45 Transboundary EIA in the Barents Region Timo Koivurova*, Vladimir Masloboev**, Anna Petrétei***, Vigdis Nygaard**** and Kamrul Hossain***** but also by adhering to the best practise documents that give guidance how to perform a TEIA in Arctic conditions. Introduction In this article, we 1 will examine how transbound- ary environmental impact assessment (EIA) is regulated within the Barents Region 2 , more specifically in the North Caloe/Kola Peninsula and how it could ideally be applied and imple- mented. 3 Since international borders are in close proximity in this region, it is also important to know how to deal with the adverse impacts of mining that are caused in one nation-state, and harm another. The article will try to identify what a transboundary EIA procedure is, which of the region’s nation-states are legally bound to undertake it and the situations that prompt such an undertaking, and what are the main le- gal requirements that international law lays out for such a procedure. An important goal of the 1 Authors would like to thank Ms Laura Peräkylä, trainee of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, for the help she provided during the preparation of this article. 2 The core of the research was conducted under the “Sus- tainable Mining, Local Communities and Environmen- tal Regulation in Kolarctic Area” (SUMILCERE) project. Among other research questions, the project, funded by the Kolarctic ENPI CBC initiative of the European Union and being run within the period of 2013–2014, focuses on mining and transboundary EIA procedures in the Kolarctic region. 3 The main focus will be on the northernmost parts of Finland, Sweden and Norway and the Kola Peninsula of the Russian Federation. Abstract The article examines how transboundary environ- mental impact assessment (TEIA) is organised in an area where international borders are close to each other, that is, in North Caloe/Kola Peninsula. It shows that a dense set of international legal obli- gations 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 Envi- ronmental 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, * Timo Koivurova, Research Professor, Director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. ** Vladimir Masloboev, Professor, Director of the Insti- tute of Industrial Ecology Problems in the North, Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. *** Anna Petrétei, Researcher, Northern Institute for En- vironmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. **** Vigdis Nygaard, Senior Research Scientist, Northern Research Institute, Norway. ***** Kamrul Hossain, Senior Researcher at the North- ern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland; Adjunct Professor of In- ternational Law, Faculty of Law, University of Lapland.