'We Have Been Listened to,' says Norway’s Foreign Minister

“We are positive about the EU’s increased attention to the Arctic and its ambition for closer cooperation with Norway and other partners in the region,” the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide (Labor) states in an email to High North News.

“The strategy highlights the importance of the High North for European security and preparedness, and opens up for increased cooperation in areas where Norway is a leader, including maritime surveillance, satellites and space, critical raw materials and polar research,” he continues. 

The European Commission presented the strategy in October, following a process in which it also gathered input from Arctic countries that are not EU members.

“The Norwegian government has had extensive and ongoing contact with the European Commission regarding the strategy. This spring, we submitted Norway’s written input, in which we emphasised the importance of partnership with Norway, international law, and ensuring that the strategy is based on knowledge of conditions in the Arctic. We experience that we have largely been listened to,” says Barth Eide.

Use or protection

Central to the renewal of the EU's Arctic policy is the Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, who visited Tromsø this winter together with Barth Eide during the Arctic Frontiers conference.

He then pointed to room for improvement in the EU’s understanding that parts of the European Arctic are open to sustainable use rather than complete protection. 

“We are fully aligned on the need to take care of nature and deal with climate change, but our Arctic is also an area where people live and thrive, and that is an important input from our side,” the minister underlined.

In 2021, the EU decided to work towards a temporary halt to oil and gas extraction in the Arctic, a so-called ‘moratorium’. The new Arctic strategy does not mention a moratorium, but the European Commission writes the following:

“In line with the 2021 Joint Communication on the Arctic, the EU’s position remains clear on ensuring that oil, coal and gas stay in the ground, including in Arctic regions. Due to its specific vulnerabilities, the Commission will work with partners to protect the Arctic environment and prevent all hydrocarbon reserve developments that pose a threat to the Arctic ecosystem.”

While Norway’s environmental movement believes that the EU is thereby saying no to new oil and gas extraction in the Arctic, Norway’s Minister of Energy, Terje Aasland (Labor), considers the EU’s view compatible with Norway’s management practices and plans for oil and gas extraction in the north, NRK reports.

An active partner

In the strategy, the EU highlights its ‘northern neighbourhood’, a framework for structured cooperation in the Arctic with like-minded partners. The ambition is to strengthen interaction and investment in joint projects.

In this context, the EU refers in particular to Greenland, but also to the Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

“In the European Arctic, Norway is a maritime power. We have a physical presence, natural resources, geography and capabilities that the EU and our partners need. Norway will be an active partner for cooperation in the North within the political framework the EU calls the ‘Northern Neighbourhood’,” says Barth Eide.

Earlier this year, Norway and the EU established a regular bilateral Arctic dialogue to tackle concrete joint challenges in the Arctic, such as domain awareness, the protection of critical infrastructure and territorial integrity. In 2024, the parties also signed a partnership agreement on defense and security cooperation.

In the strategy, the EU points, for example, to cooperation with Norway on collecting and sharing ocean data, developing transport links along the east-west axis, and extracting critical raw materials.

With regard to the latter field, it is nevertheless specified that the EU will continue to work against seabed mining, which the Norwegian government and the parliamentary majority originally opened the door to in 2024. The mining plans were put on hold after budget negotiations.

Greenlandic imprint

As mentioned, Greenland also experiences having that it has been listened to in the EU's strategy work.

“Greenland has left its fingerprint on most of the EU's new Arctic strategy. We have been heard, and over the past five years we have developed closer cooperation with the EU, intensifying the partnership that has existed since Greenland left the EU,” the Greenlandic Foreign Minister, Múte Bourup Egede (IA), said recently at the Nordic Council session.

“We welcome the EU's engagement in the Arctic, but also engagement between countries that stand together to defend our common values, such as democracy and the right to self-determination,” Egede continued.

In the strategy, the EU stresses that Greenland's future is for its people to decide, with an indirect reference to US President Donald Trump's previous demands to gain control of Greenland.

The strategy also describes deepening the EU’s partnership with Greenland as a cornerstone of the Union’s approach to the ‘northern neighbourhood’. Greenland is not a member of the EU, but associated with the Union as an overseas territory. 

In September, the president of the European Commission, the Greenlandic prime minister and the Danish prime minister signed a joint declaration on an enhanced partnership between the EU and Greenland.

This was backed by a €200 million package for 2026–2027 for EU investments in raw materials, renewable energy, digital and satellite-based communications, sustainable tourism, housing, strategic infrastructure, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Opportunities for cooperation

“We welcome the EU’s increased interest in the Arctic, as reflected in the four pillars of the new EU strategy, the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs writes in an email to HNN.

The four pillars, or priorities, of the strategy are to strengthen security and resilience in the Arctic, respond to accelerating climate change, build an economically secure Arctic, and create opportunities for people in the region.

“Iceland has communicated its views on various occasions in writing and in meetings with EU representatives. There are clear opportunities for partnership between Iceland and the EU in areas such as research, economic development, and various ocean related projects. Overall, we look forward to working closely with our European partners,” the ministry continues.

In August, a majority of Icelanders voted against resuming negotiations on EU membership.  

Like Norway, Iceland has close ties with the EU through the EEA Agreement and other multilateral and bilateral agreements, such as the Schengen Agreement. Earlier this year, Iceland and the EU concluded a security and defense partnership.