Transboundary EIA in the Barents Region

The article examines how transboundary environmental impact assessment (TEIA) is organised in an area where international borders are close to each other, that is, in North Calotte/Kola Peninsula. It shows that a dense set of international legal obligations requires the region’s states to undertake TEIA. The paper examines the important question how TEIA can be done in an ideal manner in the region via the available best practise documents, such as the Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment in the Arctic document adopted by the predecessor of the Arctic Council, the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy. Our argument is that best practises can be used in evaluating how individual cases are undertaken, such as the TEIA over the so-called Kaunisvaara project located in Pajala municipality (northern Sweden), close to the Finnish border (chapter 4). Our conclusion is that TEIA should be undertaken by the region’s nation-states by applying the main international TEIA convention, the so-called Espoo Convention, but also by adhering to the best practise documents that give guidance how to perform a TEIA in Arctic conditions.