nine thirty am in moscow these iraqi headlines gathering the strike tens of thousands in spain unite in protest against labor reforms a day before the new prime minister announces a fresh round of austerity cuts it seems the first real test for spain's leader who to call office three months ago. the arab league split over how to handle the syrian crisis some members of advocate diplomacy while others say he should arm the rebels and break and weigh in with force syria's government and opposition are under pressure to enforce a u.n.

peace plan calling for a cease fire. and the five member bloc of the break countries take on the dollar and euro in a bid to reform the global economy there masterminding the creation of all an alternative global reserve bank that would rival be international monetary fund and other western dependent bodies. spotlight coming up as earth runs out of natural resources host al gurn of speaks with stephan weber secretary general of the e.u. arctic forum to see if the polar region may contain what remains of the world's oil deposits stay with us. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

of. how all the underworld from two squads like the interview show on policy i'll bring all the way i guess on the program is stephan whether. american scientists have calculated that law then twenty percent of the world's oil and natural gas could be found below the arctic are its expiration there is more challenging than anywhere else but as we are running out of more sensible sources many countries are turning to the north the us and canada the european union and russia all want their share and are safe and so is the arts a becoming the scene how the future great again we're asking the secretary general

of the european union arctic for steffan work. with increases in technology and high oil prices arctic is becoming more attractive in terms of natural resources but the region's status is still in dispute and should be determined before three fledged exploration begins one of the most oil rich areas of the arctic is a lot more north of reach scientists estimated has about ten billion tons of gas an oil a few years ago in geology just proved its link to russia. territory. is clearly on the shelf and the same geological expedition they planted the russians where the seabed exactly. i was there for working to share thank you very much for coming to our studio today all seven first of all from time to time as we read the news we get the impression that the right thing really seems to be becoming the next the scene of the next

great battle where states compete over the rich natural resources is this real is this really happening i'm afraid that's not the whole truth. tells you if. if you look at the actual facts you will see in the arctic a pattern of cooperation among the states and on the regions a lot more competition so just last week we had a meeting in a seminar with in the region foreign minister in brussels and he used the slogan high end of the tensions and that isn't the rather the fact that there are in yours sometimes in the press perceive the issue of competition although obviously competition happens among companies or among other activists competing for licensing licenses or other developments so so so there's

a very awesome fear is the past problems that may experience during this competition that you have to tackle in your work you think you have the future. definitely definitely the arctic is changing drastically and not tomorrow already today and. this year it was ice free last year two gentlemen sailed on on a on a trip following in the footsteps of rhode island and it took them a couple of months why rhode island had to come in number of years to so you see drastic changes and obviously it's not only thing effects of climate change it's also the. changes in technology that makes things resources the shipping lanes tourism more and more easily doable and accessible. so there are issues to be addressed no doubt well actually it's something that global warming is

making oil and gas in the war it's. heating up the debate over who owns which part of the riches spotlights polluted to me there has more. the arctic is believed to contain quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas and melting ice is a nightmare to environmentalists but at the same time a promise of huge potential profits to businesses and noble warming exploration and development of previously in the excessive book and of your resources in the area. russia the u.s. canada denmark and norway have all voiced their coins to work piece of the arctic reaches three of the five nations been their hopes on the on an os of reach russia was the first to submit to the you won its claim for the underwater mountain range in two thousand and one the country argued the reach was an extension of the russian continental shelf the u.n.

asked for more evidence russia is not alone in acton and all of the other arctic nations are doing the same to prove their rights to parts of the disputed territory russian scientists have so far gone further than anybody else in their research as they reached the sea bed at the north who in two thousand and seven together some poles of the shelf. apart from the diplomatic and scientific france in the arctic all the countries have been paying more attention to the military presence in the region that has sparked a global dispute on whether this is actually the beginning of an arms race. our reporters are still a big expert in the arctic problems so any comments any objections to what you just heard. and yeah i mean it's true that certain parts of the arctic are disputed but if you if you look at the overall map actually you will you will

realize that most parts of the arctic are under dispute it's in the region of the waters or in the exclusive economic zone of the the sometimes disputes occur over a couple of square yardy any this is the this is how the war started and that is that anything that's that's not out. of the disputed areas are fairly limited and indeed there are disputes so but it's not a matter of conflict or even military conflict therefore un mechanisms are in place and therefore evidence needs to be provided by the states this is why they are geologists and other scientists are active and un could commission and basically will give recommendations on what belongs to them but you will you will find also a much more

