Long frozen both politically and geographically, the Arctic is rapidly thawing into another slippery terrain on which Europe’s twin desires to both preserve a planet in peril and secure a share of its dwindling resources are now playing out.

On Thursday, the European Com­mission made its most sub­stantive effort to reconcile those competing agendas with the release of an Arc­tic initiative that urges nations to establish a bet­ter system of international governance for the re­gion, to protect its environment and native people and to com­mit themselves to harvesting its re­sources sustainably.