Brussels Live · Committee meeting AFET 2026-10-22
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[10:51:49] Speaker 1 [EN]
Good morning, everyone. Good morning, dear colleagues. Welcome to this brief meeting of our Foreign Affairs Committee, where we have roughly 45 up to 60 minutes' time, so we can all participate in the votes at 1 2. If you have no comments, then we can then enter into the agend a. Item number 1 is the adoption of the agenda. There are no objections from your side, as I can see, so we can propose to adopt the agenda as it stands. The main point of today's agenda is the presentation of the Joint Communication on the Europe -Snova neighborhood, a new strategy for the Arctic. It is my pleasure to welcome two our committee: Madame Claude Viron-Reville, the Special Envoy for Ar ctic Affairs and Head of Division for Western Europe, at the European External Action Service. I would also like to welcome Mr. Mark Gray, Head of Unit for Political Strategy and Communication, at the Commission's D G INTPA. The Arctic—and we've discussed this a number of times in our committee—is no longer a remote per ipheral region. Climate change, growing geopolitical competition, and the Russian military presence in the High North have made it a strategic priority for the European Union. Up to now, the European Union's approach, dated from the Communication of October 2021, and it is certainly an understatement to say that the world has changed considerably since then. Earlier this week, the College adopted a new strategy for the Arctic, which responds to that change and is presented here now today. It looks set to place greater emphasis on security, defense, connectivity, and economic security, while binding on our long-standing commitments to climate action scientific cooperation and indigenous peoples. What I would like to say to our two guest speakers is that this committee, as shown at close interest in Arctic matters throughout the last few year s. In November 2025, we adopted our report on the EU's diplomatic strategy and geopolitical cooperation in the Arctic, where we call for a robust value-based and security-oriented strategy.

[10:54:14] Speaker 1 [EN]
Also, I would like to welcome that, as a follow-up, we commissioned a study entitled "Focus on the High North: Upgrading the EU's Arctic Policy and Protecting the EU's Interests in a Rapidly Evolving Region. " And finally, just a few weeks ago, we sent a small delegation to Iceland, where the E U's Arctic Policy was, of course, also core of the discussions in Reykjavík. So, with all that in mind, we now look forward to hearing from you from the EAS and the Commission: how the Joint Communic ation translates into ambitious action. Because the European Union is world champion in printing papers, we have many strategies—it's time for a strategy to coordinate all our strategies—but we are more interested in what does that mean in practice. I will give you now, first, you the floor for 7 minutes, and then afterwards you, Mr. Gray. Then we have time for an exchange of views, and I will close the meeting at quarter to 12 so we can all vote. The floor is yours, Madam.

[10:55:18] Speaker 2 [EN]
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and very good to be here. Honorable Member of the AFET Committee, and friends of the Arctic, so I'm very happy to be invited to present this strategy. Just days after its adoption, and this strategy was the strategy the EU is stepping up its Arctic engagement, so as you can infer from the title of the strategy, partnership s are key to the successful implementation of our ambition. The northern neighborhood is the cooperation framework with our partners. Northern neighborhood, we conceive it as an inclusive framework of interests, values, and geography, and the term "neighborhood" is here to underline the proximity of the European Union to the wider Ar ctic, and our ambition to make the cooperation between the EU and its Arctic partners more oper ational, but also more strategic. So our message is that we want to work together with like-minded partners in our northern neighborhood, security in our response to climate crisis and, above all, we want to do that tog ether with the people of the Arctic and especially indigenous peoples and local communities. So I want to emphasize again that the neighborhood is not a policy ; it is a framework for cooperation. We had a very successful Arctic sum mit in Rovaniemi, in September, where the high representative and vice president of the Commission, Kaja Kallas, particip ated, and the Rovaniemi summit, the first of its kind, sent a powerful message of our new level of ambition, and it could serve as a model for regular high-level joint summits with our member states and partners to discuss shared challenges and how to address them. Now, the structure of the strategy that you have seen shows that our approach remains balanced. It is people-centered, it is climate-aware, it is security-minded, and it is gro unded in long-term cooperation. We have therefore organized the strategy along four chapters: the first one is strengthening security and resilience, the second one is about protecting the environment and addressing climate change, the third one is about supporting the

