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October 13, 2021, was an important day for the protection of the Arctic: the European Union signed the political commitment to curb the opening of new fossil fuel deposits in the region. Five years later, the EU is immersed in the process of reviewing the strategic lines of its Arctic policy, which will be presented at the end of September. This week, European leaders have met in Finland to discuss maritime transport, resources, and security in the region amidst growing pressure from the USA, China, and Russia.In this scenario, Norway estimates that two-thirds of its fossil resources that are still to be exploited are located in the Arctic. Given this, it is not surprising that in recent months Norwegian politicians and members of the oil industry have been visiting Brussels very frequently. The goal of the lobbyists is to pressure the EU to lift the moratorium that would allow for new oil and gas drilling above the Arctic Circle. All this despite the fact that Norway, which is not part of the EU, does not need any permit to exploit the Arctic, but its dependence on the European market means that the moratorium directly affects the economic interests of the Scandinavian country.“Norway is very active and knows how to make itself heard,” acknowledged the EU special envoy to the Arctic, Claude Veron-Reville, in an interview with Bloomberg. According to this newspaper, since 2011, 19 ministers of the Norwegian government have met with high-ranking EU officials with a folder on the table: that the EU should now look favorably upon the expansion of Norwegian oil activities located in the Barents Sea. In parallel, the Financial Times has also echoed an internal EU document that revealed that community partners were considering abandoning the moratorium on oil and gas activity in the Arctic.The main argument that Norway has defended is that “there are no climate reasons to treat oil and gas produced north or south of a certain line differently,” in the words of the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide. Faced with these explanations from the Labour politician, voices opposed to exploring new deposits in the Arctic warn that this territory is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, and therefore the environmental damage would be enormous in a very vulnerable ecosystem.The other reason Norway puts forward has to do with the energy crises that have exposed the EU’s vulnerabilities in the supply of fossil fuels. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the EU has made great efforts to get rid of Russia as a supplier of gas and oil. Recently, the interruption of fossil fuel exports through the Strait of Hormuz has been added to this situation.Benefits for global instability