  |
Appendix 2
CONFERENCE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS OF THE ARCTIC REGION
THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS OF THE ARCTIC REGION
MEETING IN INARI 3 November 2012 Venue: Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos, Parliament Hall Solju
Draft minutes
1. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA AND THE PROPOSED ORDER OF AGENDA Decision: The Committee adopted the agenda and the proposed order of agenda items for the SCPAR meeting. 2. APPROVAL OF DRAFT MINUTES FROM THE SCPAR-MEETINGS IN Decision: The Committee approved the minutes from the SCPAR-meetings in Akureyri 5 and 7 September 2012. 3. PRESENTATION OF THE SAMI PARLIAMENT OF FINLAND Ms Tiina Sanila-Aikio, 1 Vice-President of the Sami Parliament of Finland, informed the Committee about the work and role of the parliament. The parliament is a self-government body of Sami in Finland under the current law from 1996. The parliament is not a state authority and part of the public administration, but an independent legal entity. It represents the Sami nationally and internationally in issues concerning language, culture, and their position as an indigenous people. The parliament has 21 members and serves in 4 years terms. The last election was in the fall 2011. Plenum meets 4-5 times a year and elects a full time chair/president and an executive board of the Chair of the Parliament, two vice-chairs, and four other members. The members are divided into committees dealing with livelihood, educational, culture, social, health, language and youth. The Sami Parliament is funded by the state and in 2012 1, 6 million euros. Important issues this parliamentary period are: ·ILO 169 ·The Nordic Sami Convention ·New Sami parliament act ·Revitalization of the Sami language act Finally the Vice-President expressed concern about the suspension of RAIPON. Members of SCPAR asked about the cooperation between the Sami parliament and national/regional parliaments? Ms Sanila-Aikio responded that the authorities have to ask of the opinion of the Sami parliament in matters relating to Sami issues. But the implementation of the opinion varies. On local level there has been good progress in cooperation on the planning of use of nature. The connection between the administrative level in the Sami and the Finnish parliament is good. The members of the Committee also wanted to learn more about the work and success to secure the vitality of Sami language and culture. Ms Sanila-Aikio noted that in the Sami homeland area, 4 northernmost municipalities, the development is good. The problem is for Sami living outside of the Sami homeland area which have not the same language rights. The planned language vitalization program will hopefully start next year and be an important step in strengthening the language situation. As for the Nordic Sami Convention the negotiations are ongoing and there will be new meeting in December 2012. As for the situation of RAIPON in Russia the Committee agreed upon a letter addressing the situation which is enclosed to the minutes. Decision: The Committee took note of the information and agreed upon a letter addressing the situation for RAIPON. 4. THE ARCTIC STRATEGY OF FINLAND Ms Hanna-Elina Koivisto presented the Arctic strategy of Finland to the Committee. Finland is mostly above 60° north and with the increasing interest in the Arctic, Finland needed an Arctic strategy. A strategy was published in the summer of 2010 and is about security, environment, economy, indigenous peoples, institutions and the European Union. Arctic Council is considered the most important body for Arctic cooperation, but others are the Barents Euro-Arctic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers. An updated Arctic strategy is being prepared and will hopefully be ready in spring 2013. The main focus if the strategy will be to promote Finnish Arctic expertise. On questions from the Committee Ms Koivisto commented that in relation to logistics connected to minerals and mining cooperation with Norway and Sweden will be important in the updated Arctic strategy. There are also recommendations within the Nordic Council addressing cooperation in mining between the Nordic countries. Ms Koivisto emphasized that expertise within shipping and mining is what Finland would like to promote, but also a broader field of expertise. Finland is supportive new observers joining the Arctic Council and especially the application from the European Commission. Finally she noted that the Finnish government tries to take the view of the Sami people into account when it’s relevant. Decision: The Committee took note of the information. 5. PROMOTING ARCTIC STUDENT EXCHANGE Ms Outi Snellman, Vise-President, Administration University of the Arctic, informed the Committee about the activities of UArctic. UArctic has 146 members including associate members from countries like Japan and China. They have finished an internal review and started an external review, which will be the basis for the new strategic plan. Vice-Chair of SCPAR Gudfridur Lilja Gretarsdottir is member of the external review group which is led by Mr Toni Penikett from Canada. UArctic has 22 thematic networks and two types of mobility programs. The thematic networks depend on exchange of students and then there is the North2North project. There are around 200 students a year taking part in North2North, exchange between the Arctic countries. By creating opportunities in the North you make people to stay in the North. If you go to study abroad under graduate level – travel in the North it strengthens your identity as a northerner. Ms Snellman finished by proposing to establish a Circumpolar Mobility Program. It would not need a lot more money but be very important for the development of the Arctic region. On question from the Committee Ms Snellman noted that she believes the Arctic states will be willing to support such a project with the necessary funding, provided some extra efforts, technically and economically. She further said that the technical capacity to attend classes and courses on the web has dramatically improved the last years and that there will always be more students attending these classes than the ones who are actually moving another place for a longer period. As UArctic work through members, a student needs to be connected to a higher education institution to participate. The Committee was informed that Russia is an important partner in this cooperation with 1/3 of the members in UArctic, 2 offices (Archangelsk and Yakutsk) and a large part of the exchange students. Ms Snellman also informed about the work to include the self-governed areas in the cooperation and the need to work with the different provinces and territories in Canada. The biggest difficulty in the cooperation is the time zones. Members of the Committee noted that it would be important to follow-up in the respective home parliaments to find ways to fund student mobility. Decision: The Committee took note of the information. 