ECOLOGICAL AND CLIMATE PARAMETERS OF THE EU ARCTIC STRATEGY

The EU’s Arctic policy in its main components is designed to contribute to the implementation of the modern global energy strategy of the European Union. The rich hydrocarbon resources of the Arctic, with their further active and large-scale development and involvement in economic turnover, may significantly complicate the practical implementation of the policy of «green transition» to a carbon-free economy of the Union. The author argues that the goal of the EU’s Arctic policy is to do everything possible to slow down the development of the Arctic’s hydrocarbon resources and deter commercial shipping in the Arctic seas. In order to gain opportunities to exert real influence on the situation in the Arctic, the EU found itself forced to act in the zones of national jurisdiction of the Arctic states not on behalf of the EU as a legal entity, but under the slogans of implementing international treaties and programs that somehow extend their effect to the Arctic, acting as if a guardian of international law and order and the interests of the international community in this region of the globe the ball. This applies to agreements regulating, in particular, issues of environmental protection, sustainable development, climate change, ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples, protecting biodiversity and such individual representatives of the animal world as whales, polar bears, seals, migratory birds, etc. The article examines the EU’s use of environmental and climate motives to justify its involvement in Arctic affairs and as arguments supporting EU demands.