EU-Canada cooperation on Northern issues

Europeans and Canadians have much in common when it comes to the North. Encouraging sustainable development, promoting a clean environment and enhancing the quality of life for our citizens who live there are important priorities.

We therefore have a shared interest in working together on Northern issues. To that end, the European Union and Canada adopted a Joint Statement on Northern Cooperation in December 1999. It demonstrates a commitment at the highest political level to promote co-operation in the North through information exchange, expert level dialogue, and joint projects.

We have made progress since then in pursuing these goals. The EU and Canada have both adopted distinctive policies for the North. The EU is implementing its Northern Dimension Action Plan and further elaborating its Initiative. Canada is pursuing its Northern Dimension of Canada's Foreign Policy. Both approaches clearly recognize the importance of mutual cooperation.

Dialogue and exchange of information

The EU and Canada have taken steps to improve the exchange of information on each other's Northern Dimension policies and activities. Dialogue at expert level has developed, initiated by a seminar on circumpolar cooperation and the Northern Dimension, held in Ottawa in October 1999.

The EU recently shared with Canada a detailed inventory of Northern Dimension activities and programmes carried out by the EU. Canada is providing similar information on its cooperative activities in the circumpolar North.

To highlight the increasing political cooperation on Northern matters, Canada attended, as an observer, the Second Foreign Ministers' Conference on the Northern Dimension on 9 April 2001 in Luxembourg. Similarly, the European Commission attended the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Barrow, Alaska on 12-13 October 2000 and the Senior Arctic Officials meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland, on 12-13 June 2001.

Current projects

In line with the December 1999 summit statement, the EU and Canada have also initiated concrete Northern Dimension joint projects. These projects have been developed in priority areas identified by the December 1999 statement, and more specifically in the areas of sustainable development, research and education, information technology, public health and issues of interest to the Arctic indigenous peoples. They have built on the EU-Canada Action Plan and on relevant provisions of other EU-Canada cooperation agreements, in particular the agreement on cooperation in higher education and training, and the agreement on scientific and technological co-operation.

In February 2001, the EU and Canada launched a health telematics project to promote collaboration on the evaluation and development of health telematics systems. To this end the European Commission awarded a grant to the University of Calgary for the creation of an information network on evaluation in health telematics. The first experts meeting of this project was held in Luleå, Sweden, on 14-16June 2001, with support from Canada, the European Commission, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Experts from the EU and Canada, as well as from Russia, the United States and Norway participated. Discussions focused on e-health, R&D, projects, businesses and implementation of e-health technologies. The meeting enabled e-health experts from the EU and Canada to reinforce contacts and identify potential e-health projects related to Northern Dimension policy.

An academic conference on «The Nature and Culture of Forests; the Implications of Diversity for Sustainability, Trade and Certification» was organized on 10-13 May 2001 May by the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada with the joint support of Canada, Sweden and the European Commission. The conference was useful in defining issues and providing direction for potential co-operation in the area of sustainable development. Participating EU Member States, represented by academic and other speakers, were Austria, Finland and Belgium. European and Canadian forestry institutes, associations and councils, as well as indigenous peoples organizations were represented.

A scientific workshop, entitled "Arctic Climate Change and Contaminants", on the expedition Tundra Northwest 1999 was held in Winnipeg on 3 May 2001. This workshop was jointly supported by Sweden and Canada as part of the Swedish Presidency's programme of EU-Canada cooperation activities. The purpose of the workshop was to report and discuss the findings of the 1999 research expedition to the Canadian Arctic and to further promote contacts between European and Canadian scientists.

On the basis of the EU-Canada agreement on cooperation in higher education and training, the European Commission has supported the creation of the «North Consortium», a 3 year student exchange programme, which has involved 8 partner institutions from Northern regions of Canada and of the EU. This programme was successfully concluded, and continues to be run on a voluntary basis by the participating institutions.