a pattern of corporation and agreements and the biggest parts of it was disputed until september last year was in the bar and see between russia and norway and actually that's border guards solved in the agreements signed by even though we did . prime minister and the russian president actually it was a great move that we finally did sign this agreement with long. it lasted for decades are there any other article related disputes that we have now as significant as the russian or is it no there there is no minus as significant do it becomes to say the overall quantity overall size and none as significant when it comes to the possibility for exploration or exploitation to power and see if the seed is relatively shallow and ice free so there was a reason also i believe well you mentioned you mentioned the military aspect well actually these stockholder international peace research institute is as optimistic

as you are in saying the recent study shows that a military conflict in the arctic is very unlikely but meanwhile canada denmark and norway are muscling up their military force in the region and this is a fact one. it's simple very simple to answer you have a tremendous. increase for example in tourism shipping last year and the arctic council signed the first binding agreement on search and rescue so somebody must provide the capacity to safe in case of a nice cruise ship with five thousand people on board is running into difficulties . and if you compare the subs any capacity that was there before it's very very limited and also in order to implement laws also environmental laws you need to have capacity to have an overview what is going on and to be able

to observe if i'd buy. that the tree military buildup in the arctic is for providing for troops then you should buy mine so that the commissioning of the russian newest fourth generation submarine unit will go to that before it was planned to be commissioned in the. in the pacific fleet is now going to be commissioned in the north so that what may be the reaction to that what of course will be a great contribution to terrorism but what will be the reaction that nato countries have that the european can it could be agree to that interesting if they open up or do you think david cameron that it. would be in principle or he didn't think there may be a reaction because this is a move indeed indeed i mean it's the nations are dealing with this in a fairly different way. and it's all about sobering it seems but also we should

remember that all the nations around the arctic have declared in the aeration in greenland that they are all committed to the international law and it's mainly the international law of the sea and all their actions show that they're going to comply with it but of course it's a lot about. securing the borders not necessarily against your neighbor but there is a lot more shipping developing in the arctic it's not only tourism we have a tremendous decrease on the but the russians called in order and sea routes on the north east passage and that requires all kinds of capacities but no doubt. and particularly europe looks looks at the arctic just as much as the states around the arctic you hope for a peaceful development. maybe a short one well the latest u.s. need to exercise is in the military and size in the arctic it was called cold

response to twenty twelve which actually you sixteen thousand troops of fifteen allied nations and it was called for simulated combat terror threats and mass demonstrations in the snow ice biting wind well well. who does need to see is potential enemy. and except terrorists and demonstrators yeah i mean i mean well literally he called russia enemy number one you so so so do you think that nato especially european countries still regard russia as a member one i'm not in the wise or easy i'm off the candidates already possible candidates after republicans. and it's well would be interesting to interview him on this issue but i can guarantee you that amongst the european nations and nato. there are obviously different attitudes towards russia. when it comes to certain

certain fields and certain relevant sectors but overall russia is perceived and it's also treated as a partner and colleagues are sitting there in brussels in the nato russia cooperation council and working jointly and in particular when we look at the arctic yes there are security issues but it's not the classical. cold war game of the east against the west you were actually the reason i asked this question is is that i do really think that it's an adequate spending money an exercise like that in the arctic even the nato military budgets may have been spent on something i think we try well get i we're talking to staff and weber secretary general told the european union are so called spotlight we'll be back shortly after the break so stay with us don't go to.

something to you what is happening on the streets now is that you know after quite a day while parts of it would have however i totally disagree i don't think the party began. we are still waiting for the actual resolution to happen. to eat. you. to. you're. the best so. to.

welcome back to spotlight i'm out of and just to remind you that my guest on the show today is stephanie webber the secretary general of the european union arctic forum so for a we have a. question came in from one of our listeners here in russia and amazingly russians watch r t in english ones that this always amazed me that they do they even write letters and what he's interested in is this the creation of the e.u. arctic forum mean that brussels wants to formulate a coherent european policy in the arctic region. indeed we are

a part in contributing to that when we started to work on forty european union's holman's report on the arctic i was appointed to steve advisor to europe with her german and u.k. . and we plan from the very beginning that you are in for room to be not only cross country across party but also across issue platform where on a holistic basis our engagement our interests and our contributions to the arctic are to be discussed and from the very first meeting on that you are the forum has also functioned as a rich builder of getting together actors from europe and the arctic in brussels it goes from politics science business and the region just to make sure that the knowledge the expertise and the interests of those there were groups are present in

the political debate so this is so so we we are looking forward to having a european coherent pian arctic strategy very indeed indeed i hope that the european commission which is preparing documents towards the end of summer under the danish chairmanship of the u. is coming back into the european union's parliaments a report on the arctic which basically was the last major step in formulating more clear a list of priorities of our engagement and also highlighting how we already contribute today to the another one on the political side of. this problem norway's foreign minister said lately that no way had no choice i quote but to lead in the arctic well is brussels ready to recognize this special rule of no one which is not even a member in settling the europe you know. well. i believe

