The 3/2013 issue of the BarentSaga newsletter

Dear Readers of BarentsSaga,

Santa Claus may have started dealing out Christmas presents prematurely this year since all kind netizens and Barents freaks are now receiving the BarentSaga 3/2013 newsletter that contains a great deal of interesting information: on the Finnish BEAC Chairmanship for 2013-15; the new Action Plan on Climate Change adopted two weeks ago by the Environment Ministers of the Barents Member States; the Rovaniemi-process and its commemorative follow-up conference; the Barents Profile with an interview with Mr Alexei Kalinin from Arkhangelsk, new Chairman of the Regional Committee; the Barents Transport Ministers meeting in Narvik and the Joint Barents Transport Plan that was the main focus of the Ministerial.

Time goes by quickly so you can now get acquainted with the priorities of the Finnish Chairmanship. The Action Plan on Climate Change is a major project comprising practically all BEAC working groups and a contribution to global efforts in this field. The Joint Barents Transport Plan addresses the concerns over the lack of adequate transport connections in the Barents region what can be described as the most pressing problem in the whole Barents cooperation – if people cannot travel conveniently in East-West direction one may just wonder how tangible results in various spheres can be achieved at all.

But get on with reading the newsletter which gives some insight into Barents issues - not just a sigh of distress because of bad transport connections! Merry Christmas and a Happy Barents Year 2014!

Ari Sirén, Head of the International Barents Secretariat
December, 2013

The Finnish chairmanship of the
Barents Euro-Arctic Council 2013-2015

The chairmanship of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council passed from Norway to Finland at the Ministerial Meeting of Tromsø in October 2013. Continuity is an important principle of the Finnish chairmanship. The successful Norwegian chairmanship has laid a good basis. Read more >>

Action Plan on Climate Change adopted

People in the Barents Region are experiencing a change that is confirmed by scientists: the climate in the Arctic regions is warming. In 2011, the BEAC ministers called for the preparation of an Action Plan on Climate Change and encouraged all sectors to engage in these efforts. Read more >>

Joint Barents Transport Plan

All people who are travelling or doing business in the Barents region know that the lack of transport connections in East-West direction. Therefore it is noteworthy that the Steering Committee of the Barents Euro-Arctic Transport Area (BEATA) initiated a Joint Barents Transport Plan in 2012 which was drawn up in the first eight months of 2013. Read more >>

Cooperation on Barents environmental hot spots

Cooperation on the Barents environmental hot spots started in 1995, when the first report "Proposals for Environmentally Sound Investment Projects in the Russian Part of the Barents Region" was published. Since 2003, six hot spots have been excluded from the list. In 2013, three more hot spots were excluded. The work, however, is not yet done. Read more >>

Barents Profile - Alexey Kalinin

"Twenty years of Barents cooperation showed that the most effective cooperation is reached in the spheres of the so-called “people-to-people” relations. I am convinced that mutual work will keep growing in these areas, as these are personal contacts between people, empathy and sympathy that are the foundation of any cooperation." Read more >>

In the Spirit of the Rovaniemi Process conference

An international Arctic Conference took place at the beginning of December 2013 in Rovaniemi. It was the first of the three planned conferences under the title “In the Spirit of the Rovaniemi Process”. In the closing session about the future of the Arctic Cities, there were representatives from the Barents cities of Narvik, Murmansk and Rovaniemi. Read more >>

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See also the previous issues of BarentSaga.

Visit www.barentscooperation.org for more information

BarentSaga is published by the International Barents Secretariat and the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.  Contributions to BarentSaga is very welcome!

Thank you for your contribution to this issue of BarentSaga:
Ulla Ahonen, Henna Haapala, Markku Heikkilä, Roy Hojem, Alexey Kalinin, Jani Kärppä, Jenni Lintula, Thomas Nilsen, Ari Sirén, Arto Vitikka and Marja-Leena Vuorenpää.