What a recent EU Arctic forum shows about the bloc’s efforts to handle the complexities of Arctic politics

The EU is already active in the Arctic — and will only become more so. But its engagement in the region still has some hurdles to overcome.

The U.S. is ramping up in the Arctic, Russia banks heavily on its own Arctic provinces, China’s Arctic interests are growing. And in early October the top tiers of the European Union called a high profile event far in the north — the most ambitious of its kind so far — to illustrate how Brussels will also fight to ensure that the 500 million people who live in Europe will have access to the fish, minerals, oil, gas and trade routes in the Arctic, to influence in the region and to do their part to improve life and combat climate change in the Arctic.