norway definitely has some making a major contribution and has its impact also on the formulation of an e.u. policies no it's very tightly. connected with the e.u. through the agreements. they just had a major research going on in there and no doubt that norway is a very important actor a very real european actor also in the arctic. but. it will be the e.u. institutions road to formulate. the e.u. policy and it will be the policy that will be affecting the several areas from research and wire manned resource issues transferred that are relevant to your opinion and there are no doubt norway just as much as russia is a very important partner well it's been reported in the wires that norway supports

the e.u. application for permanent observer status on the arctic council does the e.u. recognizes believing. this surge is a should in the in the arctic issues yes in our report we took we elaborated quite a bit on the on the legal and political basis of the to the arctic recognizing the special role of the arctic council and obviously the member states of the arctic council and we should not forget the three out of eight. member states in the arctic council are member states in the european union i think it's a candidate country and. we have a number of member states who are already today of service permanent of service in the arctic and since the e.u. which its policies has having and certain impacts in the arctic we don't make sense to involve it also works of permanent observer as well as we talk to the canadian hunters continue to hunt the seals. and they are. and they are

regularly criticized sharply by the e.u. seal slaughter and and nearly killed by the canadian government to. well do you think that because of this sharp criticism canada may block of the admission of the e.u. to the articles. well no doubt the seal hunting issue is a major issue between the e.u. and canada and also we're green and. that legislation was passed on a on a trade ban on seal skins. and with the exemption actually actually of indigenous that was a seal skin that was hunted by indigenous. and that's obviously had a devastating effect on certain communities at least in the arctic and particularly

in green and in some canada but we should not forget that the legislation which is very much the same regulation was passed by the u.s. in the seventy's i'm not aware of any major dispute between canada and us in that regard so. it's no doubt we should we should have a say elaborate on the issue and and see what can be done but yeah it was due to a certain political inferences of animal protection of the levees and i was at this legislation was passed and there also i can argue. at the time when that you arky foreign was not yet in place and not get active so that was also the reason why a holistic picture of the effects and side effects such a regulation might have was maybe not present in the debate around the perimeter and do you think we need a precise legal and political framework for the arctic circle to be established

by the arctic council. well you have. numbers of regulations in place the basis of it all is the united nations commission love to see you have several sector oriel regulations and several regional regulations and also international rate organizations like very important the i would be international maritime organization which is working on a mandatory polish shipping code forty arctic so that is underway and and no doubt with the challenges and with your community is coming up in the arctic. that will be taken down the road and there was that was steps to follow but i believe. it is more practical and the arctic needs fast reaction to do it as a building on the existing framework and on the existing legal basis then to shape something totally new out of the blue there's the e.u.

supports the tragedy it's sure drilling in the i think well for example those of greenland in no way in the well. d. you say it's so the most extends not having legislation and they've invented fields and when it does like in the oil and gas safety regulation which would be a pickles in the region which is ration food in a agreement norway. has to as a veto rights right for exemption. and we do already today have a major contribution by arctic all in gas which is supplying about one third roughly of european union's energy supply already today so as consumers and also as investors our companies our research institutes are engaged while the e.u.

itself is not sort of say providing any particular research money for for instance a development of well the consequences of the acts valdez and the deep water horizon they mean the oil spills the as they showed us the devastating results of human error why would the really poorly developed safety plan so should they force the wall companies to revise their plans for the honesty and to to mind the safety measures and the guarantees they give to the countries before they start and i look for. well i'm not a technical specialist not an engineer and all those related issues but obviously for the for my heard and learned is there. but i still feel the effects of good engineering it's good legislation indeed indeed but the point is the point is that legislation was in place in the gulf of mexico it was not

a bait the implementation didn't work so it's a question of implementation mechanisms on the one hand and no doubt i mean in the arctic you have very special conditions so things need to be handled very carefully . although it's also argued by certain scientists for example from the north review institute all the confidence that you would have in the arctic you also have positive effects of making things less harmful. but yeah look at the norwegian example where they established this integrated management of a certain so integrated spatial so on. which is very much also doubled by the european union's integrated maritime policy taking into account needs of tourism local population fisheries or any gas that is a very well developed management plan and it can always be updated no doubt you're going to maybe maybe we can think about using those sixteen thousand trains for proper observing the demonstrations in the in the icy conditions maybe we can

rather use than to keeping our eye on and observing the safety measures. i believe said i thought more useful invisible god thank you thank you very much for being with us and just to remind you that my guest today was staffed by the secretary general of the european union are here and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your sales promptly or have someone in mind be of a passion into the next time to drop me a line and i'll do enough pad. are you and let's keep spotlight to the movie that. with more frequent comments on what's going on outside russia unfold and stay on our team and say care.