European Commission representative visits Iqaluit on good-will trip

Christian Leffler, a representative with the European Commission, visited Iqaluit recently to learn about Arctic issues. (PHOTO BY SAMANTHA DAWSON)

A representative from the European Commission visited Iqaluit April 22 and April 23.

His goal: to learn more about Arctic issues.

Christian Leffler, managing director of external services for the European Commission, met with representatives from the Government of Nunavut, including Eva Aariak, Nunavut’s premier, as well as representatives from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Leffler said he wanted to hear their “aspirations and concerns.”

The European Union’s seal ban, enacted in 2010 is a big concern for Nunavummiut, he said.

“What I have tried to explain is that the European legislation on this matter provides for a specific opportunity for continued marketing for seal products from Inuit hunting,” Leffler said.

The European Commission, which represents the interests of the EU by proposing new legislation and ensuring that EU law is applied by member countries, is “keen to work with the Nunavut authorities to make sure that a simple and effective certification system is put in place that will allow that exemption to be fully used for the benefit of people in Nunavut,” he said.

When the ban was designed, debated and adopted “it was made clear that it was never intended that this ban should apply to seal products which derived from hunting in communities where seal hunting is a traditional part of life and an important element in the economy.”

There is a process for that exemption that should be be managed, he said, and it’s about to come in to force in Greenland.

“We have suggested, repeatedly, with the Greenlanders, we’ve also suggested to Canada that we should work together,” Leffler said.

“We can offer the system, but on the Canadian side, or up here in Nunavut, the authorities have to engage and say ‘yep, we would like to work with you to apply it,’” he said.

And that process should be as simple as possible, he added. In other words, it shouldn’t be an “extra burden” for seal hunters to deal with, he said.

So far, there’s a misunderstanding of the EU’s ban, he said, and he denied that the ban is an attack on the Inuit way of life.

“That was never the intention,” he said.

Leffler said he detects a genuine interest from Nunavut to engage with Europe, so he visited Iqaluit to form his own opinion about Nunavut, to meet people and to present European views.

At the same time, Europe has been working on an Arctic strategy, Leffler said.

That strategy looks at environmental, socio-economic and research issues, and what resources the EU has to put into those issues.

“We feel that with Canada as a close and trusted partner, and with Canada as one of the principal, if not the principal Arctic nation, it would be very important that we seek out the synergies… and how to work more closely,” he said.

That’s “whether it’s the Inuit in Canada, the Greenlanders, the Saami in northern Scandinavia or others.”

The EU has Arctic populations and issues in three of its member states: Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Leffler also discussed “the gradual process of devolution, the experiences of the first decade or so of government as an autonomous territory,” as well as “the challenges of “organizing public services” with Nunavut representatives.

Polar bear population monitoring, preservation of the environment in the Arctic were also discussed.

His visit comes as a petition was circulating around Iqaluit asking Canada to ban the EU from seeking observer status at the Arctic Council.