New Europe: Welcome to New Europe studios. With us today is the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands, Mr. Kaj Leo Johanessen. Prime Minister, welcome to New Europe studios. Prime Minister Johanessen: Thank you very much. NE: I’m very glad that we have you on here today with us, because in Athens, the fisheries commissioner, Ms. Damanaki, meeting with your fisheries minister, declared the long dispute between the European Union and the Faroe Islands has ended. Could you please tell us something about this? PMJ: Yeah, if you’re taking the beginning of history and you’ll see that the north Atlantic, where we are situated, we have seen in the last past years that the stocks, the fish stocks, plaice, mackerel, herring, they have been moving much, much more into our area, and we claimed that we own a bigger part of the share. It came to a dispute between the countries, the coastal states, who are all together to have the fish out of the stock. There was also a big, big fight with the Faroe Islands against the EU, and then on the 28th of August last year, sanctions were imposed on our country. These sanctions lasted for one year, and now, luckily, we can say that we are out on smooth water again and we can see a new beginning. Because the event you were speaking about, the fares economy, the fares export, it is totally, totally dependent on fishing villages. Ninety-nine percent is fish products, what we are selling all over the world, and the EU market, big market; the Russian market is a big market, the Far East and Africa. So we are very dependent on our fisheries so it was a big blow, the EU sanctions, but now we are seeing, yes, you can say that we are cleaning the sheet. NE: So you said that fishing is very important for your country. What’s the percentage of your GDP coming from this source? PMJ: Oh, you’re up to 80, 78 percent. NE: So it’s absolutely critical? PMJ: It’s critical. When we are out on our market, then the economy is going down, because it’s very fluctuating economies when you are that dependent on natural resources, and we have been fishing for last hundred years in fairest (?) waters, around Greenland and Canada, so historically, we have both had the biggest percentage, I think, of men in the north Atlantic, and we have also been losing the most persons in the sea, who are never coming back. Everything is maritime. NE: I recently read an article you wrote, referring exactly to this issue, and to the dispute with the European Union, which luckily ended, and you were speaking, you were writing about an arbitration mechanism that is very good to use in the future, as you say, “should we find ourselves in a similar situation in the future.” Do you expect a similar situation to arise in the future between you and the European Union? PMJ: I think there will be disputes, yes, but I don’t think and do not hope that it will come so far that sanctions are imposed on us, because we are 50,000 people in the north Atlantic on 500,000 tons each year, so we of course have big values, but we don’t have, as a small player in this field, we don’t have any pistols, we don’t have any weapons, we cannot push anybody, and therefore as a small country, we need to use the WTO, we need to use the international law of the sea to protect ourselves, and that’s what we have been doing with these cases. And I think that these boat cases also have been key to solve this issue with this dispute because we are dependent on each other because we are exporting a lot of very good quality salmon into the European market, and we are very known to send soft fish to Greece, to Spain, to Italy… NE: …to many European countries in bilateral agreements… PMJ: We have a bilateral agreement with EU actually, with a trade agreement, fishery agreement and then also a research agreement, Horizon 2020. NE: Research on fisheries? PMJ: On all different sectors. NE: So the fact that so soon after, let’s say, the end of this dispute, you are here visiting Brussels. Does this mean that there are other issues that can be promoted between the European Union and the Faroe Islands? PMJ: Absolutely. First of all, we are here to speak about how we can formalize, in a better and proper manner, how to formalize our cooperation in the future and we are often saying that we are not Greenland and we are not the other countries and that means that the EU have approximately 120 different contracts with each of the different countries so where are we fitting in and to formalize our cooperation in the future, and that’s what we are analyzing in the Faroe Islands at the moment. So, we will have negotiations with the EU to help the connection even tighter and that’s crucial for our economy. NE: So, besides fisheries, what else can the Faroe Islands to the EU and the relationship with the EU? PMJ: Just now, in some weeks, we will be a member of the Horizon 2020, that’s a research program, and we will be a part of that and of course to give what we have of knowledge into the program. The knowledge in the Faroe Islands is very good on the ocean graphic, with the sea, sea currents, and so on. I think we are the one of the best nations in salmon farming. If you are asking the Americans, we are delivering a lot of very good quality salmon into the American market and into the EU market, because of the quality. We are not medecining, we are not using medicine when we are harvesting or having salmon farming, so are products are on the very top level. NE: So, I understand that you might be exporting the product itself but the know-how as well? PMJ: Know-how, we are producing know-how. Also, in the times of all the equipment who is around the maritime and fishery sector, fish gear, all these things, we are working to do that. NE: On the population of the Faroe Islands, which is not very big, how is the European Union viewed in your country? And will there be an interest in your country for a closer with the European Union, even joining perhaps someday? PMJ: We have been having big discussions in the Faroe Islands. And I think there is this fishery policy where fishery is everything, and I think the people, with the EU fishery policy decided in Brussels, I think the people are a little reluctant on that. So we are in a situation similar to Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and small countries actually. But we are not that close to membership, no. We are in the Danish Kingdom, Denmark, Greenland, and Faroe