[10:58:06] Speaker 2 [EN]
Arctic economy and economic security, and the fourth one contributing to the prosperity of the people liv ing in the Arctic. Now, regarding security, the basis of our updated strategy is not surprising for you. You have showed, as the Chair, Mr. McAllister, underlined, that you have a strong interest in the file, you did so with the own initiative report that was issued last year, and also with the Arctic study that came out last month, and that we have re ad carefully. You have along those reports consistently highlighted the need for the EU to address the ch ange geopolitical landscape. Rightly so. And our updated Arctic strategy reflects also this new reality by putting security firmly at its core. Because the Arctic regions are no longer insulated against shifting geopolitical dynamics, Russ ia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia's complete disregard for the rules-based order invi olability of borders and territorial integrity, have made cooperation with Russia impossible. Russia is building up its military capacity in the Arctic, reviving the Cola Peninsula as a strategic bastion, and expanding the capacities of the port of Murmansk. In parallel, we are seeing a steady normalization of more confrontational behavior in the region, hybrid threats, in the Baltic, and increasingly too in the Arctic, and a serious concern with recurring incidents affecting critical infrastructure and regional stability. Russia maritime doctrine is linking the North Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Baltic theaters. And we need to adjust to this reality and regard the Arctic and Baltic regions as a continuous interconnected strategic space. And finally, we need to leave no doubt that sovereignty is not negotiable. But also to have a safe and secure Arctic, we need the resilient and prepared and populated Ar ctic, and at the heart of this lies improved infrastructure that would boost East-West connection s, from the Baltic to the Arctic. We need infrastructure that is suited to the Arctic and to both civil

[11:00:51] Speaker 2 [EN]
ian and defensive purposes. This requires speeding up the implementation of 20 projects, such as Rail Nordica project and completing Ra il Baltica. We need also to upgrade our vigilance capacity to safeguard our infrastructure against the har sh climate and hybrid activities. This is why we will work to enhance our situational and maritime domain awareness through satellite data, in-situ and remote sensor observation, and inform ation sharing. To do this, we aim to establish a maritime security hub . We want to work with member states to improve the security of submarine cables in the region through an Ar ctic cable hub. Looking ahead, we hope that this initiative can be expanded to a comprehensive maritime security hub, with member states in the lead. We also want to increase our icebreaker fleet; the EU can count approximately 10 ic ebreakers. Whereas Russia has nearly 50 of them. The EU will need first to map the specific need for icebreakers with member states through the new EU industri al maritime value chain alliance, and we will explore opportunities to pull funding and technical resources within the neighborhood, within their neighborhood grouping, that means that we are ready to re ach out to our partners too. Then again, regarding space, Earth observation and navigation, we want to boost our Copernicus and Galileo coverage. Of the Arctic. To improve our ability to monitor land and sea ice mapping permafrost-related changes, oil spill, and maritime safety in the Arctic. To add to Copernicus capacities, a new Earth observation governmental service will support decision-making in security and defense, and to complement Galileo-free navigation services, the EU will initiate secure navigation services for government use with Galileo public regulated service. These initiatives highlight that Arctic security is a key priority for the EU. Arctic security is European security. As the High Representative Vice President said in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Europe has interest to defend.

[11:03:33] Speaker 2 [EN]
It has partners to work with and responsibilities to meet. Europe will not be a bystander in the Arctic. It is a collective effort, which requires coordination with NATO and with partners. I will stop there, and give an opportunity to my colleague from I NTPAM, Mark Gray, to complement on the other point. Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing your comments and questions.

[11:04:01] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you very much for your introductory statement. Before I give the floor to Mr. Gray, I'm pleased to welcome a group of national parliamentarians from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland to our Strasbourg for the 66th meeting of the EAA Joint Parliamentary Committee. Welcome, dear colleagues, to the European Parliament.

[11:04:23] Speaker 3 [EN]
Mr. Gray.