6. AN EU ARCTIC INFORMATION CENTRE IN ROVANIEMI Ms. Paula Kankaanpää, Director, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland, informed the Committee of the progressing work to get an EU Arctic Information Centre to Rovaniemi. She noted that there are a lot of knowledge about the Arctic and this needs to be channeled to a broader audience. Through a network of 19 partners throughout Europe the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi wants to be the information hub on Arctic issues for the European Union. On questions from the Committee Ms Kankaanpää said that it is not finally decided where the information centre shall be located but they hope for a decision next spring. She noted that when the centre has started its work they might discuss to cooperate with other partners as well, for instance Russian ones. The Centre may also provide programs to facilitate discussion and sharing of information. Decision: The Committee took note of the information. 7. ECONOMIC COOPERATION IN THE NORTH Mr. Timo Rautajoki, Managing Director, Lapland Chamber of Commerce, Finland introduced the Committee to the views of Lapland Chamber of Commerce on current and future business opportunities in North Europe. He started by mentioning that business cooperation in European north is different from Canada as there is more industry and export in Europe. Important sectors are mining, tourism, oil and gas, steel industry, paper industry and “Angry Birds”. The cooperation across the boarders needs to become much better. One problems is bad east west connections for flying and it’s too long to drive. Many big investments are expected in the next ten years, estimated to 125 billion euros. The big question is if Schtockman gas field will be developed. In Norway oil- and gas is a driving force, maybe more mining in the future. In Finland mining industry, tourism, wind energy – and maybe a nuclear power plant? As export is going down, Finland needs to look to the closest neighbors for export, not only China and Vietnam. In Sweden LKAB is investing huge sums in Kiruna to continue mining and there are big investments in wind power. There is also a lot of mining industry in the Murmansk region. There will be a new regime for sulfur emission in the Baltic Sea which might influence the new transport infrastructure in the North. There are also more local logistical challenges like a small bridge outside of Kiruna. To build new railroad connections are very expensive – 3 billion euros. But there have been signals from the president and the prime minister to start this work and a working group will meet in December 2012 to discuss the topic. Transport connections will be mentioned in the new arctic strategy of Finland. Decision: The Committee took note of the information. 8. EXPERIENCES FROM THE 10TH CONFERENCE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS OF THE ARCTIC REGION The Chair of SCPAR Morten Høglund was very satisfied with the conference in Akureyri. He pointed at: ·Good balance of plenary debates and other program ·Same topics in the plenary as in the conference statement ·Speakers with different background The Vice-Chair of SCPAR Gudfridur Lilja Gretarsdottir, was also very happy with the conference in Akureyri, with the agenda items and structure of the conference. She pointed to the need to include the Permanent Participants (indigenous peoples) better in the conference program. Ms. Ann-Kristine Johansson agreed with the previous speakers and pointed to the importance of networking during such conferences. Decision: The Committee took note of the information. 9. TOPICS FOR SCPAR UNTIL THE CONFERENCE IN 2014 The following topics were presented at the meeting: 1) Cultural and social impacts assessments in connection to resource development, common standards, use existing guidelines and regulation 2) Maritime safety issue – hydrographical data collection, measured 20% of the waters outside of Greenland, look more into practical cooperation with the Arctic communities 3) Exchange of experiences on mining 4) Transport, air, east – west connection 5) Weather forecasting – weather can cause considerable damage, closer cooperation 6) Student exchange – a very concrete and important project The need to follow-up on the Arctic governance report was also mentioned. Explore new areas for legally binding agreements, a vision for the Arctic, and the observer issue – what kind of Arctic Council do we want? Decision: The members will consider the different proposals and decide on a topic at the next meeting of SCPAR. 10. INFORMATION WORK OF SCPAR The Chair of SCPAR presented the work current information work which is going on in SCPAR. Decision: The Committee took note of the information. 11. STATUS OF THE WORK OF SCPAR The Canadian delegation informed that the incoming chair of the Arctic Council is Ms Leona Aglukkaq, the Canadian Minister of Health. She has started cross Canada consultations to prepare for the Canadian Chairmanship. It has also been decided that the 11th Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region will take place in Whitehorse, Yukon in September 2014. The Swedish delegation informed about a seminar by the Swedish Polar Research Commission 6 November 2012. Sweden will hold the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2013 and in the program will be to improve the competiveness of the Nordic region and look at closed cooperation in the mining sector. The representative from West Nordic Council informed about the theme conference which is to take place in the middle of January 2013 in Iceland and has “Health system in the Region” as the topic. SCPAR is invited to participate. SCPAR was also invited to hold a meeting in the Faroe Islands. A representative of the Russian
delegation informed about recent parliamentary hearings on the legal
regulation of the development on the North - East passage. There has also been
presented recommendations on Arctic environmental policy in Russia. Finally it
was mentioned that RAIPON needs to make new resolutions and solve its administrative
issues. The Danish/Greenlandic
delegation informed about a recent meeting of three governments region in the
Realm of Denmark. The Norwegian delegation informed about an extra 10 million Norwegian kroner to be used for research on petroleum activities in the Arctic. As Chair of SCPAR Mr. Høglund also reported from the meeting between the Swedish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council and the different Arctic Council observers. The meeting was well attended, also on a political level from many of the observer countries. The Secretary General informed the Committee of his participation in the Senior Arctic Officials meeting 14-15 November in Haparanda where he will present the results from the conference in Akureyri. 12. NEXT MEETINGS OF SCPAR The next meeting of SCPAR will be in Washington medio March 2013. 13. ANY OTHER BUSINESS No other business. |
 |