Islands also, and that means that if you’re going in, then you are a part of Denmark. Otherwise, you will be a sovereign state first, and then you could be member. So, it is a long road actually. NE: Now that you mention this, quite a distance on the south of you, in Scotland, this week they will have a referendum about independence from the United Kingdom. Are there any thoughts like that in the Faroe Islands vis a vis Denmark? PMJ: There have been big disputes. We had to set home rule agreement from 1948. There was a referendum just two years before that and there are national parties in the Faroe Islands. So there is also strong, just like you see in Scotland, there are the same arguments used by both parties both the “No” side and the “Yes” side, economical and so on, social welfare and pensions and so on, it’s the same discussion actually. And the Scottish say that they are maybe too small to be a sovereign state, so of course we are that much smaller. But what the future will bring, nobody knows. But for the time being, I think we have a great relationship in the Danish Kingdom with Denmark and Greenland. NE: In your visits in Brussels, what is the impression you get from the way that the European Union, and I’m not speaking about individual member states, I’m speaking about the European Union itself, is viewing your country? PMJ: I think it’s from different points of view. I think the EU people very much understand that we are that dependent on them, as I’ve mentioned several times of fish, and they see that we have a good relations and that there’s one country in the kingdom in Denmark who is a member of the EU. That means we have a part inside the walls and a part outside the walls. So we are an integrated part of Europe. Personally, I like that the borders are away so that we are not fighting each other and we are investing instead, so the weapons are not moving freely, that the money are moving instead. NE: Since you are way up in the north, close to the Arctic, you know that there is a new drive lately in for developing hydrocarbons in the Arctic. Could your country have any say or any influence in this direction? PMJ: Yes we are in the Arctic Council, together with Denmark and Greenland, so we are a player now, and of course we have been signing search-and-rescue agreement in Nuuk, Greenland in 2010 together with Russia and Hilary Clinton, so we are in the family as we must say, and we can see in the Faroe Islands that there is a big boom in our tourist industry, and we are experiencing next year will be seventy of these big cruise ships with tourists who are coming to the Faroe Islands, and of course we are seeing that now it’s a boom in the tourist industry. But on the other hand we need to take much care of the environment, so if these big ships are going on land or polluting, because fish is everything, so there is a threat and there is an opportunity… NE: … they need to be balanced… PMJ: Yes, they need to be balanced in a very correct manner actually. And the path, when you are taking the northeast route, the ship’s route is just directly on Faroe Islands when the bigger ships are coming down to Europe, so we are of course strategically placed just in the middle of the same path. NE: All these issues we are discussing now, have they been discussed with the European Union institutions? PMJ: Of course we have our representative here, and of course there’s discussions in all matters and of course when it comes to the Arctic area. EU are trying also to come in just like China and South Korea, because it is a very strategic point, all the things about the Arctic area. It’s also regulated. People may be tended to think that the Arctic area is not regulated by anything but everything is very well regulated in international law and so on, and actually they are living, five or six million people there, who have their daily lives… NE: …over six million… PMJ: yes, they have their daily lives. So it is a fight between the countries to have influence in this area they think they are hiding a lot of minerals in here… NE: …and now that the technology allows us… PMJ: …to go deeper and deeper, just like we are experiencing in the Faroe Islands with the gas and oil industry. We are also drilling for oil and gas in the Faroe Islands these days and one of the world’s biggest oil-rich platforms is in the fjord in the Faroe Islands today. So we are actually we’re also into the oil and gas industry, with 1500 Farish men working on this oil and gas platform. NE: And the prospects are for this to expand? PMJ: Very much. NE: So this is very important for the European Union, I imagine, since, as you know very well, especially nowadays, we have a big discussion about differentiating the sources of energy. Is this part of your discussion, energy I mean? PMJ: Yes, because we are that dependent on fossil oils, we are that dependent in our economy on oil. One-fourth, 25 to 30 percent of our import is oil, that means that we are heavily now investing, we have the water dams, water electricity, and now we are doing a big investment program in windmills, so it’s a very suitable area, Faroe Islands, for windmills, because we have a lot of wind in Faroe Islands, so they are producing, actually, energy, when the wind has come up to 34 meters per second, they are still producing wind energy. And this is a German company who have been delivering them, and they’re saying the one windmill that is placed in Faroe Islands is the one windmill between 22,000 windmills around the world they have online, they are online and connected if there is technical issues, and this one in the Faroe Islands is giving the best output, the best production, because of the strength of the wind all the time. So it’s very interesting figures that we are seeing. NE: Are there any plans on your part to make the Faroe Islands more known to Europeans, even to attract tourism, to attract investment? PMJ: Yes, and that’s why we have a Faroese representative here also, who is doing a good job to promote the Faroe Islands, both in terms of contracts but also to see 18 islands totally unpolluted, with very fresh air. When you’re coming out of the airplane at the air field, there are so many tourists who have been saying that the first breath they are taking, they are breathing the clean north Atlantic air, so it’s a very clean environment. So it’s a good place to visit, yeah.
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