European Arctic policy and role of the EU in the wider North

The European Union started to define its Arctic strategy since the late 1990s when the Northern Dimension (ND) was established. Striving for a fuller engagement in the region, in 2016 the EU presented the new integrated policy for the Arctic to “boost the EU’s profile in the region”. Although many scholars agree that the EU still lacks a consistent strategy in the Arctic, we can argue the EU has significant opportunities and vast potential for the involvement in the Arctic affairs. Rather than claiming that the EU, not being in the very heart of the Arctic geographically, cannot be an Arctic actor, we can assess how it can be engaged in various policy areas, which are critical to the region today – such as environmental protection, development of transport infrastructure, energy policy. We will follow the subsidiarity principle of the EU foreign policy to see how these policies, that fall under either exclusive or shared competence with the EU member states, are implemented, and understand what role the EU plays in the Arctic region.