Following the 27 May Deputy Ministerial, Friday 28 may saw yet another innovation on the Arctic Council schedule as the first ever Information Day of the Arctic Council (IDAC) was successfully carried through. According to the plan of the Senior Arctic Officials, IDACs are to take place every second year.

On this occasion, in addition to the SAOs, Permanent Participants, Working Groups, and Observers of the Arctic Council participated. Paradoxically, the media were not invited as, apparently, the purpose of the IDAC is to improve communication within the council itself. In particular, that is, between SAOs and Permanent Participants, on the one hand, and, on the other, Working Groups and Observers.

The first half of the Information Day was filled by presentations by each of the 6 Arctic Council working groups, the second half by presentations made by Observer States and organizations, as well as by Ad Hoc Observers. Adhering to the IDAC concept, Arctic Council member states and Permanent Participants remained listeners and commentators.

All in all, the Information Day offered an excellent overview of activities, priorities, strategic plans, interconnections, -relations, and –dependencies of, as well as synergies among all 4 categories of stakeholders inside as well as outside of the Arctic Council.

Questions about funding for Permanent Participants’ participation and contribution was raised on a couple of occasions, as was the issue of the need for further capacity building versus sustaining efforts to incorporate traditional knowledge in activities of the Arctic Council.