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Arctic Yearbook 2013
Sánchez Ramos
At the same time as taking the decision to create the ACS, the
Task Force for Institutional Issues
10
(TFII) was established, as the creation of the ACS implies a change in the structure of the AC
involving an adaptation of the
Rules of Procedure
(Iqaluit: 1998), as well as approving the necessary
instruments for the functioning of the ACS. Accordingly, the activity of the TFII focused on two
areas:
1.
Reviewing the AC‘s Rules of Procedure that were adopted at the first of the AC‘s
Ministerial Meetings (Iqaluit: 1998). These rules were revised for the AC at the eighth AC
Ministerial Meeting (Kiruna: 2013). The revision deals with the Chairmanship – meaning
the Arctic State that chairs the Arctic Council during the particular 2-year period in
question
–
and the Arctic Council‘s Secretariat, located in Tromsø, as well as the criteria
for admitting observers and their involvement in the AC, as discussed below.
2.
Providing a legal framework to establish the Arctic Council‘s Secretariat in Tromsø. This
included developing the AC Secretariat‘s
Terms of Reference
,
Staff Rules, Financial Rules, Roles
and Responsibilities of the Director
and the
Work Plan and Budget for 2013
(all of these
documents were adopted by the Arctic Council‘s Deputy Ministers in May 2012). The
TFII is also engaged with the Host Country on the legal relationship between the Host
Country and the Secretariat, including the extension of appropriate privileges and
immunities, and the review of any corresponding Host Country Agreement. The Host
Country Agreement was signed in Tromsø on 21 January 2013 (SAOS Report to Ministers,
Kiruna 2013: 62)
The basic functioning of the ACS is detailed in the
AC Secretariat‘s Terms of Reference
and the
Roles and
Responsibilities for the AC Secretariat Director.
11
The main aim is to ―enhance the work of the Arctic
Council through the establishment of administrative capacity and providing continuity, institutional
memory, operational efficiency, enhanced communication and outreach, exchange of information
with other relevant international organization and to support activities of the Arctic Council‖
(Terms of Reference of the Arctic Council Secretariat, 2012: point 1). In order to achieve this goal,
article 2.2 states that the ACS will perform the following functions: 1) administrative and
organizational support; 2) communication and outreach; 3) finance and Human Resources; 4) other
services and functions as may be required and directed by the AC and its Chair; and 5) language
questions.
In the author‘s opinion, three of these functions – administrative and organizational support;
communication and outreach, and other services and functions as may be required and directed by
the AC and its Chair – have a significant potential to contribute towards improved coordination and
coherence in the internal and external dimension of the governance of the Arctic.
With regard to its internal governance, we believe that the ACS becomes a ―kind of link‖ between
the different working groups and task forces that operate in the AC, as well as the observers and the
Chairmanship. For this reason, the ACS will probably be the only structure aware of the projects
being carried out by each of these bodies, becoming a permanent channel of information between
the different categories of participants of the AC (members, PPs and observers) as well as the