[11:04:25] Speaker 4 [EN]
Thank you so much, Chair. Honorable members, thank you for the invitation and I can also also like to express my welcome to members from national parliaments and we've met quite a number of them very recently in Reykjavík. I want to begin by paying tribute to this parliament and the recommendations and the study that has been very much a foundation also for the drafting of this joint communication. It's been an extensive consultation process. We've tried to listen as much as we can, and I think many of the key elements that have been set out by this House are captured in the joint communication. I want to make three points, and I'm going to try not to repeat what has just been said. First, very briefly, why are we doing this? Two, that shift of political framing that I think is important but if I can also respond to the Chair. Strategies are nice, but what. Are you actually going to do about it? So I will try and spend most of the time on that. In terms of why are we doing this, I think the special envoy court has set out very nicely the changing situation. I think the reality is that this is not an up date of a strategy. This is a new strategy, to adapt to a new reality. And that reality is changing faster than probably any of us could expect. We now see that the Arctic is a geopolitical theater. We see that it risks to become a security theater. We have seen claims made on the Arctic and parts of it, and I think with the European Union's exper ience, whether that be in Ukraine or in terms of our response to Greenland we uphold the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty. That brings me to my second point, the framing. We are addressing this through a new lens. And it's a partnership lens, and again, with a number of colle agues. At the back of this room, that we've discussed in Norway, in Iceland, in Canada, with the United States, Greenland, Faroe Islands, this is about building a strategy that ver y much brings together like-minded partners to address the iss

[11:07:23] Speaker 4 [EN]
ues of concern. For us, the framing matters because the northern neighborhood precisely conveys the s ense of criticality. The closeness, the connectiveness that this issue brings. What we are trying to do is to show what the European Union means for the Arctic, but also what the Arctic means for the European Union. And that we stand and support our neighbors. I think that's obviously true for the three European Union member stat es in the Arctic, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, but this is a strategy for the whole of the European Union. But now I want to turn to, in a sense, the Chair's challenge of what about this? How are we going to turn this into reality? And I think what you have seen in this strategy is a complete mobilization of the whole Commission . This is not just a strategy of DG INTPA and the EES, and I should pay tribute in particular to DG MA RI, who have played a fundamental role over many years. This is a strategy that, if you go through it, has got real meat; there is a whole set of deliverables here, across a whole set of areas, whether that be as has been mentioned on digital, on space, on transport, on critical raw materials, on research, on innovation, on tourism, et cetera, et cetera. There is a lot of, there are a whole set of proposals here, that look at the Arctic from that dual-use perspective, so not simply from a military or simply from a civilian. We are trying to build capabilities that c ross those two different issues, whether that be in terms of space, again, whether that be in terms of transport. Of course, we're very aware that there is a special fragility around the Arctic. And that is why when we look at issues like critical raw materials, we absolutely underline the environ mental, social, and governance standards. It's when we look at renewable energy we are very clear and strong on our commitment on at least what the European Union can do in terms of the moratorium on oil, gas, and coal in the Arctic. When we look at the economy, we look at it from the perspective of what can we do concretely

[11:10:30] Speaker 4 [EN]
? That benefits the people of the Arctic. And again, I come back to the point about how much we've placed emphasis on working together with the peoples of the Arctic: indigenous peoples, local communities, to build a number of very actionable po ints that will directly benefit them. Whether that be, as I say, fisheries, blue economy, small and medium enterprises, tourism, et cetera. So there is a whole final section of the communication that addresses the people dimens ion. But I want to conclude with, in a sense, a question of what happens nex t. The first thing to say is that yes, this is a strategy, so it's not a legislative proposal, it doesn't have a detailed timeline, a detailed action plan, a costings for each initiative. But this is not business as usual. Already next week, the. Commissioner Sickola has been asked to follow up on the implementation of the strategy. Already next week, DG INTPA will convene a meeting of all DGs, to bring together all the different strands across the Commission, to now go one by one, strand by strand, of how we take each one of these actionable points and take them forward. So it's, from our perspective, not a case of we write a strategy and we come back in a few mon ths' time to consider what we did. We start already next week, concretely looking at how we take this forward. Thank you for your attention.

