17-18 MAY 2018, NF Chair - Acting Governor of Nenets Autonomous Okrug Alexander Tsybulsky held a meeting with NF Executive Director Mikhail Pogodaev to discuss following issues:
- Regional Coordinators Committee meeting in Naryan-Mar in November 2018;
- Meeting of the Northern Forum Working Group on Health in the North and Social Issues;
- Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC);
- Membership;
- Meeting of the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials (SAO);
- Status of Lapland in the Northern Forum.
RCC meeting, that will be held in Naryan-Mar in November 2018, will address four items: Call for Projects, Northern Forum Strategy, Budget for 2019, and Work Plan for 2019.
- In accordance with the Call for Projects regulations, RCC reviews the selected applications, forms and approves the final list of projects receiving funding through voting in a in-person or absentee meeting from October 15 to November 30;
- Resolution of the Board of Governors No. 199 took the draft strategy developed by Lapland as a basis during XIII NF General Assembly in Krasnoyarsk. The Board of Governors assigned RCC to amend the draft document in compliance with the discussions and to adopt the strategy at the next RCC meeting;
- It is necessary to approve the NF budget for 2019. The budget will be formed by analogy with the budget for 2018;
- It is necessary to develop and approve the NF Work Plan for 2019.
The meeting of the Northern ForumWorking Group on Health in the North and Social Issues is scheduled to be held on the margins of RCC meeting and III Arctic Telemedicine International Conference. This Working Group is chaired by AlexanderTsaregorodtsev, First Deputy Director of Ugra Research Institute of Information Technologies. The Working Group comprises 10 members from 7 member regions: Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Ugra, Akureyri, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Primorsky Krai, Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. There is an opportunity to submit the Working Group meeting as a project application for NF Call for Projects.
Parties also discussed the following issues:
- Signing an agreement on cooperation, including joint project activities, between the Northern Forum and the Barents Euro-Arctic Council. There is a preliminary agreement with the Head of the International Barents Secretariat Mr. Thomas Hallberg;
- Expansion of NF membership. Currently, NF membership includes 14 regions. In 2001, NF membership covered 25 regions - the maximum number of members in the history of the Northern Forum;
- Meeting of the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials (SAO) . The next SAO meeting will take place on 1-2 November 2018 in Rovaniemi, Finland. The SAO meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group(SDWG), which will be held on 29-30 October 2018;
- Status of Lapland in the Northern Forum. It was previously discussed that when the Board of Governors is approved for the period until the next XIV General Assembly, Lapland will become the NF Vice-Chair from Northern Europe. Since Northern Europe is represented in the Northern Forum by 2 regions, the municipality of Akureyri was elected as a Vice-Chair. In this regard, the possibility of granting Lapland a special status is being considered.
