To prohibit oil production in the Arctic under the pretext of protecting the environment in this region, the deputies of the European Parliament. They proposed to prohibit drilling in high latitudes in order to extract oil, and also to make the Arctic a region of cooperation and reducing tension. In addition, they noted the military activity of Russia at the North Pole.

The depths of the Arctic contain colossal amounts of oil and gas. According to the US Geological Survey, oil reserves in this region reach 92 billion barrels, according to Wikipedia,. These are deposits located both on land and offshore. However, the intention of the oil companies to start exploration and production causes active protests from environmentalists, who argue that any accident in these places will be equal in scale to the ecological catastrophe.

The arguments of environmentalists had an impact on Barack Obama, who before transferring the reins to the newly elected President of the United States Donald Trump, announced a number of vast territories and sea spaces in the Arctic and the Atlantic as protected areas where oil and gas production is impossible. A professional lawyer, he was able to bring such a powerful legal base to this decision that, according to experts, it would be almost impossible for Trump to cancel this decision.

Obama himself said that the measure announced by him should protect the "fragile and unique ecosystem" of the Arctic, because "the risk of oil spills during extraction in the Arctic region is significant, and the possibility of eliminating consequences in the ice is limited".

According to deputies representing 28 European countries, the violation of the natural environment in this region threatens to accelerate adverse climate changes, as well as pollution of this source of clean water on the planet, writes "L! FE". In addition, the impact on the fish stocks of mankind will also be catastrophic.

Deputies paid attention to the fact that warming in the Arctic latitudes is faster than the average for the planet. Today, the area of ??polar ice is 40% smaller than 35 years ago.

In addition, the Arctic areas are a place where about four million people live, as well as representatives of northern flora and fauna. All of them already today are experiencing the adverse effects of global warming and pollution of the natural environment. The rights of the local population should be respected and protected by strengthening environmental safety measures.

To it, parliamentarians attributed a ban on drilling oil and gas fields, as well as the use of diesel fuel in the Arctic, which is the cause of further warming of the climate.

The resolution was 437 to 100, with 37 abstentions.

Urmas Paet, the representative of Estonia, who previously held the posts of Minister of Culture and Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country, especially highlighted the importance of the Arctic region from a geopolitical point of view and opposed his militarization. The resolution contains a paragraph stating that until 2015 Russia built at least six military bases north of the Arctic Circle, including 6 deep-sea ports and 13 airfields.

As noted by the leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund Igor Yushkov, this is not the first such document that emerged from the walls of the European Parliament. So MEPs try to increase their own importance in making decisions on the development of the Arctic. They understand that they are not a subject of law in the Arctic region. All legal prohibitions of this kind can be introduced only by the UN by way of amending the Convention on the Law of the Sea. "Try to prohibit Norway from extracting oil in the Barents Sea or the Norwegian Sea. It's unlikely they will succeed. They get oil and gas from there, "- said Igor Yushkov.

The resolution in one way or another affects the interests of Russia, which is already mining within the Arctic Circle. We are talking about the platform "Prirazlomnaya", which extracts oil on the shelf of the Pechora Sea and belongs to "Gazprom Neft".

In addition, the Energy Strategy of Russia includes the development of the largest deposits of Shtomanovsky, Rusanovsky and Leningrad, located in the western part of the Russian Arctic.

The leading international organization that discusses and makes decisions concerning the polar latitudes is the Arctic Council, which includes 8 countries: Russia, Canada, the United States of America, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden.

Of these, three countries - Denmark, Finland and Sweden - are represented by deputies in the European Parliament. Inside the organization there is a group of five countries that have access to the Arctic Ocean, called the "Arctic Five". Each of these countries controls its sector of responsibility.

In connection with the global warming and increasing the duration of navigation along the Northern Sea Route, countries located far from the polar regions, such as Spain, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Korea, China and others, began to show interest in the Arctic Council.