[11:12:26] Speaker 1 [EN]
Right, thank you to both our guest speakers and now we have time for an exchange of views. As always, I first give the floor to the coordinators for two minutes each, and Łukasz Kuhut is speaking for VEPP.

[11:12:38] Łukasz Kohut (PPE) [EN]
Thank you very much. Dear Chair, nothing unites people like a common enemy, our enemy comes from the east. It is a threat to us all, especially those in central and eastern Europe, and the north . As the strategy rightly says, the Arctic, the North Atlantic, and the Baltic Sea are becoming one interconnected strategic space. What happens in one affects the security of all Europe. Hybrid attacks are hitting us everywhere. GPS jamming, cable sabotage, drones over our infrastructure, and the shadow fleet in our waters. The high north is part of the same front. We cannot protect Europe while leaving the high north exposed. The Arctic is a second gateway to Europe and must be fully protected. As the Standing Rapporteur for Norway and on behalf of Mika Aaltola, the Rapporteur for the Arctic, we believe that the strategy is moving in the right direction by providing concrete tools to enhance security. Firstly, the maritime security hub will enable us to share information from various national and EU sources, from the Seabed to space, tracking Russian shadow fleet vessels must be a priority. Europe has concrete tools such as air observation data, Copernicus, and navigation serv ices Galileo. Secondly, the Arctic Cable Hub is another initiative that could monitor and protect submarine cables in the North Atlant ic and Arctic regions. Critical infrastructure is essential for security. Nowadays, thirdly, we must expand European icebreaker capacity, as you mentioned, including through the new EU industrial maritime value chains alliance. European Polar Vessels must balance the power in the region. Vigilance and preparedness are essential. The EU must operate in various dimensions, such as defense, including milit ary mobility and civil protection. We already know how to do this in the Baltic and across the European Arct ic. Now these tools need real funding in the new EU budget, of course. I believe that, like-minded partners in the region, such as Norway, Canada, and Iceland, will thread the strategy as an op

[11:15:06] Łukasz Kohut (PPE) [EN]
portunity to develop also their capacities. Thank you very much.

[11:15:13] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you, Łukasz, for the S&D, Andreas Schieder, please.

[11:15:17] Andreas Schieder (S&D) [EN]
Yeah, good morning, and thanks for the presentation. And I have the honor to speak also on behalf of our S&D Shadow Rapporteur, Robert Piet ron, who regrets not to be here. But I also particularly pleased that we are accompanied today with colleagues from the Norwegian and Icelandic Parliament, which also let's say part of the Arctic. And as previously has been pointed out, 2021 strategy is no longer reflecting the reality which we have. We see that it's becoming increasingly volatile and also geopolitically sensitive, and theref ore we need this update. And the high representative rightly said already, Arctic security is European security, and it's also about this rule-based order, and we have to say that the Arctic in the past, even in the coldest days of the Cold W ar, was a rule-based order respected by everybody. And this compromise now is shaken. We have Russia, we have China. There, we have to protect our critical infrastructure, the cable hub that was already mentioned, and also the . Still in the future partnership must be one of the key pillars, as you also pointed out, of the strategy. And especially important is to strengthen the EU partnership with Greenland, while also always saying we resp ect the Greenland's right to decide its own future in close cooperation with the Denmark kingdom. And we also should continue to deepen our relations with Norway, Iceland, and Canada, as they are part ners which are sharing the values as stable. I have to say, not like others. And then there's the climate change. The Arctic warmly nearly is warming nearly four times faster than the global average, and already the global average is enough. So four times more is even a big disaster, so we have to look on this. And there is the question of critical raw materials. Where we have to look also that extraction is sustainable and meets the highest environmental and social standards, but also respecting the rights of the indigenous people. And this is my last point. I think we have to understand that the Arctic is an area where people are living, and living condition is important, but hav

[11:17:40] Andreas Schieder (S&D) [EN]
ing people living there is also the answer of the strategic challenges of the Arctic. Thank you so much.

[11:17:48] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you, Andreas who would like to take the floor for the Patriots group? Nobody for the ECR? Then for Renew Group, I give the floor to Marie-Agnès Stark-Simmermann.

