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4POLITICAL COOPERATION WITHIN THE COUNCIL AND THE BARENTS EURO-ARCTIC REGION (HISTORICAL AND LEGAL ASPECT)
Abstract
The paper analyzes the geopolitical cooperation of European states in the Council and the Barents Euro-Arctic Region.
Keywords
Arctic zone of Russia, Russian-Norwegian relations, international law, Concept of Sustainable Development of the Russian Federation, Council and the Barents Euro-Arctic region
AUTHORS
Andrey Tumanov Tatyana Kapelko
PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor PhD in Jurisprudence, Associate Professor
Department of Criminal Law Department of Civil and Corporation Law
and Criminology Murmansk State Technical University
Murmansk State Technical University Murmansk, Russia
Murmansk, Russia kapelko@vandex.ru
sir.tumanov2015@vandex.ru
In this study, can not ignore the often unfairly forgets initiatives and joint activities are actively conducted in dosanktsionny period through the work of the Council and the Barents Euro-Arctic region. It was founded in 1993 at the meeting of Prime Ministers of the Barents Region in the Norwegian town of Kirkenes for the development of regional cooperation in northern Europe. It consists of 7 members: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the European Commission. Alternately every two years in the Council chaired by Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. In 2005-2007, the Finnish Presidency in the Council, succeeded Norway, presided over the Council in 2003-2005. In 2007-2009, the Council Presidency Russia.
The composition of the Regional Council of the Barents Region (BRC), established at the same time, when it was created BEAC includes 13 regions. In Russia it is of Karelia, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Oblast, Komi Republic and Nenets Autonomous District, in Finland it is the province of Kainuu, Lapland and Oulu, in Norway - Finnmark, Nordland and Troms, Sweden - Norrbotten and Vasterbotten.
According to draft Regulation, the main tasks of the Council include the promotion of economic cooperation, environmental protection, scientific and technological cooperation, and development of infrastructure, and in the Barents Euro-Arctic region. This meant that the Council would not duplicate or substitute the already ongoing on a bilateral or multilateral basis between the work of Member States, but it will contribute to the development of regional cooperation.
Chairman CBEP usually chooses several priority areas of work. For example, in Norway in 2003-2005. These were economic cooperation, education and training, legal and law enforcement, emergency services and responding to emergencies, health. So for 2004-2006. It has been identified 4 areas: economic and trade cooperation, sustainable living environment, human resources, indigenous peoples. At the end of the XX - XXI centuries. Russian-Norwegian cooperation is an important driving force of the Barents cooperation. This is understandable, due to a number of objective and subjective factors. For example, by virtue of geography, the two countries have a special responsibility for
the state of affairs in the Barents Region. No coincidence that many regional cooperation projects are bilateral in nature, or is initiated by Russia and Norway. The concept of the Barents cooperation has been formulated in the Kirkenes Declaration II by October 1993. It defines the main directions of cooperation in the field of economy, transport and communications, cultural ties and contacts between people, scientific and technological cooperation, the environment (Bayzhuminov, Tumanov, 2012).
Before the sanctions period, the practical component of the Barents cooperation is dynamically developing relations between countries, regions and people. For obvious reasons, for us one of the first places in the Barents cooperation is standing and solving social and economic problems. With regard to the northern regions of Russia these problems are acute and specificity.
In his time with Norwegian and other partners, mutual understanding was reached regarding the focus on the most promising 4-5 and develop projects that in the near future to obtain specific feedback and to show the efficiency of the cooperation. Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economy together with the administrations of the regions concerned are considering the adoption of the federal target program of Russia's participation in the Barents cooperation. Another option - the inclusion of a number of projects BEAC as a subprogram in the already developed, such as "Oceans" (Kupriyanova, Tumanov, 2010).
Perhaps the most fruitful area of cooperation in the region is the interaction in the field of environmental protection and improve the quality of the environment, the five main points of which are fixed in the Declaration of the leaders of environmental agencies BEAC adopted in Rovaniemi (Finland) in December 1995. At the 10 th Session of the BEAC, held in November 2005 in Harstad (Northern Norway), which was attended by the foreign ministers of member countries of the BEAC, it was approved by the Joint Communique, which reflects the main results of the BEAC and the main task for the future. At the session, the chairmanship of the BEAC for the next biennium has moved from Norway to Finland. Within the framework of the 10th session of the Council held a conversation between Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway J. Gahr Stoere. The sides outlined steps to strengthen cooperation on Svalbard and around it, including the improvement of the mechanism of joint control over fisheries. The Ministers reaffirmed their readiness to continue negotiations on the delimitation of the economic zone and continental shelf in the Barents Sea, as well as the preparation of the agreement on simplification of visa procedures for mutual travel of citizens of both countries. The ministers signed a plan of cooperation between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Ministry of Norway for 2006-2007(Bayzhuminov, Tumanov, 2012).
One area of cooperation is the joint work of our countries in the framework of the Arctic Council (AC)
Before the Council are pressing issues: environmental activities, problems of small northern peoples and sustainable development of the Arctic zone. It was established in 1996 in Ottawa (Canada), which includes Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Norway, the US, Finland, Sweden and Russia, and is essentially a high-level intergovernmental forum.
