Secretariat improves the prospects for the Barents Cooperation

The recent Norwegian secondment of an Indigenous Peoples’ Adviser to the International Barents Secretariat marks a strengthened focus on the indigenous peoples in the Barents Region: Saami, Nenets and Veps. Lars Miguel Utsi from Arjeplog, Sweden, has a two year contract to develop indigenous peoples’ entrepreneurship.

Published on 12.06.2009

The International Barents Secretariat opened in January 2008, in Kirkenes, Norway. The agreement between Norway, Russia, Sweden and Finland to establish and co-finance the secretariat shows interaction in the Barents Region is a political priority. The secretariat is a tool for the national and the regional levels of the cooperation, i e the Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the Barents Regional Council respectively. It is a priority for the secretariat to serve the chairmanships of both of them.

The Russian Federation is the present chair of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council. The chairmanship will be switched to Sweden at a meeting in Murmansk in October between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and high representatives of the BEAC members. At the same meeting the chairmanship of the Regional Council will switch from the Oulu Region, Finland to Troms Region, Norway.

When the Kirkenes Declaration was signed between the ministers of foreign affairs of all five Nordic countries, Russia, and the representative of the European Commission in 1993, it marked the start of the Barents Cooperation. Since then it has become a framework for interaction within a number of spheres where the member countries, the European Commission and the member regions share assets as well as challenges and have the potential to benefit mutually from acting together, for example within rescue services, indigenous peoples’ issues, trade and customs, culture, environment, social and health related issues. Experts in these fields are organized into working groups.

The International Barents Secretariat also assists the working groups and aims at taking pro-active measures to facilitate the cooperation. The International Barents Secretariat is also a tool for communication and promotion of the Barents cooperation and is responsible for the content of the web site: www.beac.st. Recently the secretariat started to send press-releases on a regular basis to media in the Barents Region.

Anyone wishing to receive information on the Barents Cooperation is welcome to address the secretariat: ibs@beac.st or visit www.beac.st covering all aspects of the cooperation. The secretariat especially wants to alert everyone about the Calendar of Events on the left side menu of the site.