Last week the Nordic Social Democrats also launched a research project to consider the future of the Nordic model. Interest spans the political spectrum in other words.
The Nordic Council and Council of Ministers have jointly published Analys Norden for several years, in print at first and later online. Top writers have produced insightful articles, which have often sparked debate in the Nordic countries and among politicians.
Unfortunately, circulation is stagnant and relatively low, so we have decided to try something new. No decision has yet been taken as to how a replacement for Analys Norden will emerge. What has been decided is that the final edition in the current format will appear on 23 February and that the theme will be the Nordic model, which continues to arouse such keen interest.
We would like to thank our loyal readers for their interest. You will hear from us about new initiatives later in the year.
]]>Under the 2000 constitution, the President is co-ordinates foreign policy with the government of the day.
Niinistö of the National Coalition Party won 62.6% of the vote to defeat Pekka Haavisto (Green). Both candidates support Finland's traditionally active EU policy.
Read Markku Heikkilä's analysis of the election and of the new president in the most recent special edition of Analys Norden!
]]>The Literature Prize is awarded for a work of imaginative literature written in one of the Nordic languages. This can be a novel, a play, a collection of poetry, short stories or essays, or other work.
Read more about the nominations here
The Nordic Council Literature Prize is awarded every year, and is accompanied by a cheque for DKK 350,000. The Literature Prize cannot be applied for. A Nordic Adjudication Committee selects the prize winner.
The Nordic Council Literature Prize was instituted in 1961 and awarded for the first time in 1962. The important 50th anniversary will be marked by a number of events in both 2011 and 2012. Further information on norden.org/literature prize.
]]>The aim is to promote informed debate on fisheries policy in the Region and beyond. According to the founders, too much spin and biased information currently characterises the debate about how marine resources are exploited.
The NMTT will address issues such as mackerel in the North Atlantic, the regulation of quotas in international waters, offshore wind farms and the conservation of marine areas. It will also provide documented information about the impact of the fishing industry and other marine activities on the condition of the seas.
"The seas and their ecosystems need to remain healthy. And the commercial exploitation of living marine resources needs to be sustainable. The sea must remain a pillar of a healthy economy. But we also have to strike a balance between the profits to be made and the effects on the ecosystem. The think tank will ensure that both sides are properly represented in public debate and when political decisions are made," said one of the founders, Victor Hjort, a former director of Eurofish.
The people behind the Nordic Marine Think Tank would particularly like to ensure that the discussion about the impact of fishing on marine ecosystems is conducted on an objective and sound scientific basis. "In the global and regional debate about the climate there is a need to distinguish between facts and what amounts – in the worst cases –to spin," say the founders.
The think tank is independent of official national and international bodies, as well as the financial interests of the fisheries sector, but the founders have issued a call for collaboration with NGOs who share their approach.
Thirty people attended the inaugural meeting in Copenhagen on 30 January 2012, at which NMTT was formally established, statutes and guidelines for its work adopted and elections held for the board.
]]>Promoting a form of development that guarantees the living standards of the Arctic people is one of the key issues. A balance has to be struck between the rights and needs of the people and protection of the fragile natural environment, particularly because global interest in exploiting Arctic natural resources is growing, as is interest in opening up Arctic transport routes. A variety of national, regional and global bodies are involved in Arctic issues.
The winner of the Nordic Council Literature prize will be announced at the theme session for the first time this year. The award ceremony will be on March 22.
The theme session will be held prior to the March meeting of the Nordic Council on 21-22 March.
]]>The trial and sentences followed the bomb attack on a subway station in Minsk in April 2011, in which twelve people lost their lives and over 150 were injured. Jean-Claude Mignon, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has also issued a statement criticising the sentences, pointing out that the young men's confessions were extracted under torture.
Belarus is the only country in Europe that is not part of the Council of Europe and has not ratified the European Convention on Human Rights.
]]>Therefore, there is now a recommendation to the Nordic Council of Ministers to co-ordinate and compile an annual description but also a progressive report for measures related to the EU. It is also hoped that the foreign ministers will raise EU themes of common Nordic interest in foreign policy debates at the annual session.
This year Denmark holds the Presidency of the EU and during this time there could be particular interest in discussing EU policy, according to the recommendation of the Nordic Council.
]]>Main speaker was Yvo de Boer, UN Climate Chief during the ill-fated Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 and now global climate expert at the international consulting company KPMG. And he was not overly optimistic about the future.
- Nothing has essentially happened in the global climate negotiations since Rio 92 and there are still colossal divisions of interests between the parties despite hundreds of meetings and summits. The buzz word now is green growth, but does any world leaders really believe in greening the economy as a feasible way forward in the midst of an economic crisis, de Boer asked rhetorically in his address.
However, a comprehensive international treaty is still the only way forward, he argued. And largely for the very economic reasons that seem to be the main impediment.
