Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-01-Speech-3-068"
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"en.20090401.13.3-068"2
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"Mr President, I would like to quickly remind you about what is happening in the Arctic so that everyone understands what is at stake in this debate. At the North Pole global warming is sharpening appetites for control of the area’s natural wealth. The melting of the ice will make it easier, as you have said, to exploit the vast oil and gas reserves and to open up a navigable waterway between the East and the West, which will save thousands of kilometres for cargo ships but will unfortunately prove disastrous for the environment.
Claims to sovereignty over the area by the five border countries – Canada, Denmark, Russia, the United States and Norway – leads to obvious tensions. The Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs announced this week that Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic’s lands and waters was long-standing, well-established and based on historic title. He said that the Canadian Government would also promise increased political monitoring and a greater military presence in Canadian Arctic waters.
These words echo the Kremlin’s announcement of its intention to deploy military forces in the Arctic in order to protect its interests. Until now, regulation of this strategic area has come from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed by 150 countries on 10 December 1982. It lays down that coastal states exercise control over an area up to 200 miles from their coasts and have economic rights over the resources of the seabeds, but this area can be extended if the states can prove that the continental shelves extend beyond 200 miles. They have until May 2009 – and that is very close – to put a request of this kind to the UN.
Russia took the initiative in 2001, hence the current unrest. As far as my group, and Mr Rocard, who initiated this debate in the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and who has recently been appointed ambassador for the Arctic, are concerned, given the implications for energy, the environment and military security, the Convention on the Law of the Sea is not adequate for the Arctic. The North Pole is a global asset that must be protected by a binding charter, in which the European Union must play a leading role. We want a North Pole that is clean and above all without troops."@en1
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