The Kirkenes Declaration (Kirkenes Declaration ) established the Council of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, widely known as the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC), in as an intergovernmental cooperative forum aimed at supporting and promoting regional cooperation in the Barents Region. The BEAC meets at the Foreign Ministerial level, and has also involved meetings of the Ministers of Environment in the Barents Region since 4.7 It brought together the heads of the national governments of the region at its ten-year celebration in , when a declaration was adopted (the Barents Summit Declaration ). This section seeks to clarify the organizational and legal basics of the BEAC so as to determine its position within international law.
organizational elements of the BeaC
Like most classical international organizations, the BEAC has a clear organizational framework which encompasses members, observers and separate units functioning in its day-to-day affairs, along with national secretariats. The members are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the European Commission; membership is also open to other states that wish to take an active part in its activities (Kirkenes Declaration , ‘Participation and area of application’). The Foreign Ministers from the member states met annually up to and thereafter every other year (BEAC Terms of Reference , section 5).8 However, the chairmanship, which has a tenure of two years, rotates only between states that possess territories in the Barents Region (BEAC Terms of Reference , section ).9 Furthermore, a state cannot hold the chairmanship of the BEAC at the same time that its region holds the chair of the BRC.
7 The Ministers of the Environment met for the first time in Bodø in 1994, when they adopted the Barents Euro-Arctic Council Environmental Action Program, followed thereafter by meetings in Rovaniemi in 1995, St. Petersburg in 1997, Umeå in 1999, Kirkenes in 2001, Luleå in 2003, Rovaniemi in 2005, and Moscow in 2007. Other ministers responsible for various fields (culture, youth and sports, etc.) meet occasionally.
8 The year 1997 was an exception in that there was no Ministerial Meeting.
9 Section 6 states: “The chairmanship of each session will be assumed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the host country. The chairmanship will initially rotate between Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.”
The BEAC has granted observer status to a number of states in order to include states from outside the region in its activities. The observer states are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (BEAC n.d.). The central functioning unit of the BEAC is the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO).
The CSO consists of ambassadors or officials selected by the member states and the EC, although representatives from observer states and indigenous peoples regularly participate in CSO meetings. The CSO is in charge of the BEAC’s activities during the intervals between Ministerial Meetings. It meets on a regular basis usually four to five times a year. It can form new Working Groups (WGs) suggested by the BEAC, provides guidance to the WGs, and can terminate a working group that has completed its task.
There are national Barents secretariats in all the main member states except Russia. Having a national Barents secretariat is part of the recognition of the Governance: the Finnish national Barents secretariat is located in Rovaniemi in association with the Regional Council of Lapland; the Norwegian Barents secretariat is in Kirkenes, and the Swedish contacts are the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten and the County Administrative Board of Västerbotten. However, in the case of Russia, there is no permanent national secretariat; functions related to the Barents Cooperation are carried out by the regional governments (BEAC Report , -).
Legal elements of the BeaC
The BEAC has its own establishing international instrument – the Kirkenes Declaration – and has produced several documents since its inception, most of which are ambiguous in terms of creating obligations on its members.
The Kirkenes Declaration is not an international treaty. The Declaration states some common problems of the Barents Region and makes general promises concerning cooperation rather than creating any legally binding obligations. Following the introduction, there are sections on the Barents Euro-Arctic Council and its objectives: participation and area of application, the environment, economic cooperation, scientific and technical cooperation, regional infrastructure, indigenous peoples, human contacts and cultural relations, and tourism. None of the parts actually creates legal obligations.
However, in the course of time, the promises contained in the Declaration
have become useful to the states of the Barents Region by carrying out mutual activities among them under the auspices of the Governance. These activities address the challenges caused by the harsh climate and inaccessibility of the region, along with compliance with certain international legal instruments:
for instance, the member states’ commitment to the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration ), the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg Declaration ), Millennium Development Goals, the Convention on Biological Diversity (Convention on Biological Diversity ), and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Stockholm Convention ).
The signatories of the declaration affirmed their commitments with respect to the declaration on global environment and sustainable development (Rio Declaration ) and the rights of indigenous peoples (Agenda , chapter ) articulated in international law (Kirkenes Declaration , ’The Barents Euro-Arctic Council and its objectives’ and ‘Indigenous peoples’).
They have committed themselves to strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation, as mandated by the OSPAR Convention (Convention on Marine Environment ) and the Espoo Convention (Environmental Impact Assessment Convention ), to protect the fragile environment of the region (Kirkenes Declaration , ’The environment’ and ‘economic cooperation’).
The BEAC has its Terms of Reference which create obligations on the member states to a limited extent. For example, the Terms impose all financial responsibilities with respect to the arrangement of meetings of the BEAC on the host country (BEAC Terms of Reference , section ), which the states have followed up to this day. There is a provision that prevents the members from infringing on any international legal or even political obligations by participating in the Cooperation; this provision expresses the intention of the parties not to breach any binding obligations (BEAC Terms of Reference , section ). It provides less authority by using ‘will’ or ‘will not’ in the provisions instead of stronger words like ‘shall’ or ‘shall not’. Subsequently, it has included words that make the provisions flexible: ‘will normally be conducted’ (BEAC Terms of Reference , section ) ‘will normally convene’ (BEAC Terms of Reference , section 5). Furthermore, it leaves room for options by using terms like ‘may decide’ (BEAC Terms of Reference, section ).10
10 Section 11 reads: “The Council and its working bodies may decide to invite special participants, guests or observers to contribute to its work. This may include representatives of regions, sub-regions and international organizations.”
The BEAC meetings, other than the first one, which drafted the constituent declaration, have adopted either a joint communiqué or a report.
The exception is the Declaration adopted by the Heads of Government at BEAC’s ten-year anniversary in (Barents Summit Declaration ).
However, the words chosen in phrasing those instruments (the constituent declaration, joint statements, joint communiqués and summit declaration) may be categorized in three groups in terms of the level of obligation they create: simple recognition or appreciation (examples of words in this category are ‘recognizes’, ‘takes note of ’, ‘encourages enhanced cooperation’, ‘expresses its appreciation’, ‘welcomes’, ‘appreciates the activities’ and ‘notes the active role’); serious concern but loose commitment (phrases like ‘continues to pay special attention’, ‘underlines the need to address’, ‘emphasizes the importance’,
‘commends the enhanced cooperation’ and ‘believes that’); and intent to do a little (e.g., ‘supports efforts to further improve’, ‘stresses the urgent need to affirm’, ‘Parties should’, ‘reaffirms its willingness’ and ‘considers the application of ’). In fact, none of the words or phrases used in the instruments is sufficient to create real commitments or binding obligations on the member states. The BEAC’s commitments and support for certain international legal instruments can be evaluated as facilitating compliance with international law.