- Upwards of 85 % of all new energy investments come from the private sector. And above all, businesses need stable frameworks for such long term planning as is involved here. Therefore we need a clear international climate agreement and we need to engage politicians and institutions like the Nordic Council much more actively, de Boer said.
- And we also need to make the case for why green investments are profitable, country by country. And here the Nordic countries can show the way both with the high emission reduction targets they have set for themselves at home and the know-how they have in creating green solutions globally, he added.
The instrument of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) is particularly promising in terms of lowering emissions in a customized way fitted to individual developing economies, according to de Boer.
Here the Nordic countries are also at the forefront, as they launched the Nordic Partnership Initiative at COP17 in Durban last December. The NPI sets out to find ways to reduce emissions in the waste sector in Peru and the cement sector in Vietnam, with the specific aim of finding new financing opportunities to help developing nations green their economy, including public-private partnerships.
And according to both Director Magnus Rystedt from the Nordic Environment Financing Corporation (NEFCO) and Knut Kjær, former head of the immensely wealthy Norwegian Oil Fund, private businesses are in fact interested in making responsible investments.
- Since 2006, 920 funds and investors, representing 300 trillion dollars worth of investments, have signed on to the UN Principles for Responsible Investments. They know that what is harmful to society today is an added cost for them tomorrow, said Knut Kjær, now chairman of FNS Capital Partners.
Magnus Rysted supplemented with an overview of the over 70 million Euro invested annually through NEFCO’s public-private partnership programmes both in the Nordic-Balric region and globally, one of many examples of Nordic leadership in the climate and environment arena exemplifying de Boers call for the Nordic countries to lead the way towards new climate solutions.
- The Nordic Council has been heavily involved in the climate and energy debate and passed on a number of resolutions to the Nordic governments. But we need to keep asking if the Nordic countries can do more. According to the IEA, for every euro we fail to invest in the energy sector before 2020, we will need to spend four to compensate for climate emissions after 2020. This is not a legacy I want to pass on, said chairman of the Environment Committee of the Nordic Council, Ann-Kristine Johansson in her opening address at the seminar.
The committee will thus intensify its work on climate related issues throughout 2012 with the aim of urging the Nordic governments on in the effort to find new ways ahead.
]]>The future of welfare in the Nordic countries is also the subject of a conference in Parliament (Stortinget) on Tuesday 24 January. Rigmor Aasrud, Norwegian Minister for Co-operation, will take part, and Tone Mørk, Director of the Nordic Welfare Centre, will lead the conference. The Welfare Committee in the Nordic Council has organised the event which will take place from 10:00 to 15:00 in N-202. The seminar will be open to journalists.
Dual nationality in the Nordic countries is on the agenda of the Citizens' and Consumer Rights Committee's meeting on Wednesday 25 January. Finland, Iceland and Sweden allow dual nationality, while Denmark and Norway are two of the seven countries in Europe that does not allow this.
To shed light on this subject, guests from Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Swedish Ministry of Employment and the Finnish Immigration Service will visit the MPs on the Committee.
The Nordic Council's Culture and Education Committee is organising a seminar in Oslo about the PISA report. The MPs will look, amongst other things, at the developments and challenges by considering both a test culture and a freer, problem-oriented and creative approach to learning. Niels Egelund, from the Nordic Council of Ministers' PISA expert group will take part.
The PISA report has been brought up to date in the Nordic research report Nordic Lights on PISA. It analyses the Nordic results in the 2009 PISA report.
The Nordic Council meetings take place in the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) in Oslo from Tuesday 24 to Wednesday 25 January. Because Norway took over the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers on 01 January 2012, a number of Norwegian ministers will participate, amongst other things, to present the Presidency.
]]>The report pinpoints five areas in which Nordic partnerships would be beneficial: knowledge sharing, regulation, standardisation, procurement and attracting data centres to the Region. The assumption is that, if partnerships are established in these areas, the public sector in the Nordic countries will rapidly reap the benefits of cloud computing and become a driving force for its use by the public sector elsewhere. The EU is also interested in cloud computing.
As part of the Union's work on the digital agenda, the Commission has held hearings on how to make the most of the cloud in Europe. The results of this consultation process will provide input into an EU strategy for cloud computing, which the Commission will present in 2012. The purpose of the strategy is to establish clear legal conditions for the spread of cloud computing in Europe.
Cloud computing is still a relatively new business model, and it is not easy to predict precisely how it might be implemented in the Nordic public sector. A number of barriers also hinder the widespread use of the cloud, e.g. how public bodies would protect sensitive personal data.
In the first quarter of 2012, the report will be presented to a series of workshops in all of the Nordic countries and debate will be initiated about how to proceed with the Nordic partnership. The Nordic Cloud Computing Forum group on the Danish website Digitalisér.dk has issued an invitation to participate in the debate about the future of Nordic cloud co-operation. The group will receive regular updates about the outcomes of the various workshops.