[11:18:03] Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (Renew) [DE]
Thank you very much, David. I do not want to repeat myself on that. I do not want to repeat what my colleagues have said. But the Arctic is not just a land of adventure, a wonderful one, but also a major issue in the security field. And I am very pleased that Europe is finally addressing this issue, this topic. It is not without reason that we will also be working closely with Canada on this issue in future, especially when we note that the border between Canada and Denmark is more than 3,000 It is no coincidence that we are also working closely with Canada on this issue in the future when we note that the border between Canada and Denmark is a maritime border over 3,000 kilometres long. We are already connected in that regard. And in view of this world that is increasingly coming apart at the seams, it is of great importance to look at what we can do, what we must do. In terms of security policy—and to put it in a nutshell—thank you very much for this paper. We should continue working on this, but it is not just about talking about it, but also about being clear about what we can do. The report does say a lot. The topic of Greenland has just been taken up. What we experienced last year, by the way, Europe stood in a truly very solid position, alongside Denmark and Greenland respectively. This shows that when we stand together, it is helpful. Simply looking is not enough. We need to have our strategy and we also need to enforce it robustly, verbally robustly. So as not to open up another front there. Thank you.

[11:19:32] Speaker 1 [DE]
Thank you, colleague. Next speaker for the Greens is Mr Niinistö.

[11:19:37] Ville Niinistö (Verts/ALE) [EN]
Thank you, Chair. And thank you for the Commission for the representing the strategy. Obviously, there are a lot of improvements from the last strategy, but there are also some worries that our group has. So I will focus mainly on those. We think that the improvements on geopolitical understanding and the importance of that situation, I think there are a lot of improvements in that. I think it's important that we prepare for the Russian hybrid threats. We act against the Russian shadow fleet. We could do even more on that. But I will focus now more as a former environment minister for environment of Finland, on the environmental and climate responsibility that the EU has in the Arctic. Arctic is a very sensitive area. I mean, if species have to move northwards, they have nowhere left to go if global warming continues. They are very many biodiversity-rich areas. Under sea areas, for example, which are not yet protected. So it's one of the least protected areas still in the world. And EU and my own country when I was a minister, we worked a lot to inc rease the protected areas in the region and also work for the moratorium on the fossil fuel extrac tion. I see that in these issues, in this strategy, there is a bit of backtracking from 2021. That's at least my feeling. So if you can alleviate my worries and also answer my question, because I feel that the geopolitical challenges and the environmental challenges are interlinked. Partly we have geopolitical threats in the Arctic if we don't create better rules on stopping over-exploitation. So the better rules we have on areas of no-go where you can't economically exploit the resources in the most sensitive northern areas, if we can have a moratorium there, it will also ease the pressures of different countries fighting for those resources, including also Russia. I have to say also that often historically, if there has been protected areas, Russia has respected them. So if we do make international treaties in these issues, it's a progress where we can also reduce

[11:21:39] Ville Niinistö (Verts/ALE) [EN]
the risk of geopolitical tension. And the same applies to IMO as well and maritime traffic. We have to make sure that there is a higher standard of what kind of criteria the vessels that move into the Arctic waters fill , because the risk of oil spill is very high and there's the European waters and European coasts that are also. Affected by that. So I would like you to answer a bit more about my worries that there is still focus on environmental regulations and standards globally and you are not forgetting that and that goes hand in hand with the geopolitics. Thank you.

[11:22:12] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you. Who would like to take the floor for the left? Please, madam. Two minutes.

