EU lacks arctic policy, lawmakers complain

BRUSSELS, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Northern European communities should find a place at the top of the EU agenda because of natural resources and region concerns, European lawmakers said.

The European Union estimates that about 20 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves are trapped below the ice in the arctic region.

BP and Russian oil company Rosneft agreed to join forces to tap into hydrocarbons in the northern arctic regions. With melting sea ice exposing some of those reserves, European lawmakers said it was necessary to impose restrictions on exploration activity in the region to prevent an environmental disaster.

Iceland's probable accession to the EU, meanwhile, would position the community as an influential member of the Arctic Council, which includes littoral states to the arctic region.

European lawmakers said it was important to consider the rights of the Sami people, the only indigenous population living in the arctic regions of European member states.

EU members Denmark, Finland and Sweden all border arctic territory, though the EU lacks a common policy toward what it describes as the High North.