Emilie Canova
Since European Union (EU)-Arctic relations have been increasingly under scrutiny both by the media and researchers since 2008. Yet, because there was no EU policy documents dedicated to the Arctic region before 2008, the literature is scarce on their relations pre-2008. This has consequences for how post-2008 relations have been framed and understood as Europe- Arctic and even EU-Arctic relations predate 2008. A historical perspective adding nuances and context is thus lacking in our current understanding of the relations between the Arctic and its governance (the ArctiC) and EU/Europe (EUrope). This paper fills in missing links and knowledge gaps by examining how EUrope and the ArctiC interacted as ‘macro-regions’ through a close historical analysis of their relations from the 1970s to 2008. Documents from Arctic and European institutions’ digital archives have been studied using critical geopolitics and region building approaches. Three periods with key documents are analysed. Gorbachev’s Murmansk speech in 1987 and Stoltenberg’s Rovaniemi speech in 1992 are first scrutinized. It then moves on to describe how Arctic Council SAO meeting minutes and EU’s Northern Dimension documents respond to each other from 2000 to 2007. Finally, it focuses on the emergence of the proposition by the European Parliament of an Arctic treaty (2005-2009) as being part of a longer trend of geopolitical reconceptualization of the ArctiC and EUrope. The paper highlights the dynamic interactions between the evolving geographical and political entities that EUrope and the ArctiC have been and traces shifts in power relations.
