Finnish Delegation to the Nordic Council

The Nordic Council is a cooperative organisation for the legislatures of the Nordic region. It issues recommendations to the Nordic Council of Ministers and the individual governments on such matters as improving mobility between the Nordic countries. At its annual session, the Council of Ministers and governments report to parliamentarians on the measures they have taken on the basis of these recommendations. More information about the topics and the central documents can be acquired from Nordic Council and Council of Ministers website.

Next meetings

The following committee meetings will be hold in June.

Goals

The Nordic countries have many things in common: democracy, strong civil societies, respect for individual freedoms, protection of nature and the environment, taking care of the less-fortunate, equality. Mobility between the Nordic countries and unofficial interaction have been part of everyday reality for centuries. To facilitate official cooperation between them the Nordic countries have created two organisations: the Nordic Council for inter-parliamentary cooperation, and the Nordic Council of Ministers for inter-governmental cooperation.

Cooperation within the frameworks of the two councils has a close bearing on everyday practicalities. Its goal from the outset has been to make it easier for individuals, companies, goods and capital to move between the Nordic countries.

Tangible obstacles to movement have been reduced by introducing passport-free travel, abolishing border formalities, and cross-border cooperation. To promote mobility, a range of scholarships and exchange programmes have been set up. Social welfare and educational systems have been closely aligned with the aim of lowering barriers to people moving from one Nordic country to another. In order to pursue its goals the Nordic Council can give recommendations to Nordic governments and the Council of Ministers. The two councils deal with a great variety of matters.

Cooperation in the fields of culture, education and research has always been important. More recently, consumer affairs, environmental cooperation as well as cooperation with neighbouring countries and regions have also assumed a prominent role. Since the 1990s, the Nordic countries relations with the three Baltic States, Russia, the countries of the Baltic Sea Region and international organisations in adjacent geographical areas have been become increasingly closer.


International cooperation has the goal of ensuring stability throughout the region: avoiding environmental catastrophes, maritime safety and preventing the spread of crime and infectious diseases. In addition, an important goal in especially the Baltic Sea Region is to open up energy markets and safeguard energy distribution in crisis situations. The Nordic countries are pioneers in having succeeded in creating the world's most open international energy market

Members

The members of the Nordic Council are the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the autonomous territories of Åland, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland. Countries are represented on the Council by legislators which their parliaments and those of the autonomous regions have chosen from among the own numbers. The 87 members of the Council represent: Denmark (incl. the Faeroe Islands and Greenland) 20, Finland (incl. Åland) 20, Iceland 7, Norway 20, and Sweden 20. The Governments appoint the delegates who represent them at sessions of the Council. The representatives from each country form a national delegation, which has a secretariat in its own parliament.

Finnish delegation

The Nordic Council has 18 Finnish delegates that represent the Eduskunta and 2 that are chosen by the Åland Lagting. The members of the delegation participate in the work of the Council all year round through committees and in the presidium. In addition, each national delegation holds a meeting of its own about once a month.

Treaties and Rules of Procedure

Cooperation between the Nordic countries is based on several agreements concluded in the course of the decades. The most important of these is the 1962 Helsinki Treaty, in which the goals and organisation are broadly defined. The Treaty has subsequently been amended on several occasions, such as in 1971 when the Nordic Council of Ministers was established. The best-known of the other treaties between the countries relate to the passport union (1954), social security (1955) and the common labour market (1954).

The work of the Nordic Council is regulated by the Rules of Procedure, the most recent version of which entered into force in October 2001.

Financing

The activities of the Nordic Council are financed through the national parliaments.

Sessions and meetings

The Nordic Council's most important decision-making body is the Ordinary Annual Session, which takes place in autumn. Extraordinary sessions can also be arranged. The Annual Session is where parliamentarians meet government representatives. The politicians discuss topical themes and decide on proposals. The Nordic Council of Ministers reports on what it has done to implement recommendations made earlier by the Council or parliamentarians. In recent years, also the foreign and defence ministers have made their own reports. The Annual Sessions are unique, because at them parliamentarians have direct contact with not only their own government, but also those of the other Nordic countries.

Committees and Presidium

In the intervals between Ordinary Annual Sessions, the members of the Nordic Council meet in committees and the presidium. The five committees are: Culture and Education and Training, Citizens? and Consumer Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, Welfare, and Business and Industry. The Presidium meets regularly and conducts the work of the Nordic Council between sessions. Questions of foreign and security policy as well as the Nordic Council's external relations are among its areas of responsibility. The Chair rotates on an annual basis.

Party Groups

Delegates may, if they wish, form and join party factions within the Nordic Council. A group of this kind is required to have no fewer than five members from at least three countries. There are four groups at present: Left-Wing Socialists and Greens, Social Democrats, Centrists, and Conservatives. The overwhelming majority of delegates belong to party groups.

International relations

Since the 1990s, the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers have been developing their relations with the countries of the so-called Adjacent Areas and organisations in them. Cooperation with the Baltic States and North-West Russia gained momentum when information offices were opened in the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian capitals as well as in St. Petersburg. Several branch offices have since been opened and there are plans to open the next office in Kaliningrad. Since 1992 the Nordic Council has been cooperating with the Baltic Assembly through, for example, biennial joint sessions with this inter-parliamentary body and in joint committees. The Nordic Council of Ministers cooperation partner is the Baltic Council. When the individual Baltic countries bilateral cooperation with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is added to this, the scope and diversity of matters dealt with is truly broad.

When the Baltic States join the EU, the focus of the Nordic countries Adjacent Areas cooperation will shift to Russia, and especially its north-western regions. In the work of the two councils, this is already reflected in lively contacts with Russian administrators and politicians. For example, the Nordic Council has regular meetings with representatives of the Duma, the Federal Council, the Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS and the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast governments. Russian observers have likewise attended sessions of the Nordic Council.

Arctic regions have also been traditionally seen as belonging to the sphere of the Nordic countrie's Adjacent Areas cooperation. The Nordic countries have had a separate Arctic cooperation programme since 2001. In 2000 the Nordic Council of Ministers obtained observer status in the Arctic Council, the permanent members of which are the Nordic countries, Canada, Russia and the USA. The Nordic Council participates as an observer in the work of the Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region.

The Baltic Sea is a major frame of reference for the Nordic countries. Inter-parliamentary cooperation in the region began in 1991, and the Nordic Council has had a central role in its development. In addition to members nominated by the Nordic Council and the Baltic Assembly, the organisation's permanent committee contains representatives of Germany, Poland and Russia. Inter-governmental work is done within the framework of the Council of Baltic Sea States. The central areas of cooperation are the environment, energy, maritime safety and combating infectious diseases and drugs.

In the European Union's Northern Dimension programme, both the individual Nordic countries and the Nordic Council and Nordic Council of Ministers have a central role. This includes implementing and financing in their own Adjacent Areas cooperation concrete projects that relate to Northern Dimension policy. The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) is the biggest single financier of the South West Wastewater Treatment Plant in St. Petersburg. It also contributes a considerable share of the funding for Adjacent Areas cooperation and was the initiator of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP).

The Nordic members of the European Union cooperate in many matters and EU affairs are regularly discussed at Nordic ministerial and other conferences. For Iceland and Norway, which are not EU members, but part of the European Economic Area (EEA), Nordic conferences provide an opportunity to obtain first-hand information about the Union.

In addition to those mentioned above, the cooperation partners of the two councils include the West Nordic Council, Sami organisations, the Benelux Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament.

Prizes and Grants

The Nordic Council awards four prizes - for Nature and Environment, Literature, Music and Film each year. Each prize bears an endowment of about ?47,000.

Queries concerning project grants, scholarships and exchange programmes should be addressed to the Nordic institutions which administer them.

Publications

Distribution of information material and publications on Nordic cooperation is the responsibility of the two council's joint information unit in Copenhagen. Information and teaching material is also obtainable from the Helsinki-based Nordic Institute in Finland (Nifin). The special Nordic library there is open to all.

Secretariats

The secretariat of the Nordic Council shares premises with the secretariat of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Copenhagen. The secretariats have a joint information department, which maintains the two councils web site.

Each national delegation has its own secretariat. The Finnish secretariat works within the Eduskunta's International Unit.

The Nordic Council of Ministers

The names "Council" and "Council of Ministers" often cause confusion. The Nordic Council is a forum where parliamentarians and government representatives meet. By contrast, the Nordic Council of Ministers is a vehicle for co-operation between the governments of the Nordic countries. It was created through an amendment of the Helsinki Treaty in 1971, 19 years after the establishment of the Nordic Council. The designation Council of Ministers is actually misleading, because in practice the ministers meet in as many as 19 different compositions, depending on the matters under deliberation. Its work is coordinated by the Nordic cooperation ministers, but the ultimate responsibility resides with the countries prime ministers, who work outside the actual structure of the Council of Ministers. The coordinating organ in Finland is the Secretariat for Nordic Cooperation in the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The range of matters deliberated by the Council of Ministers is as broad as in the case of the Nordic Council: from consumer policy to culture. The Council of Ministers gives reports about its actions and plans to the Nordic Council, which in turn issues recommendations to guide the work of the Council of Ministers.

Outside the framework of the Council of Ministers proper, the Nordic prime ministers and their cabinet colleagues responsible for foreign affairs, foreign trade, defence and development cooperation meet on a regular basis.

The presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers rotates annually.

Nordic Institutions

Several institutions are financed out of the joint Nordic budget. Additional information about the scholarships and grants etc. awarded by these institutions can be found on their web sites.