Arctic policy of the European Union in 1973 and Sweden and Finland in 1995). The European Union's application to become a “permanent observer” in the Arctic Council was blocked in 2009 by Canada in response to the European Union's ban on the importation of seal products. The Arctic is an area of growing strategic importance. The European Union supports the successful Arctic co-operation and in helping to meet the challenges that now confront the region. The European Union is the world's strongest proponent of greater international efforts to fight climate change. It has three (and if the accession of Iceland to the European Union occurs, potentially
Arctic Circle (organization) to be the best placed to effectively protect the sensitive ecosystems and traditional lifestyles of indigenous groups in the Arctic at the time when international commercial interest is growing steadily." As the 1996 Ottawa Declaration, a founding document of the Arctic Council, explicitly stipulates that the Council "should not deal with matters related to military security," a 2014 RAND Corporation publication suggested that security dialogue "leverage existing international conferences, such as that run by the Arctic Circle Assembly, where participation can be ad hoc and security is already an item of discussion." The Arctic Circle's honorary board is chaired by