[11:22:22] Speaker 2 [EN]
Thank you. Mr. Chair, the new Arctic strategy is an important step forward, but let me be clear. Strategy is only as strong as its implementation. From Nordic perspective, the Arctic is not Europe's periphery. It is an integral part of our security competitiveness and future. I would like to highlight three priorities. First, security must be backed by concrete action. Russia's war against Ukraine has fundamentally changed Europe's security environment. We must strengthen our preparedness, protect official infra and improve our ability to respond to emerging threats. This requires closer cooperation between the EU-NATO and the Nordic partners, as well as concrete investments in Arctic infra and security and especially in transport area. We cannot afford the threat Arctic security as a secondary issue. Second, we must turn Europe-Arctic ambitions also into smart investments innovations and jobs. We have world-class expertise in many areas in Arctic rese arch, digital solutions, expertise in strategic assets for the entire European Union. In the north part of Europe, the EU must ensure that ambitious translate into concrete projects stronger industrial capacity and long-term economic opportunities for Arctic regions. I'm not saying again what my dear colleague Ville Niinistö said about climate and environmental issues. I don't misuse your time, but I'm totally on the same line with him. And I think he will support me as a former transport minister with the transport roads in the Arctic. Area. I think words are not enough. We need also funding, investments and measurable results. And third, security and economic development must go hand in hand with environmental responsibility and respect for local communities. So some people and other ingenious communities must be respected and local people m ust have a meaningful role in this system's affecting their future. Thank you.

[11:24:53] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you. And finally, for the ESN group, would somebody like to take the floor? That is not the case. When I now get the floor to our effort standing rapporteur for the Arctic, Urmas Pike, please.

[11:25:07] Urmas Paet (Renew) [EN]
Thank you very much. Thank you, dear colleagues from the Commission and external action service and of course from this House. I have been following and dealing with Arctic issues in the European Parliament for the last 10 years already, so that I have seen lots of changes in the attitude, which is, I would say, unfortunately under g iven circumstances of course positive, that we pay much more attention to developments in Arctic. If I recall, which was the attitude and comments around 10 years ago, why at all we should deal with Ar ctic and if we look today that the main center is in security issues, then y es, we have noticed huge and then big changes in this regard. I'm of course very happy that finally there is also new European Union's Arctic strategy. Of course I fully agree that the implementation is the most important element here. And I just want to mention a few points where I think that comparing also with the European Parliament's last year's recom mendation were actually 510 members of this House supported this recommendation. This is actually rather big majority. Which also expresses large and united understanding about Arctic developments in the European Parliament. Well, a few things which I still want to mention. Of course I understand why maybe some of them are not in this new European Union's Ar ctic strategy, but still I guess we should keep them in our minds. European Union's future, I mean enlargement. Yes, we got message from Iceland from August, but still I guess European Union itself should have its do ors open and be very welcoming and positive about this kind of develop ments because it's always better to have for instance two security nets than one. Today we have NATO, but well looking at the developments in the world I would say that EU in this regard is very important new contributor to European security. Second element energy and energy security. I of course share the concerns of my colleagues from Green Group and Left, but this is of course the issue where we have to find adequate balance point.

[11:27:39] Urmas Paet (Renew) [EN]
Because at the same time we also speak that energy security of Europe is very important, but the most secure ener gy we can have is energy which comes from Europe. And in this regard of course Norway is very important contributor to the European energy security. And unfortunately whatever EU says be it moratorium, be it whatever, well I have my doubts that Russian or Chinese will care about it. So that we should avoid also the situation that with our regulations and with our attitude we only in final end man age to influence the most secure and environmental friendly energy production in North. I mean Norway. And the others who don't have such a high standards do whatever they want. So that in this sense I guess the balance point here is very important. Thirdly, I'm glad that also I would say finally European Commission and external action service are taking Arctic issues much more seriously than before. And in this regard I guess that also the adequate structures and empowerment of this field is important. Fourthly, China. We speak a lot about Russia and when we speak about security in Arctic, but of course we should much more also keep eye on Chinese activities in this regard. And to stop here I also would like to see that in this House before the end of this mandate we once aga in come back to Arctic issues also in our plenary hall. Thank you.

[11:29:13] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you, Urmas. As a Vice Chair of our Committee, you know that you can sometimes be generous with speaking time.

[11:29:21] Speaker 4 [EN]
Yes, thank you, but I felt that there is not such a strong pressure. But sorry, sorry.

[11:29:28] Speaker 1 [EN]
So thank you, Urmas. Also for your good work. Now, who else would like to take the floor? First, Hannah Jalul. Please raise your hand, Ville.