The group of IT executives hopes that the report will kick-start a Nordic debate about whether the cloud has the potential to rationalise and optimise the public sector in the Region. It also hopes to encourage a discussion of whether the five areas of co-operation identified in the report are the right ones to pursue, and whether partnerships might be relevant in other areas as well.
]]>Iceland's former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and current Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Halldór Ásgrímsson, is himself a member of AMF. He was the host at Friday's lunch and subsequent discussions, which included the UN's military actions, the climate and the environment. The former foreign ministers also discussed the future of the UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
At the meeting, Halldór Ásgrímsson introduced the prominent members of the Aspen group to formal Nordic co-operation. Ásgrímsson emphasised amongst other things the importance of the longstanding co-operation between the countries:
"Together the Nordic countries make up the world's 10th largest economy, and as such could argue for inclusion in the G20", said Halldór Ásgrímsson.
Ásgrímsson also stressed that without Nordic co-operation the countries would hardly constitute the strong economic force they are today.
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, James G. Stavidris, talked in his speech about NATO's role and the importance of the Arctic Council in connection with climate change in the Arctic:
"The Arctic Council is the appropriate body to regulate the challenges posed by climate change in the Arctic area", the admiral said.
Members of the prominent network group hold their annual meetings alternately in different countries. Leading experts and scientists from think-tanks and universities worldwide also attend the meetings.
Friday's meeting in Copenhagen included NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, James G. Stavidris, and the head of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru.
Other attendees at the lunch and meeting in Copenhagen included Niels Helveg Petersen from Denmark, Igor Ivanov from Russia, Hubert Vedrine from France, Lamberto Dini from Italy, Alexander Downer from Australia, Jan Eliasson from Sweden and Knut Vollebæk from Norway.
]]>"The Nordic Council of Ministers believes that increased transparency in the field of higher education is important both for international comparisons and also and in terms of the visibility of Nordic education internationally. Therefore, we encourage all institutions concerned to take part in the survey", said Halldór Ásgrímsson, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The U-map profiles of the Nordic institutions will be available from September and can be compared with universities and colleges in other parts of the Region and Europe at www.u-map.eu.
The U-map project was initiated in 2005 and has since been re-designed to match the policy created by the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), such as the Bologna Process. To date, the U-map classification has included approximately 250 institutions.
]]>On her website Silvia Modig writes, amongst other things, that she is particularly interested in the environment, gender equality, and increased democracy.
Silvia Modig comes from Helsinki and is a member of the Left-wing Socialist Green Group in the Nordic Council.
]]>The Nordic countries, together with the United States and France, are the countries in the world which have signed the most agreements on information exchange. For constitutional reasons, today's agreement, the 36th of its kind, is bilateral and has to be processed by the national parliaments.
The Nordic countries will continue their campaign to prevent international tax evasion and the joint negotiations are expected to lead to the signing of further agreements in 2012.
The agreement was signed on 14 December 2011 at a ceremony in the Danish embassy in Paris. Finland, which is also involved in the project, will sign a tax agreement with Uruguay later.
Torsten Fensby
Tel +33 678 251 289
The overriding goal of the project was to encourage cooperation between Belarusian and foreign think- tanks in order to bring young Belarusian researchers closer to the independent European academic community, particularly in the field of political affairs.
Mr. Justinas Pimpe, Head Manager of the EESC, highlights the significance of strengthening the Belarusian research community:
“It is important as think-tanks and the research communities are actors capable of providing independent, alternative discourse on policy issues. They are able to formulate alternative ideas of governance, development and vision for Belarus in anticipation of inevitable reforms in the future,” he states.
One of the researchers who participated in the project is Ms. Ahniya Asanovich, a European Humanities University graduate. Reflecting on her internship at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI), Ms. Asanovich explains how she was given the opportunity to integrate into a network of researchers and political analysts:
“I feel that I have put my knowledge into practice, learned to be flexible and responsive to the professional challenges, as well as increased my organizational skills. Participating in the conferences and panel discussions organized by NUPI allowed me to effectively disseminate information about the situation in Belarus,” she says.
The outcome of the project has been positive. The initiative has not only strengthened the skills and knowledge of young Belarusian researchers, but also helped the country’s expert community to become more institutionalized by encouraging the creation of expert groups.
Likewise, the project has made way for additional initiatives in the field. Taking reference in the experience acquired from the present project, the EESC is in the progress of developing a new initiative that will further strengthen the research community and societal democracy in Belarus.
“Best practices will be preserved in the new project. An emphasis will be put on engaging with young, prospective Belarusian researchers to provide them with methodic, financial and other support for elaborating and conducting quality research papers and presenting them to foreign stakeholders,” Mr. Pimpe explains.
The project “Enhancing research center’s activities in Belarus” has been developed and undertaken within the framework of the Eastern European Studies Center (EESC) – a Lithuanian non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to build civil society and promote democracy in Eastern Europe.
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