The Arctic Exception: The Role of the EU in the Kingdom of Denmark’s Arctic Policy

Abstract

In most policy areas the EU is either the main forum in which Danish foreign policy is conducted or the most important forum together with bilateral action. However, the Kingdom of Denmark’s Artic policy is an exception in this respect. The article suggests an answer to why the role of the EU is much less prominent in the Kingdom’s policy towards the Arctic than in most other areas of Danish foreign policy: the combination of a very strongly articulated Danish agency with regard to the Arctic and an EU policy which is not intensive but still resourceful. This makes for a Danish foreign policy which includes the EU in certain areas but also aims to limit the EU’s geopolitical influence and control its influence on the daily life of the people of the Arctic. In addition, the fragile character of the Kingdom of Denmark construction reinforces the sensitivity vis-à-vis of involvement of the EU. Kingdom of Denmark, Arctic, EU, foreign policy, Greenland, Arctic Council, Artic Five, Ilulissat Declaration