欧盟参与北极理事会的实践探析

Analysis on the Practice of EU's Participation in the Arctic Council

北极地区是地缘政治的新热点,因地理与历史关系欧盟成为北极地区的重要利益攸关方。北极理事会中超一半成员都与欧盟有着重要关系,芬兰、瑞典和丹麦是欧盟的成员国,挪威与冰岛是欧洲经济区成员,为此,探讨欧盟与北极理事会的关系十分必要。自2008年发布首个北极政策文件以来,欧盟一直在努力争取成为合法的北极行动者,在日益重要的北极理事会中获得观察员地位,是欧盟朝着此目标迈出的第一步。但事实证明,欧盟寻求观察员地位以加入北极理事会的时间过长且难度过大,致使其申请已经成为北极事务中的一个政治化问题。同时,虽然几次申请均未获得北极理事会通过,但事实上欧盟已经通过长期受邀身份进入到北极理事会的议程之中,而且欧盟本身也具有为北极理事会和北极地区做出贡献的能力。

At present,the Arctic region has become a new hot spot in geopolitics,and the European Union has become an important stakeholder in the Arctic region due to its geographical and historical relations with Arctic.Since it issued its first Arctic Policy Communication in 2008,the EU has been striving to become a legal Arctic actor.Obtaining observer status of the Arctic Council,which is an increasingly important international forum,seems to be the EU's first step towards this recognition.However,the facts have proved that the difficulty of the EU's symbolic requirement to join the Arctic Council is too great.In fact,the EU's application for observer status has become a politicized issue in Arctic affairs.Faced with the fact that more than half of the members of the Arctic Council have important relations with the EU(for example,Finland,Sweden and Denmark are members of the European Union,Norway and Iceland are members of the European Economic Area),it is essential to explore the relationship between EU and the Arctic Council.Although the EU's several applications were not approved by the Arctic Council,it actually has entered the Arctic Council's agenda through a long-term invitation from the Arctic Council.The practice of EU has shown that it has ability to contribute to the Arctic Council and the whole Arctic region.