Nordic Council

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Image:Flag of the Nordic Council.svg Flag of the Nordic Council
Working languages	Danish Norwegian Swedish
Seat	Copenhagen
Nordic Council: Foundation President Director (Secretariat)	1952 Ole Stavad Frida Nokken
Nordic Council of Ministers: Foundation Chairman General Secretary (Secretariat)	1971 Heidi Grande Røys Per Unckel
Area - Members - With Greenland	Ranked 19th 1,318,412 km² 3,493,000 km² (7th)¹
Population - Total - Density	Ranked 45th 24,299,610 18.7/km² (6.9/km²)¹
Currencies	Danish krone Norwegian krone Icelandic króna Swedish krona Faroese króna Euro
Time zone	UTC 0 to +2 (-3)¹
¹ Including Greenland

Image:Nordic countries.GIF

The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers is a cooperation forum for the Parliaments and governments of the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete results was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market, social security, and free movement across borders without passports for the countries' citizens.

On October 31 2006, Halldór Ásgrímsson was chosen as the new secretary general for the Nordic Council of Ministers.

1 Membership
2 Organization
3 Alternative projects and plans
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Membership

Members of the Council:

Nations:

Autonomous territories:

Image:Flag of the Faroe Islands (bordered).svg Faroe Islands (Denmark)
Image:Flag of Greenland (bordered).svg Greenland (Denmark)
Åland (Finland)

In addition, the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have expressed their wishes to apply for membership in the Council. The Nordic Council opened its information offices in all three countries in 1991. Also there are two Nordic Council offices in Northwestern Russia (in Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad).

The Faroe Islands have expressed their wishes for full membership in the Nordic council instead of the current associate membership. This would lead to sessions being held in the Faroes, the presidency of the council routinely being held by the Faroes and the Faroes paying their share of the councils expenses.<ref>The Broad Agreement - Faroese coalition paper and Call for meeting on full membership for the Faroe</ref>

[edit] Organization

The Nordic Council and the Council of Ministers have offices in Copenhagen and various installations in each separate country, as well as many offices in neighbouring countries. The council does not have any formal power on its own, but each government has to implement any decisions through its country's legislative assembly (parliament). With Denmark, Norway, and Iceland being members of NATO and Finland and Sweden being neutral, the Nordic Council has not been involved in any military cooperation.

The Nordic Council uses the three Continental-Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) as its official working languages, however it publishes material in Finnish, Icelandic and English, as well [1].

The original Nordic Council concentrates on inter-parliamentary co-operation. The Nordic Council of Ministers, founded in 1971, is responsible for inter-governmental co-operation.

Image:Norden pop density.gif

[edit] Alternative projects and plans

In the 1960s there were plans to develop the Nordic cooperation into an organisation similar to the European Economic Community. A treaty was negotiated to establish a new organisation, Nordek headquartered in Malmö. Though ultimately it was the case that Finland did not dare to ratify the treaty due to its special relationship to the Soviet Union. Without Finland the idea was defunct, and Norway and Denmark chose to apply for membership in the EEC. Denmark became a member of the EEC in 1973, but Norway rejected accession in the same year in a referendum. Sweden did not apply due to its non alliance policy, which was aimed at preserving neutrality. Greenland subsequently left the EEC and has since sought a more active role in the Circumpolar affairs. Image:Subdivisions of Norden.gif

Sweden and Finland joined the European Union in 1995. Norway has still not joined, twice rejecting an offer of membership through a national referendum. Icelandic and Faroese public opinions are both solidly against EU membership.