From the international public launch of the Finnish Barents Chairmanship to contested spaces: Experience the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference 2021!  

We are happy to announce the program structure and main theme of the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference 2021. Under the theme of “A common Arctic or contested spaces? Focus on European Arctic” the conference discusses current and future developments in the Arctic with focus on European Arctic regions. The planned themes include regional co-operation, Arctic security, European Union in the Arctic and perspectives opened by international research in the region keeping in mind the main theme: Do we still have a common Arctic? Or has something changed?

Barents Euro-Arctic co-operation (BEAC) is a practical example of a forum that does much-needed work for a shared future. Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference comes right after Finland takes the Barents chair in October 2021 and the Conference serves as a public international launch of the chairmanship. As an event dedicated to Arctic questions and cooperation, we are delighted to host the festivities.

We hope to welcome also representatives from all regions active in the Barents Regional Council (BRC) to this year’s event. 

In collaboration with the Finnish ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit aims to offer this year’s participants an opportunity to learn more about the work done by BEAC and discuss the perspectives of Arctic regional, people-to people level co-operation.

Other highlights of the Conference program include discussions on Arctic security hosted by FIIA, discussion on EU Arctic policies and Finland’s new Arctic strategy hosted by the Arctic Society of Finland and a discussion on contested spaces in the North. The latter topic includes presentations from both researchers and stakeholders from our EU-funded collaborators ArcticHubs, CHARTER and JustNorth. We will be exploring land use from the perspectives of just transition and climate change.  



This year Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference will take place 16-17 November in Rovaniemi. The event is planned as a hybrid-event, with both on-site and virtual attendees and speakers.  

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