast majority of them deals with institutional questions, the interpretation of Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union; the constitutional matters at national UK level; future relation between EU and UK and political bargaining behind such as all that. The question of impact on withdrawal on Euratom membership is somehow underrepresented. Present paper attempts to fill this gap and accelerate the scholarly debate on this matter globally, because all consequences of Brexit already have and will definitely give rise to more world-wide effects.

The present and future competence of the European Union in the Arctic

Polar Record ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Koivurova ◽  
Kai Kokko ◽  
Sebastien Duyck ◽  
Nikolas Sellheim ◽  
Adam Stepien
Keyword(s):  
International Negotiations ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
The Third ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Arctic Policy ◽  
The Eu

ABSTRACTThe European Union's (EU's) intention of becoming a permanent observer in the Arctic Council and the reluctance of Arctic actors to grant it that status have made the union's aspirations in the Arctic the subject of a continuing debate. The discussion appears to be dominated by geographical considerations and the EU's gradually emerging Arctic policy. This article puts forward a different view of the EU's presence in the region, one drawing on an analysis of relevant EU competences. As a complex international actor, the EU has acquired a broad array of decision-making powers from its member states, powers that partly extend to Iceland and Norway via the EEA Agreement. Moreover, the EU has in many cases become a relevant actor in international negotiations and treaty making processes the outcomes of which are of crucial importance for the governance of the Arctic. Our argument in the third and concluding section is that only by including the EU in Arctic governance can the international community provide better prospects for the union to sensitise its policies and discourses to the Arctic realities and for other Arctic actors to understand how the union functions. This argument is supported by an analysis of the EU's restrictions on the import of seal products and the ensuing litigation.

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