One of the milestones of the joint activity was the period of 2004-2006., When the Arctic Council was chaired by Russia. I must admit that despite the objective and subjective difficulties, challenges and obstacles over the years of its existence, the organization has managed to achieve the development, adoption and start of the set of complex programs on sustainable socio-economic development of the northern territories. The creation of the Arctic Council essentially completed the formation of a network of regional cooperation of international organizations, the scope of which covers the northern and north-western regions of Russia, most of them bordering foreign countries. The activities of the Council and has already proven the Barents / Euro-Arctic Region and
the Baltic Sea States is objectively in the interests of the development of cooperation in political, economic, environmental and other areas in the Russian Federation-wide and for individual subjects of the federation. This promising regional framework in which all parties, including Russia and Norway, develop common approaches, solve interrelated problems and at the same time demonstrate their openness to invite all interested States to the implementation of specific cooperation projects, thus making a contribution to the creation of stable and neighborly environment in the Arctic region (Bezrukov, Tumanov, 2012).
Already in its first ten-year milestone Arctic Council came up with a solid luggage realized and planned projects to be optimistic about the prospects of further cooperation. Russia and Norway see the future of the Council not only on how to strengthen the already tested spheres of cooperation, of course, there will be new promising areas of joint activities aimed at meeting the specific needs of Northerners.
Another direction of development of bilateral relations is the cooperation in the framework of the International Polar Year.
Russia has been and remains a great polar power, for centuries a leading research and economic development of the northern polar region. Also important the fact that the marine scientific research of the Russian Federation has always adhered to strictly comply with the norms and principles stipulated by international legal acts and resolutions. An important factor in the organization of marine scientific research is to conduct expeditions with interested international organizations. In light of the above provisions, in the analysis of marine scientific research, of particular interest is the organization of the work program of the International Polar Year (IPY).
As the national research program for the IPY in 2007-2008. will be performed jointly by the Russian-Norwegian research in many fields of science. In addition to marine research in the Barents and Norwegian Seas large volume of joint work will be performed on Svalbard, on the bases of the Norwegian Polar Institute and the University of Svalbard (UNIS) in Longyear and Ny-Alesund, and at the bases of the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Natural Resources , Roshydromet in Barentsburg (Spitsbergen). By its nature, the International Polar Year - a form of collaboration, bringing together for a certain period of time international and national programs and projects in the Arctic and Antarctic during the research.
Contact the program with existing federal and regional programs is determined by the provisions of the Concept of the International Polar Year, approved by decision of the Scientific Council for the study of the Arctic and Antarctic on April 23, 2003 and the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation. Planning work is carried out in the interests of Roshydromet, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Russian Defense Ministry, the Transport Ministry, Agriculture Ministry and other departments, non-governmental organizations (Polar Foundation, the Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation, and others.), based on the goals and objectives of the federal and departmental programs.
The International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on the basis of the proposal of the Russian Federation agreed on a holding in 2007-2008. International Polar Year, 50 years after the International Geophysical Year. RF one of the organizers and took an active part in the First and Second International Polar Years 1882/83 and 1932/33 (Boltushkin, Tumanov, 2012).
Basic research of the first two PGM focused on meteorological observations, measurements of soil temperature and sea water, the study of the geomagnetic field and auroral observations. It brings together scientists from many countries have conducted numerous expeditions in the Arctic and in the Antarctic. Held in 1957/58. International Geophysical Year (IGY) was the development of the ideas of polar's, when studies were,
in essence, a planetary character. The scientific program of Russia's participation in the International Polar Year (2007-2008 years) is developed on the basis of the decision of the Organizing Committee for the participation of the Russian Federation in preparing and participating in IPY (OK IPY 2007/08), formed by the Federal Government . Practical basis for solving problems IPY 2007/08 are coordinated observations in the Arctic and Antarctic, using existing monitoring systems by means of special experiments on ships, stations and bases, with self-contained means of observations and means of space probes. Modern scientific basis for the participation of the Russian Federation in IPY 2007/08 are federal programs, which are carried out within the framework of the Arctic and Antarctic research. Among them is the federal program "World Ocean" federal target program "Ecology and Natural Resources of Russia," State program "Research and development on priority directions of science and technology" (Konovalova, Tumanov, 2012).
Summing up, it may be noted that the terms of the construction of the bilateral good-neighborly relations between Russia, Norway and other countries in the Arctic region can and must develop not only a geostrategic level, but the scale and benefit mutually beneficial scientific cooperation and other crafts. This goal can contribute to strengthening ties within the framework of the Barents region, greater revival of close cultural and economic relations between the countries, which in turn should serve to approach foreign policy to the needs of people.
However, unfortunately, in the current political climate today, further cooperation in the framework we have considered all organizations and projects over time, becoming more and more problematic, which however does not beg the results already achieved and does not preclude the renewal and expansion of mutually fruitful cooperation.
REFERENCES
1. Bayzhuminov, S. N., Tumanov, A. A. (2012) "Delimitation of maritime areas in the Western Arctic", Collection of scientific works of the Faculty Law professors of MSTU, Vol. 2, Murmansk, MSTU, pp. 11-16.
2. Bezrukov, A. V, Tumanov, A. A. (2012) "Modern geopolitics Norwegian Arctic-European region", Collection of scientific works of the Faculty Law professors of MSTU, Vol. 2, Murmansk, MSTU, pp. 22-28.
3. Boltushkin, V. E., Tumanov, A. A. (2012) "Legal protection of the economic interests of Russia in the Arctic", Collection of scientific works of the Faculty Law professors of MSTU, Vol. 2, Murmansk, MSTU, pp. 16-21.
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