{"id":450224,"date":"2026-04-13T17:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/13\/lue-rafforza-limpegno-nellartico-nominato-consigliere-speciale-lex-vicepresidente-della-commissione-katainen\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T18:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:40:50","slug":"the-eu-strengthens-its-commitment-to-the-arctic-former-commission-vice-president-katainen-appointed-special-adviser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/13\/the-eu-strengthens-its-commitment-to-the-arctic-former-commission-vice-president-katainen-appointed-special-adviser\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU strengthens its commitment to the Arctic: former Commission Vice-President Katainen appointed Special Adviser"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 In a move aimed at consolidating its geopolitical influence in an increasingly pivotal region,<\/strong> the European Commission announced today (13 April)<\/a> has appointed Jyrki Katainen<\/strong> as Special Adviser on EU-Arctic Relations<\/strong> in a decision aimed at \u201cstrengthening the Union\u2019s strategic presence and effectiveness in the Arctic region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brussels has chosen a high-profile figure. Katainen, a Finnish MP since 1999, who served as Minister of Finance and Prime Minister of Finland<\/strong> between 2011 and 2014. His experience within the European institutions is equally solid, having served as Vice-President of the European Commission<\/strong> responsible for growth and investment from 2014 to 2019. <\/p>\n

In his new role, Katainen will report directly to the Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef S\u00edkela<\/strong>. His task will be to provide expert advice on implementing European priorities<\/strong> in the Arctic, with a particular focus on economic security, connectivity, sustainable development, climate,<\/strong><\/span> and energy<\/strong>. The priorities<\/strong> in question are those outlined by President von der <\/strong>Leyen as early as last October,<\/strong> when she <\/span>foreshadowed the need to review the EU\u2019s Arctic strategy to align it with the broader European security framework. On that occasion, she warned of the speed of change in the region, stating that “the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth<\/strong>” and that the area was moving to the “centre of geopolitics<\/strong>,” with a direct impact on the stability of all Member States.<\/p>\n

Another step forward was taken in January 2026,<\/a> during the World Economic Forum in Davos<\/strong>, where, speaking out against Trump\u2019s territorial claims on Greenland, the President described the US\u2019s retaliatory tariffs as a \u201cmistake\u201d and reiterated the need for a coordinated strategic approach involving greater investment in infrastructure in the region, particularly European icebreakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU executive is focusing on Finland to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of European action in a region that is having an increasingly significant impact on the global security balance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7901,"featured_media":450216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[30168,33750,26884,31353,33751],"class_list":["post-450224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-arctic-en","tag-consigliere-speciale","tag-commissione-ue-en","tag-jozef-sikelaon","tag-jyrki-katainen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450225,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450224\/revisions\/450225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}