Each year, the leadership of the West Nordic Council meets with a delegation from the EU to discuss its policies that affect our member countries: the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland.

On the agenda for this year’s meeting, which took place on March 26 in Brussels: the development and the activities of the West Nordic Council and the EU, the Arctic, the environment and, not least, the EU’s ban on seal imports.

Present at the meeting for the West Nordic Council were chairman Bill Justinussen, who also serves as a member of the Løgting, the Faroese national legislature, and Randi V Evaldsen, a member of Greenland’s Inatsisartut. The EU was represented by Jørn Dohrmann, a Danish MEP who heads the an European Parliament’s delegation responsible for relations with our region, and Marit Paulsen, the Swedish vice-chair.

When it comes to the seal ban, the West Nordic Council was interested in discussing how the EU was planning to alter its so-called Inuit exemption after the WTO last year found that it could be in violation of international trade regulations.

To make the West Nordic Council’s position clear, Ms Evaldsen first showed a video produced by Inuit Sila, a pro-seal organisation, and which explains that the Inuit seal hunt is sustainable. She also enquired about whether it was true that the EU plans to impose a complete ban on the import of seal products, which would prevent Greenland from utilising its natural resources.

Ms Evaldsen further explained that Greenland has used large sums of money to promote its seal hunt and to document the sustainablity of its seal hunt, as well as make clear that seals hunted are not endangered in any way.

She then urged the EU to fund efforts to restore consumer confidence in seal products. At the same time, she made it clear that the EU cannot be considered to be a credible player in the Arctic if it does not take steps that will help Greenland.

Mr Justinussen, supporting Ms Evaldsen’s argument, added that that given the EU’s goal of becoming an accredited observer on the Arctic Council, he would have expected that the union would be actively working to change public opinion about the seal hunt. He noted that the EU has, in fact, generally made life difficult for west-Nordic countries. The boycott of Faroese mackerel and herring last year was another EU decision that had made it more difficult for the West Nordic Council to co-operate with the EU on Arctic issues. Mr Justinussen made it clear that the way the EU choses to react to the WTO decision will be decisive for determining what kind of relationship it has with the Arctic.

Mr Dohrmann and Ms Paulsen took note of the West Nordic Council’s position and asked a number of serious questions. Mr Dohrmann welcomed a discussion about the issue, and admitted that Greenlandic seal was a natural a product as could be found. He underscored, however, that the matter is one that must be discussed by all 28 member states, and that that necessarily meant compromises would need to be made.

In response, Mr Justinussen explained that the despite the good intention of the Inuit exemption, it had hurt Greenlandic hunters, and he called on the EU delegation to work on behalf of the people it had unintentionally impacted.

The EU, he noted again, is intent on playing a role in the Arctic, but undermining the way of life of hunters precludes any interest Arctic states might have in collaboration. Instead, Mr Justiniussen urged the EU to use its clout to support the west-Nordic countries by speaking up for their populations, given that they, on their own, are too small to have an influence abroad.

Ms Paulsen, a keen supporter of animal welfare, expressed her satisfaction with the information she had received during the meeting, and explained that the animal rights groups that had pushed for the ban in the first place were chiefly concerned about the methods used to kill seals during the hunt.

In response, Ms Evaldsen explained that many people confused Canadian seal-hunting methods with Greenlandic seal-hunting methods, and used the opportunity to present the delegation with the report “Management and Utilisation of Seals in Greenland”.

Mr Justinussen underscored that, even with public awareness campaigns, it was hard to compete with the deep-pocketed animal-rights groups and appealed to the delegation to help publicly set the record straight.

Ms Paulsen explained that animal-rights groups could accept a commerical seal hunt, provided it were sustainable, provided the hunting methods are humane. She proposed having the Greenlandic government, seal-product producers and hunters invite foreign journalists to witness the seal hunt first-hand so they could report about it to their home countries.

She also suggested that the EU could organise an event that would describe the various hunting methods. The West Nordic Council would welcome such a measure as way to give decision-makers a better idea of how the Greenlandic seal hunt is carried out.