Arctic Council, Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and Northern Dimension are international cooperation forums that are in place in Arctic regions of Europe.
Each of the cooperation forums is established to serve a specific purpose in a specific geographical area. The functions and goals of each forum are different even if same countries belong to many of these. For instance, the Arctic Council does not have any mechanism for the regions. In the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, regional cooperation is a core activity.
Barents Euro-Arctic Council and Regional Council, Arctic Council and its working groups and Northern Dimension are explained more in details here. Besides them there are also other regional forums that are relevant for Barents Region, such as the Nordic Council and Nordic Council of Ministers, Council of the Baltic Sea States and the West Nordic Council. Nordic cooperation has longer roots but all the other international forums for regional cooperation were formed in the 1990´s as a reaction to the changing international situation in the region. Read more about the BEAC partners and related organizations.
There are also other regional financing and cooperation mechanisms, such as Cross-Border Cooperation programs between EU and Russia (Kolarctic and Karelia), Interreg programs and Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme, supported by European Regional Development Fund and non EU partner countries.
https://www.barents-council.org/
www.barents-council.org