The future of the longstanding agreement between the Faroe Islands and Russia, which would under normal circumstances be due for renewal at the end of this year, appears to be hanging in the balance – and the uncertainty has been compounded by the decision by Faroese Prime Minister Bárður á Steig Nielsen to call a general election for 8th December.
As foodstuffs are exempt from the sanctions against Russia, the Faroes are under no obligation to end the agreement, under which Russia gets access to blue whiting in Faroese waters and the Faroese fleet gets groundfish quotas in the Barents Sea.
All the same, the Islands are coming under pressure from Denmark and from other directions to not renew the agreement, which has been in place since the 1970s.
Parties within the Faroese Parliament have also been deeply split on the issue, with the opposition parties in favour of ending the agreement while the coalition in power has been reluctant to take such a step as this would undoubtedly hurt the Faroes economically.
Failure to renew the agreement would hit Faroese trawler operators hard, not least as there have been substantial investments made by a number of Faroese trawler operators in new fishing capacity, and losing access to the Russian zone of the Barents Sea would be a serious blow.
The agreement between the Faroe Islands and Russia has been in place since 1977 and has routinely been renegotiated at the end of each year. It will automatically end if not renewed. But how this will shape up will remain unclear until after next month’s elections.
