Nordic Council and Nordic Council of Ministers

• The Nordic Council, established in 1952, fosters co-operation among parliamentarians from its member nations, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, and autonomous territories, Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland, and meets twice per year. Finland joined in 1955, Faroe Islands and Åland in 1971, and Greenland in 1984.
• The Nordic Council of Ministers, created in 1971, promotes cooperation among government officials. Copenhagen hosts the headquarters for both but the presidency rotates annually among the members.

The Nordic Council’s philosophy espouses the belief that working together can accomplish more than individual efforts, and they have helped ease various legal restrictions, making it possible for Nordic citizens to more freely travel, reside, work or seek health care in other member countries. The Nordic Council, amongst other things:

• awards yearly prizes in literature, music and nature and environment;
• its information office publishes a daily online newsletter, a weekly newsletter and a quarterly journal; and
• its committees tackle topics in economics, culture, society, and legislation where the Nordic countries might wish to coordinate their policies.

Motivation for a Nordic Council

The Nordic Council grew out of a long history of shared cultural ties among the Nordic countries. As early as the 1920s, members of the Scandinavian parliaments met annually under the auspices of the Northern Inter-Parliamentary Union. In 1938, a forum for the governments of the Nordic countries to discuss and coordinate policies in areas of joint interest was first proposed. This idea gained further momentum after World War II, with a particular interest in closer collaboration on defence and economic policies. However, due to Finland’s alignment with the USSR, and Norway’s desire to join NATO to access arms from the Western powers, the Nordic defence union proposed by Sweden became impossible. Instead, economic, cultural, and transportation issues became the early focus of formal cooperation.

Original structure and early successes

The Nordic Council was founded in 1952 to more formally coordinate existing areas of cooperation by bringing together members of parliament and representatives of the governments of the five Nordic countries. Council members and governments could raise issues and questions for the Council to discuss if they impacted two or more member states. Then, the Council would investigate and debate the issues, and make recommendations for action to the governments - but it would not make or act on decisions itself. It was critical, then as now, for the Nordic nations to maintain their sovereignty, despite their many shared characteristics.

The entire Council met for an annual plenary, and in between sessions, a presidium of one president and four vice presidents (one member from each nation) convened a handful of times to investigate and discuss the issues before the Council. In contrast to the contemporaneous Council of Europe, where parliaments and governments met separately, parliamentarians and ministers met together in the first decades of the Nordic Council, although ministers could take an active part only in the plenary sessions, not the committee meetings, and were not allowed to vote. The plenary sessions were also open to the public, and the notes and documents from these sessions published each year.

Committee on economic cooperation

One of the earliest activities of the Nordic Council was to set up a more permanent, organised study of economic problems in 1954, which led to the formation of a committee on economic cooperation. (Finland later joined this study in 1956, after joining the Nordic Council in 1955.) The governments implemented the Council’s suggestions to create uniform patent laws and a common labour market by, for example, removing work permit requirements between countries.

The Council also investigated the establishment of a common Scandinavian market and customs union, but Norway, Iceland, and Finland were ultimately not interested in this project and it foundered - in part due to its implications for national sovereignty and greater political union, and fear that nations with smaller economies would ultimately suffer. (A second, later attempt in 1968 - the Danish recommendation for a common market called Nordek - also failed.)

Establishing committees on particular issues in 1950s

In the sessions from 1955 to 1957, the Council set up four other committees to tackle the areas of greatest joint concern: social problems, general legislation, cultural matters, and communication and travel. On the social front, the Council recommended allowing any Nordic citizen to access social and medical services in any Nordic country, which was ultimately adopted by the governments. In cultural matters, the Council suggested more unified educational systems and helped to support cultural initiatives by launching the Nordic Cultural Fund in 1966.

In addition to removing barriers to economic cooperation, the Council also facilitated transport and communication among the member countries. For example, its recommendation for a single passport system was adopted early, as were its suggestions of unified postal and telephone rates across the five countries. And as early as the very first session of the Nordic Council, the body explored the feasibility of a bridge or tunnel linking Copenhagen and Malmö. This ultimately became a reality when the Øresund Bridge was finalised in 1999.

The Nordic Council became more formalised from 1960s

The Nordic Council was initially established via mutual agreement among national parliaments. To put the Council on firmer footing, the five member nations ratified the first Helsinki Treaty in 1962, which outlined the role of the Council and its focus areas. These continue to be reflected in more recent versions. The most recent amendments were made in January 1996. Key areas are:

• Legal cooperation;
• Cultural cooperation;
• Social cooperation;
• Economic cooperation;
• Cooperation on transport and communications; and,
• Cooperation in the area of environmental protection;

The Helsinki Treaty did not require specific obligations from the member countries. This was particularly important in light of other international organisations forming at the time, in particular the European Economic Community, that could jeopardise the Nordic Council by duplicating its work or pulling the focus of its members away. In 1971, the treaty was amended to include the autonomous regions of the Faroe Islands and Åland in their respective national delegations. (Greenland was added in 1984.)

Also in 1971, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the official organ for cooperation among the governments of the Nordic countries, was established. This ultimately shifted the role of the Nordic Council, both putting it in conversation with the new body and making it responsible for monitoring the Council of Ministers’ activity. The Councils maintain a close relationship, in contrast to other systems where the government and parliamentary cooperation bodies are more clearly divided.

Today, the Nordic Council has 87 members, 20 each from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and seven from Iceland. The autonomous regions are more involved since the adoption of the 2007 Åland document, which described their roles in more detail. Appended to this document, each of the autonomous regions made arguments for having the ability to participate fully and vote in the the Council. However, their attempts to become full members of the Council have not been successful.

Key activities: