Document Actions

Nordic organisations and institutions

The Nordic Council is the Nordic inter-parliamentary body, while the Nordic Council of Ministers is the inter-governmental body. A range of other Nordic organisations and associations also exist.

The five Nordic countries each have national delegations of 20 members on the parliamentary Nordic Council (NC), except Iceland, which has seven due to its smaller population. The Danish delegation includes two members from the Faroe Islands and two from Greenland. The Finnish delegation includes two members from Åland.

The 11 councils under the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) consist of government representatives from the five Nordic countries and the three autonomous territories. Everybody has one vote, and decisions, which are binding on the states, must be unanimous.

The Nordic Youth Council (NYC) consists of politically engaged young people that represent party-political youth organisations and various political umbrella organisations. Members of the UNR have the opportunity to directly influence the Nordic Council. This is done via their top officials, who attend the Nordic Council’s meetings. In addition, proposals from the Nordic Youth Council’s annual session are passed on to the Nordic Council Session, at which the UNR is also represented.

There are about 20 Nordic institutions as well as roughly the same number that do not strictly count as Nordic institutions. NordForsk, Nordic Culture Point, and the Nordic Project Fund (Nopef) are fully-fledged Nordic institutions, as are the Nordic Houses in Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

One of the most important institutions in the second category is the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) which since 2005 has been jointly owned by the five Nordic and three Baltic countries. NIB provides loans for projects that improve competitiveness and the environment, both in the project owners’ countries and in the rest of the world. Another important institution in this category is the Nordic Culture Fund, which funds Nordic culture, both in the Region and elsewhere, through project grants.

Nordic Region in Focus, which has a presence in all of the Nordic capitals, is the Nordic Council of Ministers’ information office, and also belongs to the second category.

The Norden Association and the Confederation of Norden Associations, which work to strengthen popular Nordic co-operation at all levels, exist in the five Nordic countries and the Faroe Islands and Åland. There are also Nordic Associations in Estonia, Latvia and Petrozavodsk in North-West Russia. There is also a youth wing called the Norden Youth Association (FNU).

Contact

Marita Hoydal
Phone: 29692915