[11:29:37] Hana Jalloul Muro (S&D) [EN]
Thank you very much. I can see from all our interventions that the main worry we have all of us I think here is the issue of en vironmental topic that I think all of us are worried with this new strategies, local communiti es, what is the guarantee that we respect the local communities. And something is important for us that has been mentioned before, a part of everything related to the environment is crit ical raw materials. How is this addressed here? What is the clear strategy on raw materials? I think about communities, environment, everything, but how is our policy on raw materials has been mentioned also. When we talk about international actors, you know, I know that the main worry also for us here is China, Russ ia, how these actors are involved there, how the European Union can have our own leverage on the issue. Which it is very important. And something I was reading the other day that maritime ro utes now that are coming from other parts of the world because of the defrosting and things like this that what will be very interesting to hear from y ou. Thank you very much and indeed because this meeting is very important. This is going to be a very important topic for the European Union in the next years. Thank you.

[11:30:55] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you, Ville, please.

[11:30:57] Speaker 4 [EN]
Since I'm a Danish MEP, I'm very much interested in the Greenlandic part of it. I visited Greenland a month ago. It was the same month where the agreement between the US and Greenland and Denmark was ratified in New York. So it was very much a sense of relief. And I think everyone who visited Greenland has a feeling how much threatened the population of Greenland felt in this case not from Russia and China but from the USA. And. I think it's very important therefore that the outcome of the agreement was an agreement that NATO sho uld play a much more central role in the defense of the northern of Greenland which I think is good. It's a good exchange for bilateral agreement between Denmark and U S. That it's now a multilateral agreement. That's there. In the what's security is concerned. Another thing worrying about the geopolitical a lot more difficult situation is that Greenland is only connected with two cables to the rest of the world. If these ones are cut the communication possibilities for big parts of Greenland is changed. I wonder if you have some use about what actions could be taken there. And then I think you are approached to this that it's we people living there as a central part is a very very important one. Because I think that's been also in the struggle with the US, the Danish approach that nothing there should be made without the people liv ing there. And I think this approach is important one. I think see the hammer is raised so thank you very much.

[11:33:03] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you. Who else would like to take the floor? Then before I hand over to our guest speakers for their closing statements of each five minut es, let me just also add that I very much welcome that the strategy has been updated and that it is a joint ownership of the European Commission and the European External Action Service. So we I think have a really good strategy in place but of course action speaks not words. And one of the first litmus tests will be how much of this will be seen the MFF for the next period because of course all will cost a lot of money. Since we're running out of time I will not go into any details many were addressed by the colleagues. I will close this meeting at 22 so we have five minutes each. Who would like to begin? Madame.

[11:33:57] Speaker 2 [EN]
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And thank you very much. Honorable members I'm very happy to see from the comments that we see eye to eye on the situation of the Arctic and the fact that today's strategic and security landscape call for revisiting seriously our approach to the Arctic. As Mr. Urma Pat underlined, we're not new to the Arctic. We started our first policy on the Arctic in 2008 and we're already at the fifth iteration. But gradually we increase our involvement on Arctic affairs and we've increased also the importance we give to security without walking back on the key elements that are environment, climate change, and the people. Someone mentioned the importance of standards and notably IMO, I want to high light that the Arctic is neither a place empty of people nor a place with no rules. There are rules supplying to the Arctic. And definitely IMO is one of the key rule setter for the Arctic and the shipping. And we will continue to be extremely involved in those framework bec ause the pollution that can come from shipping is an area that we can that we must keep in focus. A third point of partnerships. Partnerships as you've seen are central to the way we see our policy for the Arctic. And partnership will take a very concrete step soon as we prepare for the summit with Canada at the end of the month and the Arctic issues will be discussed with Canada. There is also a potential to strengthen our cooperation with the UK which is not an Arctic state but a key state in the EU gap, the Greenland Iceland UK gap. And as we prepare for the EU UK summit on the 20th of November and the security and defense partnership with the UK importantly includes the mention of Arctic issues. And my counterparts in the UK have already reached out to me to discuss how we can see and how we can collaborate on this issue. Norway and Iceland of course we have security and defense partnership with this countries. And we have already an Arctic dialogue with Norway and we wish to continue this dialog

