Finnish Chairmanship News

At the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland, Ministers of the eight Arctic States, leaders from the six indigenous Permanent Participant organizations and the Chairs of the six Working Groups of the Arctic Council met to mark the passing of the Chairmanship from Finland to Iceland. In the Rovaniemi Joint Ministerial Statement, the Arctic States reaffirmed the Council’s commitment to maintain the Arctic as a region of peace, stability and constructive cooperation. Additionally, Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini released a Chair’s statement, summarizing the Council’s achievements and giving guidance for the next two years. The International Maritime Organization was accredited as a new Observer.

Read the Rovaniemi Joint Ministerial Statement signed by all eight Foreign Ministers at the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland

Read the Chair's statement from 11th Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland, presented by Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini. 

On May 7 2019 from 10:30 am - 12:30 pm (GMT+3) Finland will host the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland.

Ministers from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic. The Arctic States will be joined by delegations from the Council's indigenous Permanent Participant organizations, the Chairs of the six Working Groups, and Observers. The Ministerial is held in the Lappi Areena in Rovaniemi, Finland.

To watch the event live, click here.

The Arctic Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Arctic Economic Council in Rovaniemi, Finland, today. The aim of the MoU is to provide a framework for cooperation and to facilitate collaboration between the Arctic Council and the Arctic Economic Council. The MoU was signed by Nina Buvang Vaaja, Director of the Arctic Council Secretariat, and Anu Fredrikson, Director of the Arctic Economic Council Secretariat.

A preview on the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial meeting and its deliverables

The Arctic Council is the recipient of the 2019 Global Award of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA). Today, representatives of the Finnish Ministry of Environment accepted the prize on behalf of the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council at IAIA’s  39th Annual Conference in Brisbane, Australia.

Gunn-Britt Retter is the Head of the Arctic and Environment Unit of the Saami Council – and one of the delegates that has attended most Ministerial meetings. In this interview, Gunn-Britt speaks about the role of Permanent Participants at Ministerial meetings and beyond, reflects on changes she has seen over the years, and her hopes for an equal share of involvement for all Permanent Participants.

Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials speaks about the preparations for the Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi, which will conclude the Finnish Chairmanship in May. He also goes into some of the common solutions the Arctic Council has explored during Finland’s two-year term.

There is more to connectivity than mobile phone coverage. Access to broadband for example facilitates e-learning for children and adults in remote communities and enables the development of digital health and social services. The Finnish Chairmanship program speaks of well-functioning communication networks and services as a lifeline for human activities and as a prerequisite for economic development in the Arctic.

One of the Finnish priority areas that Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials, emphasizes as a success, is meteorological cooperation. “Already now we could say that we have achieved a breakthrough when the WMO and national meteorological institutes decided to actively contribute to meteorological cooperation in the Arctic.” In its Chairmanship program, Finland emphasized the need for enhancing both meteorological and oceanographic cooperation across the Arctic States. This would improve public safety, benefit international shipping and air traffic, and enhance Arctic climate science.

Environmental protection lies at the core of the Arctic Council – ever since its establishment. In the Council’s founding document, the Ottawa declaration, the eight Arctic States affirmed their commitment to protect the Arctic environment and healthy ecosystems, to maintain Arctic biodiversity, to conserve and enable a sustainable use of natural resources.

Senior Arctic Officials approve deliverables for the upcoming Ministerial meeting.

Fourth Senior Arctic Officials’ meeting during Finland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council sums up achievements of the past two years.

At the meeting just concluded in Rovaniemi, Finland, the Arctic Council focused its discussions on Arctic biodiversity and received updates from all the Council’s subsidiary bodies on their ongoing work.

On 1-2 November 2018, the Arctic Council will gather in Rovaniemi, Finland for the third Senior Arctic Officials’ meeting held during the Chairmanship of Finland (2017-2019).

The Arctic Environment Ministers’ meeting held in Rovaniemi 11-12 October ended with discussions about cooperation in addressing climate change, protecting biodiversity and preventing pollution in the Arctic region. The two-day meeting brought together ministers and high-level representatives from the eight Arctic Council States and from six Permanent Participants representing the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. The Observer countries and organizations of the Arctic Council had also been invited.

The Finnish Chairmanship is organizing an Arctic Environment Ministers’ meeting (AEMM) in Rovaniemi, Finland, 11-12 October 2018. The meeting will gather the Ministers of the Environment of the eight Arctic States, six indigenous Permanent Participant organizations, Arctic Council’s six Working Groups, as well as Arctic Council Observers. The meeting will be chaired by Mr. Kimmo Tiilikainen, Minister of the Environment, Energy and Housing of Finland.

The Arctic Resilience Forum held in Rovaniemi, Finland, 10-11 September gathered around 100 Arctic experts, policymakers, and various key stakeholders. The purpose of the event was to strengthen cooperation on work related to resilience to the impacts of climate change and to present and discuss resilience best-practices from Arctic Council Working Groups’ and other stakeholder’s projects.

The Arctic Resilience Forum, an international conference organised by Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Rovaniemi on 10–11 September 2018, seeks to develop the resilience of the Arctic region to climate change.