The EU Joint Research Center will organize a major workshop on technological research for Arctic development in October 2001, with participants from the EU, Canada, the US and Russia. This workshop will focus on the requirements to foster technological research in support of sustainable economic development in the Arctic region; it will in particular consider opportunities for multilateral co-operation in the areas of energy, transport, telecommunications and information society, and earth observation.

Canada participated in the expert seminar organized by the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) on sustainable forestry in Petrozavodsk in October 1999. Canada has shown continued interest in the development of the Forest Sector Programme for the Northern Dimension that was presented to Second Foreign Ministers Conference in Luxembourg in April 2001. Canada would be welcome to take part, together with the EU, in the further work based on that programme.

Future Cooperation

A number of other projects are being prepared or assessed for financing. Decisions to provide financial support for these projects will depend on detailed appraisal and on the availability of the required financial resources.

The Canadian film "Great North", which highlights similarities between the Inuit Peoples of Canada and the Sami Peoples of Northern Europe serves to underline the importance of Northern issues in EU-Canada cooperation. In this context the European Commission and Canada are considering supporting a conference and a number of related activities on the relationship between forestry, sustainable development and indigenous peoples. This conference, planned by the Sami Council in September 2001, is intended to foster exchange of experiences between European and Canadian indigenous peoples; Russian participants are also expected to attend the conference.

Education will continue to be an area for co-operation. Building on the success of the "North Consortium" student exchange project in promoting people to people contacts, Canada has suggested to the EU that joint support should also be provided to the University of the Arctic, which was launched on 11 June 2001 in Rovaniemi. This idea is being examined by the European Commission.

Similarly, at Canada's suggestion, the European Commission is studying the possibility of supporting a workshop on capacity building in the North organized by Canada under the auspices of the Arctic Council, and to be held in Helsinki in November 2001. The workshop will seek to build understanding about the importance of capacity building in Arctic Council activities; share best practices among countries, working groups and Permanent Participants; identify processes to build capacity in the Arctic Council; and identify areas where capacity needs are greatest.

The EU and Canada both attach great importance to Russia in their Northern Dimension policies, and there are key areas of convergence between our respective approaches. The geographic focus of our policies is complementary, and it is essential to share information about projects and the results of our bilateral co-operation programmes with Russia. We have invited Russian experts to participate in most of the joint activities organized to implement Northern Co-operation, and will continue to seek out areas where co-operation could be most fruitful for example, sharing best practices, project management, capacity building, institution building, and developing procedures with newly created central agencies.

The initiative by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to create the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership will provide further opportunities for EU-Canada cooperation and the EU and Canada will examine how to use their participation to best effect. Canada is considering how best to contribute to the NDEP and will be invited to the pledging conference, which is, expected to be organized before the end of this year.

The problem of Persistent Organic Pollutants clearly affects the whole planet but in particular has a serious impact in the Arctic region. Indeed, it is largely through the efforts of the Arctic Council and of Northern Indigenous Peoples that the problem of contaminants was brought to the world's attention. The European Commission, Member States and Canada have played a key role in negotiating the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), which was opened for signature in Stockholm on 23 May 2001. The Convention represents an outstanding example of successful international cooperation to address a pressing global issue.

Conclusion

Only eighteen months after its launch, co-operation on Northern issues has become a dynamic aspect of the relationship between Canada and the EU. We have made progress and concrete results have already been achieved. We continue to work in areas where both parties have similar objectives and are well advanced in their technological development, for example the application of modern technologies in the search for new solutions to the challenges of providing health, social and educational services to remote areas.

Particular attention will be paid to continuing the recently developed exchange of information on Northern Dimension programmes. Contact will be maintained to take stock of ongoing activities related to Northern issues at regular intervals and to share information on planned projects. Further joint areas of action could be considered for example, the Arctic region, private sector development.

A further progress report on EU-Canada cooperation on Northern Dimension will be produced during the second half of 2002 when Canada also plans to host a EU-Canada Conference on Northern Dimension to discuss progress in all areas of cooperation.

| Arriba |

• EU-Canada Joint Statement on cooperation in UN Fora (21/6/2001)