EU officials vowed an end to Arctic oil and gas buying, as the European Commission presented its new Arctic strategy. But while the document commits to keeping Arctic oil and gas âin the ground,â it drops the call for an international ban.
Norwegian politicians say Arctic gas is crucial to the EU’s future energy security and want Brussels to drop its moratorium on Arctic drilling. But a new report from a Norwegian NGO finds the volumes would be small and would not arrive until the 2040s which is ‘too little, too late’.
With Monday and Tuesday’s Arctic summit, the EUâs real Arctic weakness is not a lack of ambition, but a lack of a proper category for its closest non-member neighbours â Norway, Iceland, and increasingly the UK.
!['[Norway's prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre] does not have your best interests at heart,' said Frøya Skjold SjursÌther](https://static.euobserver.com/2026/08/260128-REDIGERT-Froya-i-salen-1-2400x1600.jpg)
‘We are hoarding our wealth in our massive sovereign wealth fund, while launching PR campaigns to deepen the EU’s fossil-fuel dependence,” said Frøya Skjold SjursĂŚther. ‘If Støre truly cared for Europe, Norway would donate the billions we’ve made in war profits to Ukraine’s aid’
The EU agreed a self-imposed ban on Russian gas imports effective from the end of 2026. But it continues to be the exclusive buyer of LNG from Russia’s project in Siberia.
The European Arctic is, above all, European â and it is time Brussels treated it that way. The European Arctic produces a disproportionate share of Europeâs food security, energy supply and strategic raw materials. The gap between what this region contributes and what it receives in political attention is not a detail. It is a strategic failure.
Nato chief Mark Rutte joked about Donald Trump’s invasion threat, at the Western allies’ first high-level meeting since the peak in the Greenland crisis.
Nato has launched a new Arctic mission â but on paper only, as Western allies try to mop up the mess left by US invasion threats against Greenland.
