Brussels, 15/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - During a meeting in Sweden on Wednesday 15 May, the Arctic Council granted observer status to seven new parties - including the European Union and China. Fourteen states and organisations wanted to obtain observer status. It was granted to seven of them - China, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the European Union.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton welcomed the Arctic Council's decision.
The EU's observer status is subject to certain conditions for as long as the concerns of members of the Council are unresolved, the Arctic Council said. The permanent members of this intergovernmental organisation are the countries bordering the Arctic - Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Six other countries are already observers - including France.
The EU will have the right to participate as a temporary observer until the conditions are fulfilled. Canada, which is due to take the presidency, is fighting against the European boycott of products derived from seal hunting. Likely to contain 90 billion barrels of oil and 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas - a manna which is increasingly accessible thanks to the accelerated melting of ice - the Arctic is at the centre of interest for the states that border it but also for countries like China. (LC/transl.fl)