[11:37:01] Speaker 2 [EN]
ue and with Iceland there is a whole paragraph on Arctic issues in our security and defense partnership with Iceland and that will be another opportunity to discuss what we can do together. Regarding Greenland I will leave to my colleague from the commission to speak about the co operation frame but we as European have been unambiguous in l ending our support to the kingdom of Denmark to Greenland and to Denmark. And we have all welcome the trilateral agreement that is streng thening the security in the Arctic and we will continue to stay with behind the kingdom of Denmark. The kingdom of Denmark has our back. And to conclude on the implementation we've worked very closely with all services of the comm ission to produce this strategy and we will continue to work for its implementation. You are right that implementation will be key and you are right to mention that the MFF will be key. Some actions can already be taken under the current MFF. For example adding some satellites to increase the observation of the Arctic territor y. But some will need to be backed by the future financing of the EU. Highlighting also that the foreign affair council will now follow up on this strategy and as the foreign affair council follows up on this strategy I hope and I look forward to stay in conta ct with the AFET and the European Parliament to prepare for those conclusion. Thank you very much.

[11:39:01] Speaker 1 [EN]
Sure. We will certainly remain in contact. This topic is always high on our agenda. Mr. Gray please.

[11:39:08] Speaker 3 [EN]
Thank you and I would like to thank the Honorable Members for their extremely salient points on many ke y issues. I'm going to start with the chair's firstly in terms of the MFF I think we would love to be able to put a bill in the text and say this is where it will all come from. I think we would argue that its simply under lines the wisdom of the commission's proposal on the MFF. In the sense of you can see actions here that will require funding from heading one from heading two from heading three it will require a mobilization of member state funding and of course we have already the very clear commitment of the commission on Greenland to double the funding in the next MFF. So I think from our side there is a very clear will and I think we hope ver y strongly that that logic in terms of an issue like the Ar ctic is underlined as final decisions are taken on the budget. My second point I want to bring together Greenland and people bec ause I very much agree with the assessment that basically anything we try to do in this strategy we need to do it together with the people of the Arctic. Because only they really understand I think the challenges that we face on a whole series of particular issues and that's why it's so important that we work so closely together. That's why there's a lot of emphasis in the communication in the final chapter on dialog ue and engagement. A very particular focus on engagement with young people. I think both the high representative but also the commissioner have spent quite some time in their engagements tal king to young people across the Arctic to very much try to listen and understand their concerns. I want to move next to the climate. I'd like to already state that from our perspective we do not see a backtracking. I think it was very important the statement that was made that you need to look at the geopolitical and the climate together. There is a complete a full chapter in the communication on the climate and that to be very open was done very intentionally. We wanted to send a very clear message of the un

[11:42:15] Speaker 3 [EN]
precedented scale of the challenge we see and. If you look at AMOC and the discussions that are taking place on that and you see ver y quickly the real climate emergency we face the same deb ate on permafrost the same debate on pollution and that is why you will see through th roughout this text a set of key deliverables on the climate itself but then as you look at each one of the sectors the climate dimension is very much reflected there. As has been mentioned by the special envoy I think the IMO regulations point when we look at pol lution when we look at emissions of black carbon emissions from the Arctic very clearly set out also within the communication. Of course it would be remiss of me not to mention the question of hydrocarb ons in the Arctic there's been a lot of press coverage as there was I think always going to be whatever the language was there I think yeah the president the high representative the commissioner have been very clear on this if you take the text that's in the communication and you compare it to 2021 it is the same language on the EU's commitment ex actly the same language on the EU yeah the EU policy where there is a difference is indeed on the fact that we have not been able to reach that multilateral legal obligation and that 's why there is different language and that does reflect also the energy security angle which is important wh y you see that language but in terms of the EU's commitment it is crystal clear. Thank you.

[11:44:23] Speaker 1 [EN]
Thank you to both speakers. There are no further comments from your side. Is there anything to raise under any other business that is not the case then let me announce the date of our next meeting that will be on the 3rd of November 2026 from 9 to half past 12 and from 3 to 5 in the afternoon. This meeting will take place in Brussels. The meeting is closed and let's now all rush to the plenary.

[11:44:46] Speaker 4 [EN]
Thank you.